Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Calgary Flames headed to Nashville on Saturday afternoon to face the Predators in the third game of their four game eastern road swing.
The Flames dug themselves a big hole with a flat first period. But they bounced back and tried to dig themselves out in the final 40 minutes. They couldn’t quite pull it off, though, losing a 4-2 contest to the Predators.
The rundown
The Predators scored two goals on consecutive shifts, just 49 seconds apart, midway through the first period
A couple passes and a swap of defenders at the point crossed up the Flames’ in-zone defensive coverage, opening up a shooting lane for Spancer Stastney. His shot was tipped by Michael Bunting, left uncovered at the bottom of the circle, and it beat Dustin Wolf to give Nashville a 1-0 lead.
Michael Bunting opens the scoring for Nashville.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
On the very next shift, Bunting’s attempted pass to Matthew Wood was blocked by Yegor Sharangovich. But Wood collected the loose puck, spun and shot it past a screen – two Flames defenders and a Nashville player – and his shot beat Wolf to make it 2-0 Nashville.
That’s two shifts in a row where the Flames get hemmed in their own zone. Both result in Nashville goals.
2-0 Preds
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
A few minutes later, the Predators added another goal, this time on the power play. Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman were caught up ice after a shorthanded two-on-one rush. The play went three-on-two in the other direction and Jonathan Marchessault received a pass, cut to the net and beat Wolf to make it 3-0 Nashville.
Mikael Backlund is stopped at one end.
Jonathan Marchessault scores at the other.
3-0 Nashville.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
First period shots were 15-11 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 9-8 Predators and high-danger scoring chances were 3-1 Predators.
Devin Cooley entered the game in relief of Dustin Wolf for the second period.
Both teams had some looks, but Nashville seemed perfectly content to keep the clock running and roll their lines so they didn’t really press too much offensively.
Second period shots were 11-7 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 8-8 and high-danger scoring chances were 5-2 Flames.
Early in the third period, the Flames finally scored a goal. After an offensive zone face-off win, Jake Bean’s point shot was stopped by Juuse Saros but Jonathan Huberdeau jammed in the rebound to cut Nashville’s lead to 3-1.
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Jonathan Huberdeau puts home a rebound at the side of the net!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
The Flames cut Nashville’s lead to one off a nice give-and-go sequence in the offensive zone. Nazem Kadri and Joel Farabee exchanged passes, with a Farabee one-timer from the left face-off dot beating Saros to cut the lead to 3-2.
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Joel Farabee cuts the Nashville lead to one! He extends his points streak to four games!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Flames
The Flames kept pressing and pulled Cooley for the extra attacker. Filip Forsberg added an empty-netter to ice this one as a 4-2 Predators win.
Third period shots were 9-6 Predators.
Why the Flames lost
In the opening period, the Flames didn’t really adhere to their system and their details were spotty – you can point to breakdowns on the first three goals that gave Nashville great scoring chances on Wolf. They were a lot better in the final 40 minutes and were able to make a game of it, but it just wasn’t enough to make up for their rough early effort.
Red Warrior
We’re gonna give a stick-tap to the Honzek-Backlund-Coleman line. Yes, we’ll acknowledge that Backlund and Coleman got caught up ice on the Marchessault goal. But that trio generated a ton of chances, won a ton of face-offs, and did what they could to create momentum when they were on the ice.
Turning point
The last 10 minutes of the first period were Not Good for the Flames. They never quite dug themselves out of that hole.
This and that
This was just the third time in Wolf’s NHL career that he hasn’t finished a game that he started.
At 2-9-2, the Flames are tied, points-wise, for their worst start in franchise history. They also had six points after 13 games in 1995-96, and ended up making the playoffs that season.
After Burner
Join Cami Kepke and myself right after the game for After Burner!
Up next
The Flames (2-9-2) are off to the City of Brotherly Love. They face the Philadelphia Flyers in the second half of this back-to-back set on Sunday night.
This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi