A turning point?
That’s the hope.
Prior to Saturday night’s 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Calgary Flames’ penalty kill had been floundering. Improvements were being made, the Flames were certain of it, but that wasn’t translating into fewer goals allowed.
And ultimately, that’s what counts.
After seven straight games in which they’d allowed at least one power-play goal — a stretch that saw them kill only 10 of 18 penalties — the Flames’ penalty-killing unit finally held an opponent off the scoresheet against the Kings.
It might have taken Dustin Wolf practically standing on his head to make it happen, but the Flames managed to make it through three penalties without allowing a goal on Saturday night. They’re hoping it can be a catalyst to better times ahead.
“After the first one I was a little nervous, I think they had nine shots,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “There are certain situations where your goaltender, that’s what they get paid for. They have to be your best player in certain situations and I thought after that penalty kill, especially that one at the end of the second period, it gave them a little confidence. They looked connected with it, so it was a good night for us to try to build off now.”
A little confidence can go a long way, and there’s still lots of work to do before anyone is talking about the Flames PK as being one of the league’s best. Over the first 41 games of the season, the Flames are killing only 70.8 per cent of the penalties they’ve taken, which is the third-worst rate in the NHL.
Saturday’s game was hopefully a step in the right direction and a bit of a confidence booster.
That would be huge for the group as a whole. They’ve surprised nearly everyone in the hockey world by staying in the playoff hunt through the first half of the season and they’ve done it with a low-scoring, check-heavy style that makes them very hard to play against on their best nights.
But there’s just no way a team that scores as few goals as the Flames do can afford to be spotting their opponents a power-play marker every single night.
That’s something the group is all too aware of, and it’s made it frustrating that while their internal data has suggested they’ve been making improvements, it’s seemed like every game there’s been a breakdown of some sort that has led to a goal against.
“That’s the thing about the PK, you’ve got to be consistent,” said Flames defenceman Kevin Bahl. “You can be doing so well but then one little mistake and it’s a backdoor tap-in. It’s another thing you’ve got to work on, you’re doing so well and you don’t want some garbage goal to go in, you’re never going to get it back.”
The Flames feel they’ve been doing a better job when they’re shorthanded at taking away time from their opponents and putting them under constant pressure. They’ve improved at keeping their structure and blocking and clearing the puck.
That improvement needs to continue, but throughout the recent seven-game stretch where the penalty kill was coming back to haunt them every night, the Flames also felt like a little puck luck would have gone a long way.
On Saturday, they finally got some — and an outstanding performance from Wolf, too.
“It’s a game of inches, especially on special teams,” said Flames winger Blake Coleman prior to Saturday’s game. “It’s the one block or the one clear, we’re not getting that bounce right now. It’s certainly not a lack of effort, we just have to make sure we execute in the key moments and a lot of them are tip goals or stick breaks, it’s just the way it’s going, you’ve just got to keep fighting your way through it and eventually it will turn.
“We’ve got a lot of guys in here that have killed penalties successfully for a long time in this league. There’s always ebbs and flows to that, but we definitely want to get on track sooner than later.”