Despite a low shot total of 8-4 to end the first, the Calgary Flames dominated possession seemingly winning every loose puck last night during a late night Halloween matchup on Saturday. With fatigue set in, the Flyers mostly held on and fell back to the net to fill the passing lanes. Outplayed by most other metrics, Flyers went 11-3 on faceoffs in the period. Those faceoffs kept the Flames offence from settling into the offensive zone for the entire period. The Flames had to win possession then take the zone almost every play, which didn’t seem like a challenge, but it explains the low shot totals.

In the second period things got even worse. The Flames outshot the Flyers 12-0 before Sean Monahan potted a powerplay goal for his first of the season. His skating has been off since the Kassian hit. Monahan had his feet planted in front of the net for this one. That’s one way to get him producing.

It wasn’t until a delayed penalty on Nikita Zadorov 12:43 into the second did the Flyers finally get their first shot of the period. To their credit, they played far better games against the Oilers and Canucks. They just seemed dead on their feet at the end of a road trip. The second period ended 24-9 in shots for the Flames. The Flyers with zero legitimate scoring opportunities over 40 minutes.

The Flyers started carrying the puck more in the third and the Flames made them pay for taking more risks. The entire game it seemed like the flyers couldn’t move the puck up the ice when the Flames put up a 1-2-2 formation and they seemingly had no ability to hold their own blue line. The Flames made controlled entries almost every time they attempted to carry the puck into the zone. While the 4-0 shutout was largely credited to Markstrom shutting down key opportunities, this game was more about the Flames shutting down the Flyers in the neutral zone.

The 4-4-0 Predators are in town on Tuesday and are on a three game winning streak. Expect a much different game as both teams will be rested.


Happy real Halloween,


Trevor Neufeld

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