Anglesmith
Setting up the play?
If you can't handle us on our worst night you don't deserve to play us on our best night or something I don't have Tumblr.
Is that what the stats said? Because 5v5 felt like a lot of stale mate and both teams doing a good job putting the other team in disarray with some good plays.
Border line playoff vibes.
Aside from the goals, I thought Monahan had a strong game. Was surprised to see him, Lucic and Tanev the only guy with positive advanced stats based on shots. Gudbranson got obliterated, was SAT of -17 which means he was on for 17 shot against more than he was on for, that's more than half of Wild's total shots. Even though the top line looked dangerous, they all had negative SAT/USAT stats as well.
Kaprizov had a tough game out there, Gudbranson had a huge hit on him, Monahan gave him the business for like 15 straight seconds before Kaprizov fell over for the penalty, if Flames could target McDavid like that, beautiful.
4th line is back to being useless utter trash. Get Dube and Ruzicka the f*** back.
Score adjusted it was pretty close, high danger chances were apparently 10-2 for the Wild @ 5v5. I'd agree it wasn't the best 5v5 game from the Flames but Markstrom was very solid and the Flames capitalized from some poor slot defense by Minnesota. Very physical game, credit to the Wild they tried but can't match our gumption.
Great : Top Line keeps on keeping on. Buncha beauties we have ourselves up there. Gaudreau honestly pretty quiet but still had 2A. Might be in my head but it seems like any time he starts to get some recognition around the league he slows down a bit. Kylington didn't show up on the scoresheet but was fantastic. Toffoli excellent game from him. Markstrom big as usual.
Good : Tanev. I'm convinced Mangiapane could produce if you gave him two rubber tires to play with. He drives play so well.
Not bad : Backlund a little behind the play this game, did a reasonable job on Kaprizov. Andersson a little slow as well but did well breaking up cycles and avoiding the forecheck. Richardson good hustle, mostly just mucks but I liked his defensive effort. Not sure where Hanifin was on the one goal for the Wild but otherwise was moving well.
Marginally OK : Monahan the spirit is willing, the flesh I'm not so sure. 3rd pairing had kind of a rough one but liked the battle anyways. Lewis.
Not good : Lucic, Ritchie. Coleman just got pushed around this game, kind of rare for him.
Keep in mind that the Flames didn't have the benefit of the last line change last night. The 4 line was up against some tough competition and they weren't on the ice when we were scored on. That honour went to the 1st line and 1st pairing.
Richardson won 3 of the 5 face-offs he took. The line recorded 6 hits (2 each) and played ~9 to 10 minutes with the exception being Lewis (12:01) from being on the PK.
That's an odd assessment of the game from my perspective.
The third line was easily our best line last night, but as per usual, Monahan just can't seem to find his scoring touch despite playing incredibly sound hockey. His wrists looks completely shot. I thought the top line got outplayed mightily and were incredibly fortunate not to have given up two or three goals. That just goes to show how opportunistic that line is and the collective ability they have to capitalize even on off-nights. Gaudreau was completely ineffective and still found a way to contribute. Tkachuk was really the one stirring the drink last night. I do worry slightly about Gaudreau's mental game in extremely physical games.
The statistician in Minnesota must be smoking something - how Coleman came out of that game with zero registered hits, but Kevin Fiala had five is beyond me.
Either way - this team continues to truck along. Brett Ritchie needs to just go away. I get that he's big, fast, and shoots the puck a ton (from horrible angles) but my goodness he's a horrible hockey player. Richardson is fine in an absolute pinch but we have far better players within the organization that should be playing.