The Calgary Flames know the way they need to play if they’re going to beat the NHL’s most highly-skilled teams.
And against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, they got reminded of just how punishing it can be when they get away from that.
Play the grinding, relentless style that’s served them well as they’ve surprised the hockey world this season, and the Flames can beat the NHL’s top teams.
But against a team like the Leafs, unforced errors can pile up quickly like they did on Tuesday night, as the Flames dropped a 6-3 decision.
“I thought we forced offence and we got ourselves into trouble because of that, their last three goals before the empty-netter were all the result of us forcing the offence,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska.
“I think there’s a little bit of feeling the pressure to win, guys want to do whatever they can to help the team to win and typically when you get in those situations you just want to trust your game and if you play the 2-2 game until you have to until the last minute of the third period, so be it, because that’s our game. That’s something we’ll remind the players tomorrow.”
There were a couple things the Flames knew they couldn’t do if they were going to beat the Leafs. They couldn’t give them many power-play opportunities and they couldn’t give them room to skate.
Knowing that and doing it are two different things, though.
Three times, the Leafs scored on odd-man rushes. That, combined with power-play goals scored William Nylander – who finished with a hat-trick – and John Tavares were simply too much for the Flames to overcome.
Yes, power-play goals from Yegor Sharangovich and Matt Coronato kept things close for 40 minutes and Joel Farabee’s first in a Flames uniform breathed a little life into proceedings early in the third period, but the Flames just aren’t a team that generates enough offence in five-on-five situations for them to overcome mistakes like the ones they made against the Leafs.
That’s not their identity. It’s not how they win. It’s not what got them to where they are this season, tied-on-points with the Vancouver Canucks for the Western Conference’s second Wild Card spot but ahead because they have more wins.
“When they get loose or want to play a run-and-gun game, we have to stick to our identity,” Flames blueliner MacKenzie Weegar explained. “Our identity is to stay on top of guys, be a good check, defend the right way.
“We didn’t stay composed at that time, we kind of wanted to do a little too much and force a few plays that I didn’t think were there at that time, so our identity is grind it out, forecheck hard, reload hard, move it back up to the forwards, get it back in. Our game is simple and hard.”
Here’s three takeaways from Tuesday’s loss:
PENALTY KILL
The Flames penalty-killing unit had shown signs of improvement recently, going three games without allowing a goal.
On Tuesday, though, they regressed.
The turning point of the game was a 41-second stretch early in the second period when Nylander and John Tavares both scored on the power-play. The Leafs are good with the man-advantage, to be sure, but the Flames needed to be better.
“I thought we made some poor plays on the kill tonight,” Huska said.
The Flames PK has been a work-in-progress all year. They’re killing off only 72.1% of their opponents’ power-plays, which is the fifth-worst rate in the league.
STAYING OUT OF THE BOX
When your PK unit is struggling, the best thing you can do is avoid taking penalties in the first place.
That didn’t happen on Tuesday night. It hasn’t necessarily been a strength all season, either, as the Flames have taken the second-most penalty minutes in the league (561) behind only the Boston Bruins. That’s slightly deceiving because they’ve only actually been shorthanded 154 times, which is only the 13th highest total in the NHL, but it’s still sort of striking.
They took four minors against the Leafs, with Brayden Pachal taking two, both for interference.
The first came on a misguided attempt at a hit on Pontus Holmberg and it led to Tavares’ goal.
Pachal is leading the Flames in penalty minutes this season, with 76. He’s a guy the Flames rely on to provide physicality on the blue-line and there are going to be penalties that come with that.
“I don’t want him to tone it back, like always with any of your players, make sure when you’re hitting someone it’s on (the right) side of the rule,” Huska said. “That was interference, the penalty. You can’t argue that one.”
FARABEE’S FIRST
If we’re looking for positives from a tough night, we don’t have to dig too far.
Joel Farabee scored his first goal for the Flames in only his third game since being acquired alongside Morgan Frost in the trade that sent Jakob Pelletier and Andrei Kuzmenko to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Farabee seemed to have scored earlier in the game, too, only for a coach’s challenge by the Leafs to result in the goal being overturned because of some minimal interference.
“I mean, I think obviously winning is way more important, but it definitely feels good to get the first one out of the way even though it took a couple tries,” Farabee said. “At the end of the day, I’d rather win never score and win every game than score and lose, it’s all about just getting a little bit better. It feels good, but winning is more important.”
Farabee was impressive on Tuesday and with Frost scoring against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday night the early returns on the deal have been encouraging.
Huska certainly seemed happy with the newcomer’s performance.
“I’ve liked him, he’s got some poise with the puck,” Huska said. “He’s done some good things for us. You see where he was tonight for what should have been two of the goals, I guess, he was right around the net. That’s where he makes his money, that’s where he goes, he’s got a little bit of grease to him, which we like.”
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