My two cents:
I thought the game was relatively even - with a slight edge to the Flames. They controlled the game quite a bit and the Ducks weren't able to get anything going for a lot of the game. Elliott let in two questionable goals but he came back and finished really strong. There were a lot of chances - but Gibson stood tall and he was one of huge difference makers tonight (35 of 37).
The Flames are getting demolished in the faceoff dot. Monahan (44%), Backlund (40%), Stajan (30%), Bennett (50%), Brouwer (33%, with 9 draws). By the numbers, the Flames only won 22% of their faceoffs when they were shorthanded. Just my thoughts - it's making a huge difference on the special teams. Also being 40% when even strength is also huge.
Brouwer has absolutely no impact on the game - definitely not what he was touted for. Why? It seems like he's so disengaged, it's crazy. Get Lazar in there - get some energy and hard work at least.
Johnny needs to shoot that. How many times have we seen him pick his corners (Game 3 vs Anaheim in the playoffs comes to mind)?
The Brodie penalty is inexcusable (even if it's on Kesler).
I don't think the league/refs are "out to get" the Flames. My problem though is the remarkable inconsistency of the way the game is officiated. Especially this year - I think we saw in most of the Game 1 of the different series that penalties were being called more regularly. With the knowledge from Game 1, the Flames came out and played a lot more carefully. But so many borderline calls were not being called in Game 2 - I don't blame the Flames for thinking they had a little bit of leeway. But to call that borderline penalty on Hamilton with just a couple minutes left screams ridiculous to me. The goalposts seemed to move even within the same game. How are the players supposed to know what's acceptable? With the disallowed goal - again, there's no consistency. I could almost say with certainty that half of the time that play happens, it ends up in a goal and half it ends up in no goal. It's so frustrating.
At least it doesn't feel the same as two years ago, where we felt immensely outclassed by the Ducks. It feels like we're playing right on the same level (or even better) than the Ducks, but being outdone by ourselves. Let's bring it home, get two wins, and make this a best of 3.
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