Get the feeling that #Flames teammates feel bad for Andrew Mangiapane's bad luck deflection? During scrums, odds of such a bounce went from 1-in-100, to 1-in-1,000, to 1-in-10,000.
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Bad breaks: Flames lose points, Hanifin against Vegas
As has become tradition, the Calgary Flames played from behind on Sunday evening against the Vegas Golden Knights. They put themselves in a situation to gain some ground in the Pacific Division race but a couple weird plays led to the club losing not only two crucial points, but defender Noah Hanifin as well.
Bad bounce for Mangiapane
The Flames chased the entire game, at one point in the early second period facing a 3-0 climb. But the Flames started forechecking and started hitting and clawed their way back. With three minutes left, they managed to tie the game at 3-3.
Just shy of two minutes later, this happened:
Following the game, several Flames players – and interim head coach Geoff Ward – noted the flukiness of the game-deciding goal. Heck, captain Mark Giordano explicitly stated that what players are taught to do is get their sticks on the puck in order to deflect it away from the net.
Hanifin leaves game
The other big obstacle for the Flames was the loss of defender Noah Hanifin after three shifts and two minutes of ice time. Hanifin was crunched by Vegas forward Brandon Pirri, himself crunched by Milan Lucic, and he departed the game with what the Flames described as an upper body injury.
While Ward had no updates on Hanifin’s condition following the game, he did express confidence in his club’s accumulated depth at that position:
It’s also a reason why we went out and got a couple defensemen at the deadline. The game is hard at this time of year. It’s hard and injuries are going to happen. We’ve got bodies now. We’re able to plug a guy in that is a good NHL player, so I don’t think we’ll miss a beat. We have to see what’s going on with Noah first, but we’ve got a lot of good options that we can use if in fact he’s out for a while.
For the curious, the time on ice for the Flames’ blueliners against Vegas:
- Mark Giordano: 25:48
- Rasmus Andersson: 24:59
- TJ Brodie: 23:59
- Erik Gustafsson: 21:32
- Derek Forbort: 20:10
- Noah Hanifin: 2:00
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