The Calgary Flames weren’t awful against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night. They weren’t great, either. They’ve improved their systems play recently to the point where they’re not getting crushed most of the time. But some key lapses in the details came back to haunt them.

Details of the game: the F3

After the game, Milan Lucic observed that one of the challenges for the Flames in the first half of the game was the “F3” forward. The “F3” is the first forward back on the back-check when transitioning into the defensive zone.
I think a lot of that comes with that F3 forward. When the F3 is good and is able to create that back-pressure and that reload, it allows the D to stay up and cut the rush off and not give the forwards time and space. You look at the teams that are having the most success, their forwards are giving their D a chance to press and stand up and not give the other team speed and chances.
Some lapses in the F3’s coverage were front and center in the first and third Colorado goals.
The first goal:
The Colorado forward (Burakovsky) sneaks in behind the F3.
The third goal:
The Colorado forward (Compher) beats out the F3 into the zone. To compensate, the D2 and D1 cheat towards the middle, which opens up the initial Colorado forward (Kamenev) for the goal.
The Flames aren’t running around in their own end, but momentary lapses like this have been front and center in their last handful of games. There’s still work to be done away from the puck.

A November to forget (so far)

Through nine games, the Flames have had a pretty blah November. They’re 3-5-1.
Here’s how their in-game situations breaks down:
  • Trailing: 319:14 (58.3% of games), 4th-most in the NHL
  • Tied: 141:14 (25.8%), 27th-most in the NHL
  • Leading: 87:44 (16.1%), 27th-most in the NHL
By coincidence, they’re 26th in points percentage in November.
All month, they’re shooting just 4.1% at five-on-five. The median team in the NHL in the same span scores on 8.5% of their five-on-five shots. If the Flames keep getting the same quality of chances – or can improve on that aspect of their game – pucks will go in with more regularity.