Flames Takeaways: Road penalty-kill woes continue in loss to Blues
Not only is the Flames’ penalty kill the worst road unit in the league, but its 68.7 per cent efficiency rate ranks them lower than any other Flames team in club history. That number wasn’t improved upon in Thursday’s loss to the Blues.
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It’s not news that the Flames have struggled away from the Saddledome this season.
Only five teams have a worse road record than Calgary at 7-10-4.
What is newsworthy is that they’ve been so bad in one particular area of their road game that they are on pace to set a franchise low.
Not only is the Flames’ penalty kill the worst road unit in the league, but its 68.7 per cent efficiency rate ranks them lower than any other Flames team in club history.
That number wasn’t improved upon Thursday in St. Louis when the Blues went 1-for-3 on the power play in a 4-1 win over the Flames.
The club’s second-worst efficiency rating on the road came in 1984-85 when Bob Johnson’s bunch only stopped 70.5 per cent of the shorthanded situations they faced.
The third-worst was 81-82 when AL MacNeil’s club sat at 71.3 per cent while outside Calgary.
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At home this season the team is only marginally better at 73.3 per cent.
Although the Flames lost a pair of top-ranked penalty killers in Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin last season, few could have seen this sort of shorthanded misery coming, as the club had one of the best penalty-killing units the previous few years.
Goaltending is generally the key to staving off power plays, and the Flames’ netminders have been the team’s biggest strength.
Ryan Huska believes penalty killing all comes down to outworking the opposition, which shouldn’t be an issue given the team’s work ethic.
Whatever the reason, it’s a serious threat to the team’s playoff hopes, as the low-scoring Flames can’t afford to spot the opposition so many special teams goals.
A few more takeaways from the team’s second-straight loss in a city known for Stan Musial, Nelly and Gooey Butter Cake:
Wolf not his best
No, the loss wasn’t on Dustin Wolf by any means.
But the game did feature a rare bad goal on the team’s first-half MVP.
Late in a lopsided first period in which the Blues led 1-0 and were outshooting the visitors badly, Wolf was beaten cleanly by a Colton Parayko point blast.
There was no screen, deflection or anything that impeded Wolf from making what should have been a routine save on a low shot that beat him short side from far out.
These things happen, albeit not very often to Wolf.
Less than two minutes later Jordan Kyrou made it 3-0, and the game was over.
A spirited second period by the Flames saw Yegor Sharangovich fire in his eighth of the year to narrow the gap to 3-1, but it wasn’t nearly enough for a Flames club that was ultimately swept by the Blues in their second-straight game at Enterprise Center.
(Don’t look now but the Blues are just one point back of the Flames).
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It was Wolf’s fifth start in the last six games, and his 10th in the last 14, as part of the team’s concerted effort to give their best goaltender the ball to run with.
He finished with 25 saves and did well to keep the Flames in a game they were overwhelmed in the first 20 minutes.
Moving forward you can bet the team will be mindful of ensuring Wolf isn’t overworked, which brings us to Saturday’s game in Winnipeg.
The Flames have generally shielded Wolf from the toughest assignments, like a road game against the West’s best team.
However, it seems now is the time to start seeing if he can take yet another step by being called in for the biggest of games.
There’s plenty of time to rest between Saturday and their next game five days later, at home against Buffalo.
Let the debate begin.
Of note
Rory Kerins‘ assist on Sharangovich’s goal was his third in his third game, bettered only by an assist by linemate Jakob Pelletier who has four points in the first three games of this four-game roadie … after several run-ins during the game Brayden Pachal reached a boiling point in the final few minutes when his frustration prompted him to ask Nathan Walker for a fight. The Blues winger obliged, and the two punctuated the evening with an entertaining set-to.
The Lines
Same as Tuesday in St. Louis:
Huberdeau-Kadri-Pospisil
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Kerins-Sharangovich-Pelletier
Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr
Bahl-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Bean-Pachal
Wolf
