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The Calgary Flames' poor preseason continued on Thursday night as they lost, again, 3-1 to the Vancouver Canucks.
Five takeaways:
1) The Tanner Glass - Matt Stajan - Freddie Hamilton was physical but ineffective vs the Canucks. They were hemmed in their own zone on several occasions and seemed more interested in hitting people than making a play with the puck and trying to accomplish something productive (they combined for just one controlled entry at 5v5 and were the Flames' worst forward line in possession).
2) The 3rd pairing was a bit of a disaster as well. The Canucks out-chanced the Flames 11-6 with Matt Bartkowski and Michael Stone on the ice and they made some real head scratching plays, such as this.
Bartkowski actually had a pretty solid night breaking out of the defensive zone but a lot of the time he'd carry the puck out with possession, only to ignore teammates waiting for the puck and dump it in, which often led to easy exits for Vancouver. I still think Kulak would be a better option on the 3rd pairing.
3) On a positive note, I thought the top line played fairly well. The trio combined for 11 shots on target, Monahan scored a nice power play goal on a deflection play, and Gaudreau was his usual self, pickpocketing opposing players and parlaying turnovers into scoring chances.
4) Mike Smith had a pretty good night -- if you take out the very fluky power play goal, he stopped 27 of 29, good for a .931 save percentage -- but there were some uneasy moments throughout. He probably wants back the Jake Virtanen goal and a couple times he got himself into trouble when leaving the net to play the puck. I know that's his thing, but he really needs to be careful. It's better to leave the puck alone then go out and make a risky play with it.
5) I still think the Flames should give Dougie Hamilton more opportunity on the top power play, especially in situations where Mark Giordano is out there as well. It keeps the pairings together so things don't get mixed up in ensuing shifts and, quite frankly, Hamilton may be better running a power play than Brodie.
Last season, Hamilton averaged 4.6 points per 60 on the man advantage while Brodie averaged 2.73. That's a sizeable gap and suggests the Flames may just have the wrong guy on the top unit.
Recent posts:
Five takeaways from the Flames' loss to the Jets
Three Flames question marks for the 2017-18 season
Flames sign Sam Bennett to two-year extension
Flames sign Kulak to one-year extension
On Versteeg, Brodie, and power play shooting
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