The Calgary Flames headed to scenic Sunrise, Florida on Saturday afternoon to face the Florida Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions. It didn’t go well.

The Flames were wildly out-shot, out-chanced and out-played en route to a 3-0 loss to the Panthers. (The score flatters the Flames, and is entirely because netminder Dan Vladar held them in this one.)

The Flames played defence for the majority of the first period. Florida had a large territorial advantage but the Flames did a fairly decent job keeping them to the outside and avoiding additional chances after Dan Vladar made the initial stops.

First period shots were 16-7 Panthers. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 12-3 Panthers (high-danger chances were 6-2 Panthers).

The deluge of scoring opportunities continued for the Panthers in the second period. And the Flames were a little bit worse in terms of their defensive details, so Vladar had to do a lot more to keep this game close.

4:47 into the second period, the Panthers finally beat Vladar. Their was a lengthy stretch of action where the Flames simply could not escape their own zone, with attempted outlet passes either missing their target or being intercepted entirely. Finally, the Flames managed to escape and get a line change, but the Panthers attacked during a sloppy change and were rewarded. The Panthers got two quick shots on net, both stopped by Vladar, but Jonah Gadjovich chipped the loose puck past Vladar to make it 1-0 Panthers.

The Flames challenged for goalie interference, as a Panther made contact with Vladar’s glove during the flurry of in-close chances, but the goal stood.

The Panthers had two other near-miss chances, with two separate possible goals reviewed by the NHL’s Situation Room – at 8:22 and 16:04 – in the first instance there was no overriding evidence that the puck had fully crossed the Calgary goal line and on the second it did cross the line but Vladar had been interfered with. (Well done, Mr. Vladar.)

Late in the period, though, the Panthers got another one. On a rush into the Flames zone, the puck was passed down low to Vladar’s left. Evan Rodrigues seemed to be attempting to pass to the front of the Flames’ net… but his pass instead bonked off Vladar and into the net to make it 2-0 Panthers.

Second period shots were 19-6 Panthers. Five-on-five scoring chances were 16-3 Panthers (high-danger chances were 7-2 Panthers).

The Panthers, up two goals, threw it into cruise control in the third period and just opted to hang back and defend their lead. The Flames had a bit of a push, but it didn’t amount to much.

With just under four minutes left in regulation, the Panthers stole the puck from the Flames and headed up ice. Mackie Samoskevich received a pass from Sam Bennett, deked around Vladar and scored on that rush to make it 3-0 Panthers.

The Panthers held on for the 3-0 win.

Third period shots were 11-7 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 7-4 Flames (high-danger chances were 4-1 Flames).

The Flames hung in there during the first period. Sure, they were out-shot, but they didn’t give up a ton of quality chances. There’s a version of this game where the Flames maintain their composure and structure, wait for Florida’s mistakes, and find a way to have a better outcome. But man, the Flames just fell apart in the second period. They lost their structure, they lost their discipline and composure, and they lost this hockey game.

Vladar.

There is no other possible answer. The gap between him and the next-best player in a white sweater was a chasm.

If you’re the Flames and you somehow get to the second intermission down by one goal, you feel like maybe you can get a goal. Maybe. But that second goal from Rodrigues, a weird bounce (of course), was a tough one for the Flames to allow. Playing the way they were, it was a tall ask to ask them to get a pair.

This was Ryan Lomberg’s return to Florida for the first time since winning a Stanley Cup with the Panthers.

The Flames threw their lines into a blender in the second half of this game in an effort to find some scoring. In the third period, lines looked roughly like this:
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil
Sharangovich – Backlund – Coleman
Huberdeau – Frost – Coronato
Lomberg – Rooney – Farabee

This is the first time since Nov. 16-17, 2019 that the Flames have been shut out in consecutive games.

The Flames (28-23-8) are headed to North Carolina to complete this back-to-back set! They face the Hurricanes in Raleigh in a matinee on Sunday.

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