The Flames have fallen apart in recent stretch
After starting the season as one of the NHL’s hottest clubs, the Calgary Flames just simply aren’t the same team right now.
The Flames started with four straight regulation wins before losing 2-1 in overtime to Seattle on Oct. 19. Calgary battled back to beat Pittsburgh 4-3 in the shootout on Oct. 22, but they haven’t won a game since. Their 5-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday was easily their most disappointing effort, and they’ll look to change the course against Utah on Wednesday.
So, what happened? Jon Goyens joined Daily Faceoff Live on Wednesday to break it down:
Tyler Yaremchuk: “John, we are going out West and talking about the Calgary Flames, who got off to a remarkable start, and then things just kind of fell off the rails over the last few games. So, let’s start by talking about the way this team has been performing at 5-on-5. How is it that a team that looks and competes as hard as they do and starts so hot can now turn around and be outscored 14-to-5 in their last three games?”
Jon Goyens: “Well, it’s U-G-L-Y. It’s ugly in all facets of the game. You talk about teams that can’t score 5-on-5. You talk about teams that struggle on the power play or on the penalty kill. Their power play right now is a -14.3% during that stretch. It is one of the lowest power plays in the league since the start of the season.
“So when I look at all the underlying numbers – I look at what I call the simple black and white numbers you can get from NHL.com – there’s nothing that jumps out on the page on the positive side of the ledger. It is a flickering flame right now. And I think that they are what they are. They’re a team that had a hot start.
“But right now, I think that this representation from the last three games – not that they’re going to lose every game – but this representation of numbers is more of who they are probably in the long run. Could they have a stretch of a positive stretch here and there? Maybe, but when we look at the film, we see how easy teams transition against them, how easy they’re playing against certain opponents and how fast they’re letting teams play against them.”
You can watch the full episode – and an even bigger breakdown on the Flames – below: