It was the Connor Bedard show at the United Center on Thursday night as he led the Chicago Blackhawks to a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Related: Bedard’s Second Hat Trick Leads Blackhawks to 5-2 Win Over Flames
While the Flames had been looking better recently, after snapping a three-game losing streak with a shutout victory over the San Jose Sharks, and then taking the Winnipeg Jets to a shootout before losing in the skills competition, Tuesday night’s effort was all too familiar. The Flames struggled to generate anything offensively, and Dustin Wolf had another rough night. The Blackhawks have now outscored the Flames 9-2 this season. Let’s look at what we can take away from the Flames’ second loss of this season series.
Adam Klapka The Physical Force
Adam Klapka got on the scoresheet in this game, assisting on Rasmus Andersson’s goal after picking up a loose puck on the wall and finding Mikael Backlund, who had the primary assist.
Getting on the scoresheet was probably the least noticeable thing Klapka did on the ice last night. His physicality started early, obliterating Connor Murphy behind the net on the forecheck in the first period. He kept throwing his weight around throughout the game, finishing the night with 11 hits.
Klapka’s most notable hit came against Murphy again, when he decided to take a knee attempting to clear a puck out of the Blackhawks’ zone as Klapka closed in on the forecheck. It resulted in an extremely dangerous collision on the boards, to no one’s fault other than Murphy’s lack of awareness, as he dropped to one knee right as the 6-foot-8, 235-pound Flames forward closed in on him.
Immediately after the hit, Ilya Mikheyev stepped up to defend his teammate, which led to the minor penalties being offset. Klapka had his first two of 14 penalty minutes listed in the game. The refs correctly called no penalty on this hit. However, that doesn’t mean the Blackhawks didn’t like it.
With 10 seconds left in the blowout loss, Flames’ head coach Ryan Huska sent Klapka back over the boards to give the Blackhawks a chance to get their payback, an old-school move. The issue with that plan was that Klapka wasn’t done causing havoc. He crossed paths with Sam Rinzel, who got dropped after the two got tied up. This led to the Blackhawks jumping Klapka, which backfired when Rinzel was dragged out of the pile-up by Brayden Pachal and again became the subject of punishment, ending up at the bottom of a second one.
It was unfortunate that Klapka was one of the few Flames at their best last night, because this would have been a game-changing performance if he had a whole team behind him.
Flames Not Very Good in Loss to Sharks
Postgame, when asked about his team’s comeback to tie the game 2-2, Huska said, “I don’t think it was a very good game before, or after that,” and continued to say, “There was a lot to our game that I don’t think was very good today.”
The coach also added, “You earn your bounces. Always,” when asked about a couple of unfortunate loose pucks that got past Wolf.
The lots that went wrong resulted in the Flames being outshot 17-14, losing the scoring chance battle 24-18, and the high-danger chance share 7-4 at five-on-five. That is against a Blackhawks team that has the fourth-worst shot share and third-worst high-danger and scoring chance share percentages at five-on-five.
To make it even worse, in 120 minutes of hockey against the Blackhawks this season, the Flames have only managed to score two goals against the team that allows the fourth-most expected goals per game in the NHL. And to pile on, remember that 9-2 combined score through the first two games in the season series? That comes against the team with the worst expected goal differential in the NHL.
If that isn’t enough evidence a significant change is needed, I don’t know what is.
Flames’ Special Teams a Positive
The Flames’ first goal came on the power play when Matthew Coronato scored his sixth of the season, his second in as many games, and his third in four games. Despite allowing five goals, they were perfect on the penalty kill, killing off all four of the Blackhawks’ chances on the man advantage.
This led Huska to say postgame, “I thought our penalty kill did a good job and the power play scored two games in a row.” Rasmus Andersson also chimed in on the special teams performance, adding, “I mean, sure, the special teams were good, but it’s about wins.”
The Flames’ special teams have been a problem all season; the penalty kill has improved slightly recently. However, they are still allowing the third-most scoring chances, high-danger chances, and high-danger shots per 60 minutes on the kill. On the other side, the Flames are scoring the fewest goals per 60 minutes on the man advantage.
It’s almost unbelievable that they had stellar performances from their weakest units and still lost the game by multiple goals.
What’s Next for the Flames?
The Flames must quickly put this loss in the rearview mirror as they play the Buffalo Sabres in the second half of a back-to-back on Wednesday night in Buffalo, before returning home for one game against the Dallas Stars and then heading back out on the road for five more games.
