Can you think of a more important moment in the season than last night’s 5-1 victory over the Panthers?
Proverbial dragons slayed within Flames fans’ tender psyches included:
• The Flames’ inability to provide the same quality of play at the Saddledome.
• The notion that the Flames had reverted to their “same old selves” and that the early season was them playing above their median quality of play.
And best of all:
• The Flames can’t hang with the best teams in the League.
While these concerns will never entirely go away, who here is happy to see a bit of evidence counter to the pessimism building lately?
In story writing terms, the two weeks prior may have been what is called the “all is lost moment” of the season.
A moment so key in the greatest tales in fiction. The “all is lost moment” provides a polarized dramatic swing that makes the following act so much more powerful to the audience.
One may consider last night’s game the beginning of Act III.
And change acts they will. As of Saturday, the Flames will get back to playing every two or three days. Consistency has proven to be good for the Flames. While their schedule isn’t fully announced, their intention to fill the former Olympic break in February with postponed games has been made clear. The Flames should be busy for a while.
Getting back to systems
While it was fun for one period, the 6-2 loss to the Panthers on January 4th and the 5-1 win on the Panthers last night were a perfect example to be brought up when debating whether the Flames can loosen up their defence and go blow-for-blow with more talented teams. Let the trip through Florida and Carolina stand as a lesson to this team— Their system is how they will manifest their potential.
Backing up the starter
It’s nice to see Jacob Markstrom get more commitment from the team in front of him. A bit of questionable coverage from Mikael Backlund on the one Panthers goal aside, the team brought one of their best defensive performances of the season against the league’s top ranked offence.
The Panthers recorded a total of 41 shot attempts. 29 of those found their way to Jacob Markstrom and only one found its way past the 6’6” 31 year old Swede. To Markstrom’s credit, the Panthers recorded eight high danger chances to the Flames’ ten. One goalie had five goals against and one goalie had only one. Both the Flames goalie and his team earned that .966% save percentage last night.
Chasing the top ten
With four assists last night, Johnny Gaudreau is now 11th in League scoring with 43 points in 35 games. While this season has been a lot of fun to watch, free agency looms over the organization. Gaudreau took a lower price point than he deserved when he signed a six year 40 million dollar deal in 2016 to the tune of 6.75 annual average value. If he keeps playing like he is, he could become very expensive.
The League is in a state of uncertainty whether the cap will be going up during the offseason. With Canadian teams selling tickets at half capacity, the answer is likely that the cap will stay as it is.
Friedman’s recent 32 Thoughts Podcast revealed some interesting speculation from the perspective of a semi-insider. During the question period, one fan asked about whether the Flames were in on the Jacob Chychrun sweepstakes. Here was Friedman’s answer:
The only reason why I haven’t mentioned Calgary very much is that I think Calgary is a team that went through a phase there where they dealt some picks and I think their general philosophy has been, particularly depending on what happens with Gaudreau after this year, is keep their prospects.
That certainly plants a seed of doubt. Being one if the better negotiators in the League, Treliving is doing the right thing by preparing for a potential major asset exploring unrestricted free agency. One has to wonder how high a team like Philadelphia or Montreal would go to bring in a star like Gaudreau.
Treliving could justify going to 9.5 or even 10 million annual average value— but what about 11? There are teams out there with far more desperate General Managers. The Flyers, for example, have over 17 million coming off the books this offseason and are a franchise with a reputation for making bad financial decisions on star players.
One also has to wonder whether Treliving is conservative about trading draft picks due to it being a good draft year— or whether they’ll use a combination of their 1st and two 2nds to fill Gaudreau’s vacancy should push come to shove. Would Filip Forsberg at an 8x6 cap hit be enough to keep fans appeased of Johnny leaving the Flames?
Tough luck Oilers
Last night’s game does not spell good things for the Flames’ northern rivals. Now the League’s best offence and, on paper, best team is heading to Rogers Place with the intention of getting a bad taste out of their mouths.
Things aren’t going well in Edmonton.
They have been in a free fall for some time now. If you haven’t seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to watch Jim Matheson lose his temper at a miserable Leon Draisaitl for not throwing the rest of his team under the bus. The formatting is being difficult today, so you will find a link to the interaction in the comments.
Say what you want about Draisaitl’s response, but the media should be reading the room and asking for positives. Jim Matheson is a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. Asking a player why they’re “pissy” during a losing streak is just lacking common sense. The level of bad faith questioning Jim exhibits is unacceptable in this writer’s opinion. Draisaitl is defending an attack on his team’s morale with what Jim is asking.
With that said, Jim usually does good work. He raises a good point in one of his tweets today:
It appears the Oilers are also set to begin Act III of their season as well. Playing that frequently will help the team get into a groove. Less time to ruminate on losses should help put bad losses behind them.
First though, they need to get their arms around the tailspin. They have lost six in a row. Tomorrow they get to play the League’s highest points percentage team in the Panthers.
Perhaps the jump they need is playing the Flames on Saturday.
It’s no secret that McDavid brings his “A game“ when playing the Flames. He has 26 goals and 17 assists in 31 career games against the Flames. As always, if Connor is playing his best; the little things get easier for the rest of the team.
On the pessimists side of the coin, if the Oilers don’t show some emotion on Saturday, then there will be hell to pay. The fans and media will be in a fervour. Leon Draisaitl will be beyond “pissy”.
That said, if they can get their powerplay back into form— they will certainly pull, slowly but surely, out of this rut.
After all, every good story deserves an “all is lost moment”.
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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