A couple weeks back, the Calgary Flames were horrendous in the first period of their game with the Los Angeles Kings. They managed to battle back and get a point, but Saturday night’s return engagement seemingly proved that they learned nothing from that outing. The Flames were, in a word, trounced by the Kings by a 4-1 score at Staples Center.

The Rundown

The Flames got down early in the first period off some wonky defensive play by Noah Hanifin. Hanifin attempted a poke-check on a rushing Tyler Toffoli just inside the defensive blueline. Toffoli calmly walked around Hanifin, strode into the slot and beat David Rittich with a wrist shot to make it 1-0 Kings.
The rest of the period had a lot of penalties back and forth. At even strength, the Kings largely kept the Flames to the outside. Shots were 8-8 in the first and chances were 8-4 Flames.
18 seconds into the second period, the Kings doubled their lead. Beating TJ Brodie on the rush, Jeff Carter’s attempted pass to the slot bounced off Mark Giordano’s back skate and bounced over Rittich’s pad to make it 2-0. Bad luck, but Brodie got beat both on the zone entry and on the rush towards the net. Things got worse from there.
With the Flames on a power play, Anze Kopitar stripped Giordano of the puck at the point and went in on a breakaway. His wrister beat Rittich to make it 3-0 Kings.
Shortly thereafter, the Kings drew a power play and Ilya Kovalchuk teed up a slapper that beat Rittich top corner to make it 4-0 Kings.
The Kings spent the majority of the period in the Flames zone. Shots were 20-4 Kings and scoring chances 12-4 Kings.
Cam Talbot relieved David Rittich in the third period. The Kings seemed content just to run out the clock and did a good job keeping the Flames to the outside. If you like chaos, Matthew Tkachuk and Drew Doughty also sparked a bit of a scrum midway through the third.
Mikael Backlund scored on a penalty shot with 2:10 left in regulation to break Jonathan Quick’s shutout attempt, but that’s all the Flames got.
Shots were 11-8 Flames and chances 8-5 Flames in the third.

Why the Flames Lost

In the words of Homer Simpson: “They just plain sucked.”
They lost tons of 50/50 battles for loose pucks. Their power play didn’t amount to much. Their penalty kill bled chances. They constantly misplayed or turned over pucks. They took plenty of ill-advised penalties.
The Kings are an energetic bunch this year and they were pretty sharp. But their lives were made easier by the Flames basically helping them get two points.

Red Warrior

He got the hook after 40 minutes, but Rittich was working his butt off and made plenty of big saves. He was the best of a bad Flames bunch.

The Turning Point

Carter’s weird ricochet goal to open the second period was bad luck, but also tremendously bad timing. The Flames seemed to spiral and get panicky after that marker, which contributed to them digging themselves into a pretty big hole for the rest of that period.

The Numbers

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Percentage stats are 5v5.
Corsi
For%
O-Zone
Face-Off%
Game
Score
Bennett
81.8
66.7
0.680
Lucic
68.8
33.3
0.450
Rieder
61.1
50.0
0.350
Brodie
60.0
20.0
0.300
Gaudreau
56.3
75.0
0.175
Hanifin
56.0
50.0
0.125
Monahan
55.6
50.0
0.340
Lindholm
53.9
75.0
0.470
Andersson
52.2
66.7
0.200
Czarnik
50.0
14.3
0.090
Jankowski
50.0
50.0
0.010
Kylington
50.0
57.1
-0.100
Backlund
45.5
85.7
0.415
Hamonic
42.3
58.3
-0.250
Giordano
40.9
50.0
-0.075
Frolik
38.5
60.0
-0.625
Tkachuk
33.3
42.9
-0.825
Ryan
30.0
14.3
-0.255
Rittich
—
—
-0.800
Talbot
—
—
0.600

This and That

Once the Flames got down 4-0, and finally got back to playing five-on-five, here were the new lines late in the second period:
  • Rieder – Jankowski – Frolik
  • Tkachuk – Ryan – Czarnik
  • Gaudreau – Backlund – Lindholm
  • Lucic – Monahan – Bennett
  • Giordano / Andersson
  • Hanifin / Brodie
  • Kylington / Hamonic

Up Next

The Flames (4-4-1) stay in the greater Los Angeles area tonight. They’ll face the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow at Honda Center.
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