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A few thoughts on Calgary vs Minnesota:
1) Minnesota did grow into the game as it progressed but Calgary was pretty clearly the better side. They absolutely dominated in the 1st period and controlled a lot of the play throughout.
At 5v5, the Flames out-attempted the Wild 65-37 (63.73 CF%) and out-chanced them 26-18 (59.09 SCF%). Their all situations numbers were even better, which is crazy considering, you know, Garnet Hathaway took a five-minute major at one point.
Unfortunately, the Flames' ability to control run of play did not matter. Devan Dubnyk was excellent at one end, and the same can't be said of Mike Smith (I'll get to that shortly). It's as simple as that.
2) Smith has played better of late. I won't argue that. Still, his season as a whole has not been good and there's never been a point where he'd make anyone believe otherwise for more than a week or two. I don't understand why he continues to get trotted out in big games.
Last night was particularly frustrating. The Flames were the better team and they still lost by a pair thanks to blunders from Smith.
The opening goal in the 3rd was completely inexcusable. There's no defense you can make for Smith. He is paid millions of dollars to guard the net and he legitimately left it entirely exposed for 10 seconds. Ridiculous.
It's not like this is anything new, either. Almost exactly a week ago Smith gave a goal away because he left the net. He has done it numerous times before, too.
Making matters worse last night was the goal Smith soon after allowed to Ryan Donato. Was it a hard shot? Sure, but Smith shouldn't be beaten from that distance on an unscreened shot where he was fully set and able to challenge.
Go back to Big Save Dave.
3) I don't know where James Neal will play when he returns to the lineup, but it probably shouldn't be in place of Austin Czarnik on the 3rd line. After another strong showing last night, the Sam Bennett, Mark Jankowski, Czarnik line has now controlled 65% of the attempts and 69% of the chances through a handful of games together. Those numbers will normalize a little over an extended period of time but it's pretty clear they are capable of doing damage against opposing team's depth players. Let them continue to do so.
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