Jaromir Jagr jumped to the first line, the Flames took too many penalties again, and three other thoughts from Calgary’s 2-1 loss at home to the Carolina Hurricanes Thursday night.
SPEED KILLS
The Carolina Hurricanes are a fast team and they made the Calgary Flames look slow. When I asked Dave Cameron how to counter the speed of team like the Hurricanes, the Flames assistant coach said “with speed.” The Flames might not have the fastest skaters in the league, but they have to play faster as a five-man unit.
PENALTY PROBLEMS
The magic number for head coach Glen Gulutzan is three. The Flames head coach has told me on a number of occasions that if his team is short-handed three or fewer times, they’ll put themselves in a position to win. Being more disciplined has been a major – and I mean major – point of emphasis in team meetings and in practice this season, but the players continue to take way too many penalties.
The Hurricanes had six power-play opportunities on Thursday night and scored what would turn out to be the game-winning goal on an third-period power play that was the result of an unnecessary penalty on Matthew Tkachuk at the 20-minute mark of the second period. Being short-handed also prevents the Flames from using non-penalty-killers like Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Jaromir Jagr and Dougie Hamilton as much as they’d like to.
NEW NO. 1 LINE
Speaking of Gaudreau, Monahan and Jagr, in their first full game together, they scored the Flames’ only goal. The talented threesome seemed to get better as the game progressed and I suspect Gulutzan will leave them together, at least for now.
MVP
The Flames have played seven games and Mike Smith has started every single one of them. Goaltending has been an ongoing concern in Calgary since the glory days of Miikka Kiprusoff. While it’s still early, it looks like the Flames have finally found a No. 1 goaltender. Smith has been by far the team’s best player.
THE WINDS OF CHANGE
With the way the Flames have played so far this season, I’m forecasting the winds of change are about to blow through Calgary. Major changes? Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if general ganager Brad Treliving and/or Gulutzan tried to shake things up. Maybe a trade. Maybe a call-up. Maybe one or two players move from the ice to the press box. Maybe they juggle the lines or the power-play units. It feels like the players need a wake-up call, so we’ll see what the management group and the coaching staff does to deliver it.
NEXT UP
Wild at Flames on Sportsnet 960 The FAN / Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday at 8 p.m. MT.
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