Flames Versus Kings Post-Game – 100% of Conroy’s Goals Have Been Game Winners

Corsi

Scoring Chances

H2H Ice

Lots of talking points in this contest. The Phanuef hit and ejection. The Dustin Brown penalty shot (both the call the led to it and the shot itself). Craig Conroy scoring his first goal of the season. Rene Bourque scoring his 4th and 5th points in the last two games.

The flow of the game was typical 2009-10 Calgary Flames. They leveraged some PP time to build up a shot and chance lead, went up by one early in the second period and then spent the rest of the game trying to win by one. The Flames were well ahead by most measures before Conroy scored the eventual GWG, but nearly two full periods of “shell mode” put them under water in terms of shots and possession by the end of the game.

Depending on your perspective, one could criticize or commend the team on this issue. Criticize because shutting things down with more than half the game left to play in your own building seems like a suspect way to win. Commend, because the Flames did manage to limit chances against despite being outshot and were still ahead in the chance count by the end of the contest. The Kings only managed 8 scoring chances in the final 37 minutes of hockey, which is a solid body of work, defensively speaking. The trick from a Calgary perspective, would be to achieve that level of suppression without going into complete offensive hibernation themselves.

On a more micro level, Iginla's unit had a better night scoring chance wise, although I came away somewhat unimpressed with Jarome himself. That said, it's good to see Calgary's top 6 cumulatively in the black, especially against some pretty strong opposition.

What say you folks? Step in the right direction?

by Kent Wilson