Regards to the Edmonton Oilers. Last night’s showdown between the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights featured a very tired visiting team.
Given that the Golden Knights played near flawless hockey against the Oilers the night before on route to a 4-0 victory— there is cause for gratitude.
With that out if the way, here are a few observations from a 6-0 victory over the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Record hunting
The Calgary Flames have broken franchise records in both shots in one period (23) and shots in one game (62) this season. Had they not let off the gas for the third period against the St. Louis Blues on Jan 24, Tkachuk may have tied or broken the single game franchise points record. He had five assists through two periods. Sergei Makarov had seven in a game against the Oilers during the 89-90 season. With one more assist Tkachuk would have tied the single game assists record captured by Guy Choinard in February 1981 against the Islanders.
I digress.
With his eighth shutout of the season, Jacob Markstrom is well on his way to breaking the Flames single season franchise record of ten (Miikka Kiprusoff – 05-06). Eight puts him in second place ahead of Kiprusoff’s seven in 06-07.
Ten team shutouts this season also puts the Flames on track to break the modern era NHL record of 15. Although the official NHL record is 22.
The game
Last night Markstrom fully earned his shutout. The Golden Knights got 24 shots on net, 8 high danger chances and had an expected goals rate of 1.73
That said, the team in front of him throttled the Golden Knights. While the opposition earned a chance here or there, they were out-chanced every period of the game
The most notable display of dominance last night was in response to a hard push coming out of the first intermission. Clearly Vegas Head Coach Peter DeBoer made it known during the break that the team’s first period effort wasn’t adequate. The Golden Knights came into the second period at full speed. Markstrom kept them out until Andrew Mangiapane managed to find the back of the net off a Mikael Backlund feed for his 21st of the season. At that point the Vegas squad once again lost all momentum.
A rare opportunity
Adam Ruzicka earned his first look on the powerplay this season last night through unique circumstances. Resident PP2 center Sean Monahan went down the tunnel motioning that something was wrong with his skate. Out went rookie center Adam Ruzicka to take the offensive zone faceoff.
Perhaps it was the surprise of getting the tap, perhaps Vegas penalty killer William Karlsson recognized the situation and adjusted his approach— in any case, Ruzicka lost the faceoff clean. His 0:24 shift was a lesson learned. Darryl Sutter has mentioned that faceoffs are an area of improvement needed for the 22 year old Slovak. One has to imagine that the sequence will serve as a reminder of that.
Despite that, Ruzicka played a career high 19 shifts in the game.
Flipped on it’s bread
Andrew Mangiapane looked like he was set to go back to the hotel last night.
That, of course, would be due to him playing as if it were a road game. His two goals tripled his 21-22 goal total (3) at the Scotiabank Saddledome. On the road he has 19.
Backs at it
It’s nice to see Mikael Backlund finding his offensive touch again. The 32 year old Swede had one goal and three assists last night. He had been heating up since mid January, but most recently had hit a three game pointless streak. It’s nice to see the 2005 24th overall pick rally like that.
The Leafs
The Flames get to test their endurance tonight by playing the 30-10-2 Toronto Maple Leafs to finish out a back-to-back. The red hot Mitch Marner will be a dire challenge for a tired Flames squad. The 24 year old former London Knights teammate of Matthew Tkachuk has seven goals and seven assists in his last five games. Over that time the Leafs are 5-0-0.
Worried yet?
Fans will remember the gripping 2-1 OT loss to the Leafs on November 12 as one of the most exciting games of the year. Darryl’s squad knows well that they need to stick to their system in order to keep up with the star power of the team coached by Sheldon Keefe. Playing a tight checking system kept the game at 0-0 until the 4:55 mark of the third period when a break from Kylington made it 1-0. After that the transition game opened up leading to Ondrej Kase tying the game at 12:54.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Dube-Monahan-Ritchie
Lucic-Ruzicka-Lewis
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Gudbranson
Markstrom
Vladar’s return — EDIT: Looks like Markstrom starts two nights in a row.
Similar to Nov 12, backup Daniel Vladar is most likely getting the start. The 24 year old Czech was instrumental in keeping the Flames in the game on that night. He posted a .946 save percentage and handled countless shots through traffic. The Flames backup hasn’t gotten much work lately. He saved 5/5 in a third period appearance against the stars on Feb 2, and hadn’t played since Jan 7 before that.
Darryl Sutter likes to utilize his starters, but getting this kind of inconsistency can’t be good for a goalie with only 15 games of NHL experience.
The 6’5” 185lbs backup has a .868 save percentage in his last four starts. Although that can be largely attributed to the play of the team in front of him.
Would you keep the lineup as is or slot in a rested player such as Tyler Pitlick, Michael Stone or Brad Richardson?
Do you think the Flames have a better chance with a tired Markstrom or an underused Vladar?
Did any spare parts on the Vegas roster seem enticing enough to help Vegas out if cap jail?
Cheers,
Trevor Neufeld
Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»