Flames: 8-13-1, 17 points, 6th in Pacific, 13th in West, 29th in NHL.
Coyotes: 11-9-1, 23 points, 4th in Pacific, 9th in West, 18th in NHL.
There was a lot of disappointment and anger over the last game amongst the fans. Fair enough. The Flames had a good lead in the 3rd and shat the bed, and did so in a building that has a lot of bad history for the Flames. The team has just not been able to perform in crunch time, resulting in some awful goal differentials in the 3rd period, and the absolute worst goal differential in the league overall (-27). Part of that is a 8.35% team shooting percentage (ranked 22nd), but the most obvious part of that is a league worst 88.1% team save percentage. We knew this team couldn't maintain some of the numbers from last year, but that's some serious overcorrection that seems "unsustainable". That's despite the solid play of Ramo over the last few games. The 5 on 5 goal ratio isn't good but it isn't terrible either, with a goal ratio of 0.75. The Flames are actually 1st in the league with percentage of goals coming 5 on 5 with a ratio of 84.9%. That's because the special teams have been absolutely abysmal. The power play is ranked 29th at 13.8% and the penalty kill is ranked dead last at 72.1%. That's a combined percentage of 85.9%. You're considered good at special teams if the combined percentages total 100% or more. It was noted at practice yesterday that Gelinas was furious at the team for not working harder on the special teams in practice.
But enough about the disappointments of this year, we move on to the next game to face an improved Arizona Coyotes squad who has been rejuvenated by some young players making an impact. Domi and Duclair have stepped into a top 6 role effortlessly and added offense to a substandard group. The Coyotes rank 12 in offense with 2.81 GF/G despite having the 25th ranked PP at 15.7%. That offense is coming despite their low shot counts, ranked 27th with 28.1/G. That means they have exactly 10% shooting percentage...a number we all know to be unsustainable.
They are still struggling to keep the puck out of their net though, ranked 25th in GA/G with 2.90 (not early as bad as the Flames' 3.59 though...dead last by a fair margin). That is despite a good PK at 81.5%, good enough for 13th in the league. It's odd to see a Tippett coached team struggle defensively 5 on 5, as that's what he's traditionally focused on and had the most success with. They struggle to keep shots against down, but that's to be expected with a defense group that isn't overly mobile beyond Ekman-Larsson. Part of the problem has been Mike Smith, who is either lights out good or laughably bad. In his last 10 games he's had 5 games with 2 goals against or less, all with save percentages of .930 or above. In the other 5 games he's had a GAA of 3.00, 5.00, 6.00, 7.03, and 27.07, with save percentages that range from the poor .889 to the awful .333. If Smith is good tonight the Flames will probably lose. If he's off, it's an easy win for the good guys.
Roster Notes: Ortio has cleared waivers and been returned to Stockton as Markus Granlund was recalled. Ladislav Smid is continuing his conditioning stint in Stockton. The thought is that Granlund will play tonight with Jooris and Bollig sitting and just 6 defensemen on the roster. Ramo is the confirmed starter. Lines are based on the most recent practice.
Flames
Gaudreau-Monahan-Jones
Bennett-Backlund-Frolik
Colborne-Granlund-Hudler
Ferland-Stajan-Raymond
Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Hamilton
Engelland-Wideman
Ramo
Coyotes
Rieder-Hanzal-Boedker
Domi-Richardson-Duclair
Martinook-Vermette-Doan
Chipchura-Gordon-Cunningham
Ekman-Larsson-Stone
Dahlbeck-Michalek
Grossman-Murphy
Smith
Go Flames Go!!!!!!