3 Things From Week 1

The first week of the 2018-19 season is in the books for the Calgary Flames and they find themselves 1-1-0 after 2 games. The Flames newer faces seem to be settling in nicely and the old combo of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan appears to be back to normal, if not better. There’s not a lot to go over after playing only 2 games, but here’s what we have in this week’s edition of 3 Things:

Not A Bad Week For Tkachuk

Matthew Tkachuk had himself quite a week. He had 4 assists and 1 goal in the Flames first 2 games of the year, putting him among the league leaders in points and assists. He’s currently 2nd in the NHL in assists with 4 and he’s currently tied for 5th overall in points with 5, 3 behind the league leader in Auston Matthews.

PP Ups & Downs

Calgary opened the season with an 0-7 on the PP which put all Flames fans in a state of panic or anger. It looked like the Flames were a mirror image of last season where they struggled to score goals with the man advantage. However, those fears were soothed a bit with a 3 for 6 effort on Saturday night. The Canucks were in a giving mood all week and the Flames finally made them pay on Saturday. Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all 3 PPG and the Flames could have had more. They had a goal disallowed on the PP and they scored a goal just after a PP ended. So maybe the sky isn’t falling after all. Maybe.

Goodbye Vancouver

The Flames played the Canucks twice this week and they won’t see them again until December 29th, which might be a good thing. Elias Pettersson torched the Flames with 3 goals and 2 assists in his first 2 NHL games. Pettersson looks like someone Calgary isn’t going to enjoy seeing over the course of his career. The length of time between games is slightly peculiar, but it’s better than loading up all of the games against a rival early in the season.

Pacific Division Standings

1. Anaheim: 2-0-0 (4 points)
2. LA: 1-0-1 (3 points)
3. Calgary: 1-1-0 (2 points)
4. Vancouver: 1-1-0 (2 points)
5. San Jose: 1-1-0 (2 points)
6. Vegas: 1-1-0 (2 points)
7. Edmonton: 0-1-0 (0 points)
8. Arizona: 0-2-0 (0 points)