The Morning After Dallas

Here’s the rest of the best of what wasn’t covered in the Recap or Rate The Flames from Calgary’s 2-0 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Gotta be better on the PP: The Flames were gifted 6 power play opportunities in the loss and came up empty on all 6. The Flames even had a 2 minute 5 on 3 and couldn’t get anything done. This was only the second time in their last 10 games where the Flames hadn’t scored a PPG.

Speaking of penalties: The Flames were irate after Travis Hamonic was wrestled to the ground right before Tyler Seguin scored Dallas’ second goal of the night and the Flames had the right to be upset. There were a total of 12 penalties called in this game with Dallas getting the only PPG. 12 seems like a lot, especially when borderline, ticky-tacky nonsense was being called, but more blatant penalties went unnoticed.

It’s you, not me: Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other guy and that was the case tonight. Ben Bishop was lights out at the other end of the rink as he stopped all 38 shots the Flames sent his way.

Debut Night: Chris Stewart got his first ice time with the Flames since being traded to Calgary and he was…ok-ish. Stewart saw 12:53 seconds of ice time, skated with the top line for a majority of the game, had 1 SOG and was a -1 (he was on the ice and partially responsible for the first Dallas goal). Probably not the showing he was hoping for, but here’s to brighter days ahead?

Lost Points: This one will hurt if the Flames can’t claw themselves back into the playoff race. The Flames could have jumped past the Stars and taken a 1 point lead over them in the WC standings with a win. They didn’t. Instead Calgary now sits 3 points behind Dallas and now must overtake both Dallas AND LA to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

Gillies Takes A Loss: Jon Gillies lost his first start of the season, but it’s not like he played poorly. Gillies stopped 24 of the 26 shots that came his way, but unless he pitched a shut out he wasn’t winning tonight. That’s now 5 goals Gillies has allowed on 92 shots. Not too shabby. I, for one, want to see more of him in net until Mike Smith comes back.

Highlight Of The Night

Post Game

by Mark Parkinson