Flames: What’s Working and What’s Not

The Flames are now 18 games in, and sit at fourth place in the Pacific Division with a record of 10-8-0. With a winning record, a lot has been working for Calgary; however they are far from perfect.

 What’s Working:

Johnny Gaudreau:  Gaudreau has been putting up some serious points this season and has played a huge role in the Flames winning record. Johnny Hockey currently has eight goals and 18 assists and leads the team in points overall and assists. He is also tied for second in the NHL for assists. In his last five games alone, he has scored four goals and assisted on five. This could possibly be Gaudreau’s best season yet.

 Sean Monahan: Monahan is off to a great start this season. Appearing in all 17 games for the Flames, Monahan has scored eight goals and eight assists. He also has a 5 +/- rating, tied for first on the roster. He has also tied for second in the NHL for game winning goals with four. The centreman continues to be a consistent player for the flames and is looking to have another standout season.

 What’s Not:

 Goals For / Goals Against: To continue winning, the Flames will need to be playing better in the defensive zone. The Flames currently have scored 49 goals this season, but have allowed 50 against. This is far from the worst in the league, but it can most definitely be improved. If the Flames want to secure a playoff spot this year, they will need to keep other teams out of the zone. Mike Smith has currently faced the second most shots in the NHL, with 506 shots against. Only Frederik Andersen of Toronto has faced more than Smith. The Flames D need to take it up a notch.

Penalty Killing:  Calgary is currently ranked 31st in the NHL for penalty killing. The Flames only kill 70.8% of penalties that they take.  No team in the NHL is worse at killing penalties than Calgary. Being able to kill a few more penalties would help improve the goals for/ goals against ratio as well. 

by Nora Scally