[PGT] Flames 2 Blues 1

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by jaymac106

Come on Gaskal... it's nearly 2 am in the Maritimes.

A post like this is what makes CP awesome. It's almost two in the frickin' morning out there and people are anxiously waiting for Gaskal's ATL... bravo to both of you.

[dammage79]

I'm in mad hockey love with the Janko-Hathaway-Bennett line. They were dominant all night. Should have had a couple of goals.

Flames rolled their 5 D men quite well all game after the Hamonic injury.

Wanted to see Jagr live but he spurns us yet again.

Smith was solid when he had to and Hutton had a great game save two wonky goals. EDIT: Had to LOL at the game, the whole section between the Blues bench and the Blues net in the third were chanting Hutton for the longest time. Was hilarious.

Big thanks to Caged Great for the Tickets, merry christmas and it was really nice to take in a W at the dome. First one since oh three years ago maybe when the caps came to town.

[PugnaciousIntern]

Glad that we're beating the Blues. The last few years it felt like any game against them would not just be a loss, but a loss in which the Flames were dominated. Blues are still a great team, so this improvement gives me hope...

[btimbit]

Not the prettiest win on the scoreboard but played a very solid game. Holding what is normally a good team to leas than 25 shots is impressive.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Not the prettiest win on the scoreboard but played a very solid game. Holding what is normally a good team to leas than 25 shots is impressive.

With 5 D men.

[Joborule]

Nice thing about this win is that it's their 4th straight home win.

Need to make your building tough for teams to come in and get wins, let alone points. Flames are one win away from making the home record .500.

After Friday's game, they'll have 21 home games remaining. Hopefully they carry it into the new year, and can win at home at around a .650-.700 range. If they do that, along with keeping a +.500 record on the road, they should rack up a fair amount of points to not only make the playoffs, but get a home seeding for the first round. Want to be able to take advantage of home ice advantage if they're confident in winning at home.

[MisterJoji]

Looks like the Oilers are becoming feared again despite their current position. The Blues are expected to start Hutton tonight according to The Score app and Allen tomorrow against the Oilers.

Watch out guys, the Oilers are one of the best in the league again and because of this Calgary got the “weak” backup tonight.

[FBI]

Best game I've seen Frolik play in forever!

[FBI]

[QUOTE=Joborule;6507798]Nice thing about this win is that it's their 4th straight home win.

Need to make your building tough for teams to come in and get wins, let alone points. Flames are one win away from making the home record .500.

After Friday's game, they'll have 21 home games remaining. Hopefully they carry it into the new year, and can win at home at around a .650-.700 range. If they do that, along with keeping a +.500 record on the road, they should rack up a fair amount of points to not only make the playoffs, but get a home seeding for the first round. Want to be able to take advantage of home ice advantage if they're confident in winning at home.[/QUOTE]

I don't believe that's true.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by FBI

I don't believe that's true.

You would be right! For some reason I thought San Jose and Nashville were wins.

Alright, so disregard what I said. They're not getting hot at home, but would be nice for them to start becoming so I suppose.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Joborule

You would be right! For some reason I thought San Jose and Nashville were wins.

Alright, so disregard what I said. They're not getting hot at home, but would be nice for them to start becoming so I suppose.

They were still very competitive games against good teams. Smith fessed up to pooping the SJ game away and then the Preds game saw 4 crossbars.

Could have swung our way too if the PP wasn't in an almighty slump.

[Galakanokis]

I know I've been living the High Life 13 or 14 times tonight but I thought that was a pretty solid game. One crazy deke and shot was the only goal against and tonnes of pressure from the Flames. Sure the goals weren't pretty but we had some nice chances that didn't go in that could have.

Great game. Flames D is much improved.

[N-E-B]

I don't really have many complaints tonight. I think if it weren't for Hutton this would have been a 4 or 5 to 1 game. Flames played awesome, completely dominated in just about every fashion.

[Love]

First line has been out of sync for a few games now. Ferland didn’t look comfortable today. 3M & the third line were phenomenal. That fourth line...... yikes. As far as I’m concerned none of those three fellas are NHL caliber forwards anymore. Send Brouwer and Stajan to Robidas island and call up Mangiapane and Hrivik. Could it be any worse? I seriously doubt it.

[united]

Another all-round solid game by the Flames, this time against a legitimate contender instead of the pathetic Canucks. Defensively they were terrific. Top line didn't have their best game - Alex Steen always makes for a tough matchup - but they weren't liabilities, and the Flames got some secondary scoring.

The Bennett-Jankowski-Hathaway line was incredible tonight. They didn't get rewarded on the score sheet, but they held the Blues to one low-percentage shot on goal the entire game. Hats off, once again.

As usual, the Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik line was dominant, too. They, too, held the Blues to one low-percentage shot on goal. Great to see Frolik burry one - as I said in that other thread, the line was bound to get some puck luck sooner rather than later.

Fourth line can be summed up with . Completely useless at all aspects of the game.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by puppet guy

“booogggerrrr!!!”

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by Puppet Guy

[zukes]

I love how we get a huge breakdown onthe leafs on sportsnet. Maybe cuz I'm in Ontario? Seems like a national broadcast...yup, now blowing the Oilers

[Karl]

Nice win.

[driveway]

Since the 5 - 2 loss to Philly, the Flames have allowed 3 goals or less in 8 consecutive games. In those 8 games we're 4-2-2; these games have been evenly split 4 home and 4 road. At home we're 2-2-0 and on the road we're 2-0-2

Over those games we've allowed 13 GA. That's a GA/GP of 1.63, which - over a season - would put us first in the NHL by a country mile. Over that span of time only the Predators have allowed fewer goals (12) and they've played two less games. The next-best GA since December 5th for a team who has played as many games as us is Toronto with 18 GA.

In that same span of time we've taken the most shots in the NHL - 284, we've allowed the 8th least - 208, by far the best mark for any team that's played as many games as us, the next best is Carolina who have allowed 236.

That defense people talked about at the beginning of the year has started to appear. Even though maintaining a 1.63 GA/GP for the rest of the season isn't realistic - only one team since 2000 has had a season GA/GP below 2.00 (the 2011-12 Blues at 1.89) - continued strong defensive play like this will almost certainly see wins come in.

The problem has been our ability to score goals, though it hasn't been terrible (the 6 goals against Vancouver definitely pad the stats a little). 19 GF since December 5th ties us with Florida and Toronto for 21st most in the league, but the numbers are all pretty close: the Oilers have the 10th most over that span with 23 GF.

Indeed, what we all have seen to be true is what's turned a potential 6-2 or 7-1 streak of great defense into the middling 4-2-2 we've put together: the powerplay is frigging killing us.

2 PPG in 30 chances - a 6.7% conversion rate. Shockingly, not the worst in the league - Carolina and Chicago both have connected only 4.5% of the time. But given how close these games have been, two powerplay goals at opportune times - let's say against Toronto and Minnesota - and suddenly that 4-2-2 becomes 6-2-0 and we're sitting with 41 points with a bit of breathing room in the division. That wouldn't even be a lot to ask for - we'd still have a 13.3% powerplay, 10th worst in the league, but that tiny improvement would lift us to 20-14-1. It really looks like something needs to be done with the PP - but it might just be simple bad luck.

Would it surprise anyone here to know that we've hit the crossbar and missed the most in the league since December 5th? 6 times! Second most is the Oil with 3 crossbars. How about the post? 3rd most in the league: 7 times! Only 5 teams in the league have hit the post and the crossbar 7 times combined in that span. NHL.com doesn't let you know if those shots come at 5v5 or on the PP, but I'm willing to bet at least two of them were! Imagine if four of those posts and or crossbars had gone in, we'd still have 9 combined - tied with the Bruins for 2nd unluckiest team in the league by this metric - but would we have three, four more points in the standings?

Hockey is a game of milimeters, blood, and sweat. I think it's pretty clear we're putting in the blood and the sweat. We're out shooting the league and preventing shots at a crazy level. We're preventing goals in a way that's so good it's unsustainable long-term. We're drawing more penalties than almost anyone else in the league, we do also take a fair number of penalties, but it's not eggregious and our PK is better-than-average. If we could just get ourselves to a worse-than-average-but-not-apocalyptic power play and get a few of those milimeters on our side we're looking at a team sitting very comfortably in a playoff spot.

There is a really good Calgary Flames team that - I think - is starting to emerge here. If we keep playing the way we have been, the goals and the wins will come.