Flames and Blues Post-Game – Blockbuster

Corsi

Scoring Chances

H2H Ice

Two months ago, this is probably a game the Flames win 4-1. And just as Calgary wasn’t as good as they seemed when they were scoring at will in October, they probably aren’t as bad as they seem right now. They spent more time at ES in the Blues zone and they were equal in terms of ES scoring chances through the four periods (and one better overall). A lot of pucks hit pads and dribbled into the corner rather than on the net for the Flames, which is the opposite of what was happening when they were scoring at a 14% clip.

In addition, the Flames first line had another strong showing in terms of underlying numbers – something that’s happened more often this year when the team is facing a club at home lacking a true “power” trio up front (NSH, STL, etc.). That’s a bit of a backhanded compliment to Iginla et al, but it’s the truth of the matter. At least they can play well against nobodies on home ice, I guess. For this contest, at least, Jokinen and Iginla deserved better than what they got, which is cold comfort I suppose.

Beside guys like Glencross, Bourque and Moss suddenly struggling to get the puck past the offensive blueline, the other issue plaguing Calgary’s offense right now is their inability to get pucks on the net. At the net wasn’t an issue last night as Calgary won the corsi battle, but the Flames still ended up on the wrong side of the shot clock because the Blues managed to block 19 shots at ES. Calgary also missed the net 10 times at 5on5, meaning that more than half of Calgary’s attempts on net didn’t have to be stopped by Chris Mason. Now maybe that’s a bounces thing and pucks will start finding ways through the traffic, but the Flames have faced similar issues this year against the Colorado Avalanche and one wonders if it’s a real relfection of the Flames lack of offensive firepower. Related: the power-play continues to be a barren landscape in terms of generating real, quality opportunities.

Overall, the game probably could have gone either way. There's two ways to interpret that: good news, since it's an improvement over some of Calgary's performances from earlier this month…bad news because the Flames were facing a tired, supposedly weaker opponent on home ice. Pick your perspective.

by Kent Wilson