The San Jose Sharks stretched their winning streak to seven games and extended the Calgary Flames’ losing streak to five with a 5-1 victory at SAP Center on Saturday.
Here are four thoughts from the game.
Not opportunistic enough
The Flames outshot the Sharks 38-33 on Saturday, marking the 11th straight game that they’ve registered more shots than their opponents. In those 11 contests, the Flames have outshot the opposition 438-308 but have been outscored 39-21. When you do the math, that’s a shooting percentage of 4.6 for the Flames compared to 12.7 for their foes. While Calgary has had next to no puck luck of late, they also haven’t done a good enough job getting to their opponent’s net to create second and third opportunities and score greasy goals. At the other end of the ice, they aren’t getting enough saves from their goaltenders. The result? A 3-7-1 record.
Kulak promoted
With T.J. Brodie out for a third straight game with an upper body injury, the Flames moved Brett Kulak into his spot on the left side of their second pairing with Travis Hamonic. Kulak has quietly had a solid first full season in the NHL, primarily playing on the third pairing with Michael Stone. With the difficulty they’ve had scoring this season – only the Sabres, Coyotes, Canadiens, Red Wings and Canucks have scored less than the Flames’ 2.67 goals per game – general manager Brad Treliving will likely try to add a top-six forward during the off-season.
Without a lot of draft picks to work with, Treliving will probably have to trade one (or more) of his defencemen to get a deal done. The Flames have a lot of depth on defence, especially on the right side, with Dougie Hamilton, Travis Hamonic, Michael Stone and Rasmus Andersson at the NHL level and blue chip prospect Adam Fox in the NCAA. Calgary also has Brodie, who shoots left but prefers to play the right side. As a matter of fact, Brodie was at his best when he played on the right side of the team’s top pairing with Mark Giordano. To make a long story short, if the Flames believe that Kulak can handle second pairing minutes next season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade one of their many right-handed defenceman for a right-handed top-six forward.
Penalty kill-ing it
If you’re going to be one of the most-penalized teams in the league, which they are, you better be good at penalty-killing. The Flames have been, especially as of late. In the month of March, the Paul Jerrard-coached PK is 22-for-23, a league-high 95.7 per cent. On the season, Calgary’s penalty kill is at 81.6 per cent, 12th-best in the NHL. While there have been a lot of dark days late in a lost season, the Flames’ PK has been a bright spot.
Let’s get physical
On Thursday, Sam Bennett tied an almost two-decade-old team record with 10 hits in the Flames’ 4-0 loss to the Ducks. On Saturday, Bennett had four more hits, as did Tanner Glass and Chris Stewart, while Micheal Ferland and Mark Jankowski led the way with five hits a piece as Calgary out-hit the Ducks 40-14. Most of the Flames are really trying to be tough to play against. But their physicality hasn’t helped them win.
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