The Flames have historically underperformed in early day games. Today’s match was not the case as the Flames came out early and their pressure eventually paid off in two goals 93 seconds apart. Washington wasn’t moving their feet. Then something happened that Darryl Sutter has to be furious about — The Flames started playing down to the Caps level. You would see more effort in any given Junior game than what the Flames put out in the second. This was underlined on a Caps short handed goal where Johnny Gaudreau was barely moving his feet at all with the puck. He gets stripped, Kuznetsov is gone on a breakaway, suddenly the Caps are back in it 2-3. A few minutes later Ovechkin gets a clean shot from the top of the circle and suddenly it’s tied going into the third.

Gaudreau - Lindholm – Tkachuk
What a game for the 26 year old Swedish pivot. Elias Lindholm put the game away in overtime with a nice slot pass from Gaudreau. Lindholm made perennial Norris candidate John Carlson look like a beer league regular on the Flames third goal. He gained the inside on a loose puck in the neutral zone, knocked Carlson off balance, and took the puck in alone for a nice short handed marker. The Flames haven’t scored a hat trick on the Capitals since Tom Lysiak did it in 1987.

Coleman - Backlund – Pitlick
This newly formed shutdown unit didn’t perform to the impressive +70 CF% they put up against Detroit. Today they were barely above 53 CF%. They kept their head above water, but you can’t help but wanting to see Coleman with better offensive players. A move to the right wing on the Mangiapane-Dube line might be the shakeup both lines need.

Lucic - Monahan – Lewis
Lucic and Monahan were sluggish on the back check and Martin Feravary has enough time and space to pick a low blocker shot on Vladar. Monahan was an ugly -2 and is now being outscored by backup goaltender Daniel Vladar. It’s frustrating to see him out there trying to make something happen when he’s clearly not fully healthy. On the bright side, he led the team in takeaways(3).

Mangiapane - Dube - Ritchie
The Capitals weren’t skating well and Mangiapane took full advantage. Mangiapane and Dube looked like the only players skating at full speed in the second. Mangiapane potted his third goal in four games at 9:27 of the first off a Hanifin rebound on the powerplay. With that said — these three as a unit might need a shakeup. They were out-chanced 0-11 at 5v5.

Hanifin – Andersson
Andersson got caught a step behind on Ovechkin during the sequence that led to the Caps’ third goal. Beyond that, this pairing handled Washington’s star power well.

Kylington – Tanev
This pairing got hung out to dry by Milan Lucic failing to get into the play on the back check for the Fehervary goal. He gets back to take the high forward and this game likely doesn’t find its way to overtime.

Valimaki - Gudbranson
While this pairing kept their head above water, they also accounted for 3/4 of the Flames’ penalties. Valimaki has two. Sutter may switch Valimaki out against the Rangers on Monday.

Vladar
Vladar showed his style of goaltending today. He got beaten by some well placed shots, but handled shots through traffic exceptionally well. With an assist on Lindholm’s OT goal, he is outscoring Auston Matthews in the 21-22 regular season.


The Flames play the Rangers on Monday at 5:00pm.


Enjoy your weekend,



Trevor Neufeld


Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld

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