FLAMES EXTRA
Each and every week during the season we dig deeper into Flames storylines with our long-read features. This week Your Flames Authority George Johnson talks to Brian McGrattan about how his new role with the team is going, his adjustment to life off the ice, and how grateful he is for the opportunity the club has given him.
1. US
The Flames are coming off an extremely successful road trip, picking up five of a possible six points during their Eastern Conference swing. After dropping their first game in Pittsburgh in overtime, they downed the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 5-1 and closed out the trip with a 2-1 victory in Ottawa on Friday. In the nation's capital, Sam Bennett and Matt Stajan found the back of the net while David Rittich made 29 saves ... Johnny Gaudreau picked up an assist in Ottawa and is now tied with Claude Giroux for second in the league with 57. He trails assist leaders Jakub Voracek and Blake Wheeler by one ... Gaudreau is now tied with Nikita Kucherov for first in the NHL with 45 road points on the year.
2. THEM
While the Islanders have points in their last three games, they have lost eight straight games. Their last win came on Feb. 16 when they downed the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0. Tonight's game is the final stop on their four-game road trip. They have fallen 3-2 in overtime in Pittsburgh, 4-3 in overtime in Vancouver and 2-1 in a shootout in Edmonton ... First-year forward Mathew Barzal leads the team in scoring with 69 points and leads all NHL rookies in scoring. Barzal has been centering Jordan Eberle and Andrew Ladd on the Islanders' second line ... With 68 points on the year, the Islanders are nine points out of a Wildcard spot and 13 points out of third place in the Metropolitan Division.
3. US vs. THEM
This evening's tilt is the second and final meeting between the Flames and Islanders this season. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Islanders surrended three straight goals and the Flames left Brooklyn with a 3-2 victory last month. Mark Jankowksi and Matthew Tkachuk (2) scored twice and Mike Smith stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced that evening. Casey Cizikas and Anthony Beauvillier scored for the Islanders.
4. THIS, THAT & THE OTHER
THIS: Mark Giordano has been a workhorse for the Flames, averaging 24:49 of ice time per game. That average ranks him 12th among all NHL skaters. He leads all Flames defencemen with 218:22 of powerplay time and leads all Calgary skaters with 222:23 of short-handed ice time this season. THAT: Mikael Backlund made his NHL debut against the New York Islanders on Jan. 9, 2009. The pivot has played in 530 games in his career, scoring 103 goals and 269 points. THE OTHER: The Flames are 18-3-0-0 when Johnny Gaudreau has two-or-more points in a game, 10-1-0-1 when Matthew Tkachuk sports a multi-point game and 16-2-0-0 when Sean Monahan has two-or-more points.
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH
Flames: LW Sam Bennett
Bennett came up big for his club in Buffalo and Ottawa, scoring in both wins on the road. In his last two games, the 21-year-old has three points and has put seven shots on net. In 69 games this season, he has 11 goals and 26 points.
Islanders: C Mathew Barzal
The rookie centre has been incredible for the Islanders, who drafted him 16th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. In 68 games, he has 18 goals and leads the club with 69 points. He has been a strong possession player for New York and is third among all Islanders skaters with a 52.67 even-strength Corsi-for percentage.
This would be a double whammy.
The Calgary Flames lost a crucial contest, unable to dig themselves out of an early hole in Sunday’s 5-2 defeat to the New York Islanders at the Saddledome.
The fear is they might have also lost a key piece to injury.
Flames sparkplug Matthew Tkachuk made an early exit after an awkward spill into the boards in Sunday’s third period, appearing to hit his head as he tumbled.
There was no post-game update on the health of the 20-year-old left-winger, who needed attention from the training staff on the ice before slowly climbing back to his feet and heading straight to the locker-room.
“We know how tough a kid he is. There have been instances this year where he’s done similar things, and he always seems to bounce right back up after,” said Flames netminder Mike Smith. “So when you see him that slowly getting up, you’re obviously concerned.
“He’s been a big part of our team this year and a guy that is really hard to replace. Obviously, we know what kind of player he is and the energy he brings, so hopefully it’s nothing serious.”
Smith was back between the pipes against the Islanders, big news after the all-star puck-stopper missed a month due to a lower-body injury.
With all due respect to veteran winger Kris Versteeg (hip surgery), that gave the Flames a full complement of their go-to guys.
For most of one night, anyway.
Tkachuk has tallied 24 times and added 25 assists this winter, ranking second on his team in goals and third in total points. Along with linemates Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik, he’s also counted on to match up against the opposing top guns.
With a dozen dates left on their regular-season slate, the Flames remain on the wrong side of the cut-off in the Western Conference playoff race.
If Tkachuk lands on the injured list, that would be another hit to their fading hopes.
“He doesn’t stay down unless he’s hurt, so that’s what is concerning,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “He is one of our top players. Every night, he creates. He creates power-plays for us. He creates chances. He’s just a big part of our team, a top-six guy. So hopefully he’s OK.”
With just over five minutes remaining in Sunday’s final stanza, Tkachuk seemed to have rookie sensation Mathew Barzal in his trolley tracks for a defensive-zone crunch.
Trouble is, Barzal was tripped up, with the Calder Trophy frontrunner falling to the ice. Tkachuk pivoted but flipped over the sliding opponent, crashing into the boards in awkward fashion.
The Flames’ snarky sophomore appeared to hit his noggin and was slow to rise after a whistle, with Flames trainer Kent Kobelka arriving at the scene and spending most of a television timeout with Tkachuk before he climbed back to his feet and skated gingerly off the ice.
He retreated to the locker-room and did not return for the final few minutes of action.
“It looked scary. I don’t know exactly how it is, but it seemed like he bumped his head,” said Frolik, who patrols the opposite wing on the Flames’ 3M Line. “Obviously, it’s sad to see him go down, but hopefully he’s going to be alright. We’ll see (Monday), I guess.
“He’s having a great season. He’s big on that power-play unit in front of the net and he’s always great around the net. It would be a big loss, for sure. Maybe he’s going to be OK, but obviously when he left the ice, it didn’t look good.”
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The New York Islanders snapped their season-long eight-game losing streak and also ended the Flames’ two-game winning and three-game point streaks with a 5-2 victory at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Sunday. Here are some thoughts from the game.
SMITH RETURNS
Exactly one month after suffering a lower-body injury with 1.1 seconds left in his team’s 3-2 win in Brooklyn on Feb. 11, Mike Smith returned to the Flames’ lineup for Sunday’s game against the Islanders. While the 35-year-old looked a little rusty both stopping and playing the puck in the first period, he looked way more comfortable and confident in the second and third periods.
Even though he wasn’t at his best in the first 20 minutes, with his team trailing by two and then three goals and taking some chances defensively to generate shots and create scoring chances offensively, Smith made a number of big saves in the last 40 minutes to give the Flames a chance. After going 5-6-2 in 13 games without their all-star goaltender, I like the Flames’ chances way better with Smith than without him.
SLOW START
For some unexplainable reason, the Flames tend to start slower at home than they do on the road. Even though they fell behind 2-0 just 3:05 into last Monday’s game in Pittsburgh, I thought the Flames were by far the better of the two teams in the first period of that game. Eventually, they battled back to tie the game at two in the first and at three in the second and picked up an important point in a 4-3 overtime loss to the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.
Last Wednesday, the Flames were dominant from start to finish in Buffalo, where they led 2-0 through 20 minutes and 5-0 following 40 minutes en route to a 5-1 victory over the Sabres. The Flames had another strong start versus the Senators in Ottawa last Friday, when they scored one in the first and another in the third to take a 2-0 lead in a game that they’d go on to win 2-1.
Early in Sunday’s game, the Flames looked looser defensively and did not appear to be playing with the same level of urgency that they did during their three-game road trip. On the road, the Flames usually dive head-first into the proverbial pool. At home, more often than not, they stick their toe into the water to check the temperature before finally cannonballing into the water out of necessity because they’ve fallen behind. With seven of their final 12 regular-season games at home, the Flames are going to have to find a way to win at Scotiabank Saddledome, where they’re 2-5-4 in their last 11 games and 14-16-4 so far this season.
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NEED A LITTLE PUCK LUCK
In their last two home games, the Flames have a whopping 103 shots on goal. On March 2, they fired a season-high 51 shots at Henrik Lundqvist in a 3-1 loss to the Rangers. Not surprisingly, Lundqvist was the first star. On Sunday, Christopher Gibson, playing in just his third NHL game this season and the seventh of his career, stopped 50 of the Flames’ season-high 52 shots and was the first star in a 5-2 Islanders win.
To make matters worse, the Flames had a season-high 94 shot attempts on Sunday, missing the net 22 times while the Islanders paid the price by blocking 20 shots. While the Flames weren’t at their best on Sunday, their luck couldn’t have been much worse. Calgary probably wouldn’t have needed as much puck luck if it hadn’t fallen behind by two goals before the three-minute mark and again before the 11-minute mark. If the Flames play with urgency in the first period of Tuesday’s game against the Oilers as they did in the third period of Sunday’s contest versus the Islanders, I like their chances.
TKACHUK HURT?
Even when he’s not scoring goals and producing points, Matthew Tkachuk is one of the Flames’ most important players. After being held off the scoresheet Sunday, Tkachuk is pointless in four games and goalless in eight. With that said, the sophomore’s recent lack of production is certainly not for a lack of trying. For the seventh time this season, the 20-year-old played more than 20 minutes and did so despite not playing in the final five-plus minutes of the third period after leaving the game after falling over the back of Islanders rookie Mathew Barzal and hitting his head on the boards.
Even though he didn’t get rewarded statistically, Tkachuk was once again a beast versus the Islanders, constantly going to the tough areas and making life difficult for his opponents. As much as the Flames couldn’t afford to lose Sunday’s game, they really cant afford to lose Tkachuk for any games down the stretch. In my opinion, super-talented super pest is as important as any skater on the team. Fingers crossed he’ll be back for Tuesday’s Battle of Alberta versus the Oilers.
