That game felt like it was 2014-2015 again! My thoughts:
- Smith should have had the 1st and 4th goals. The 2nd and 3rd goal were bad coverage and an unlucky bounce of Andersson. It was an adventure every save for Smith. I think Rittich should start the next few games.
- Gio was awesome. I thought he looked like he lost half a step at the beginning of the year, but then he comes up with a dominant performance like that. 1G, 2A, +2, 7 shots, 26:15 TOI (game high) and shut down the Avs top line. It would be criminal if he wasn't in the Norris conversation.
- Continually impressed by the young dmen. Last game was Andersson stepping up in Buffalo. Tonight it was Valimaki -- they both look like vets out there.
- What can you say about Bennett? Sticking up for Janko -- that scrap turned the whole game around. Hopefully the puck starts going in the net for him because he's been playing really well.
Pretty awesome to see the Flames 1st in the Pacific and with 4 Flames in the top 25 scoring leaders.
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