Having netted man-advantage markers in three consecutive games, the Flames may have found the much-needed traction for both sides of their special teams play
Santa Claus brought the Calgary Flames a power-play streak.
The Flames have struggled mightily with the man-advantage, but do have one ray of light after Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken. They have netted power-play goals in three consecutive games.
“You know, special teams is a funny thing,” said Nazem Kadri, who lit the lamp in the Seattle loss.
“When you’re in a rut, you feel like the snowball just keeps on building and building. And when you’re scoring goals, you feel like you can go out there and you have a chance to score every single power play.”
Not to be cruel, but Calgary’s power-play woes must be rehashed. The Flames are tied for 28th with a 12.3 percent success rate (13-for-106). Prior to this little run, they managed only four goals in 21 games (4-for-58).
Those are far below expectations for a team that boasts enough talent to be better and brought in Marc Savard as an assistant coach whose jobs included helping to spark the power play.
Scoring in three consecutive games — which has actually happened three times this season — is a huge step forward compared to that futility.
“It had stretches where it looked good. It was dangerous,” coach Ryan Huska said. “They had a chance to score a second one where their goaltender made a great save on it. It’s three games in a row now that we’ve scored a power-play goal, so that’s a step in the right direction.”
Calgary's penalty killing has arguably been its biggest strength all season, currently boasting a 83.6 percent success rate and capped by a league-best nine short-handed goals.
The next step would be for the Flames power play units to make a difference in a victory.
Against Seattle, Kadri’s goal came in the first period and tied the score at 1-1. The Flames failed to convert with a pair of second-period advantages that overlapped (although Kraken goalie Chris Dreidger made a spectacular save on Elias Lindholm on one sequence) and then frittered away a third-period opportunity to erase a second deficit.
“There’s key times of the game,” said Huska, showing his frustration. “At the start of the third period, we had that power-play opportunity and we couldn’t take advantage of that one. That was probably our worst power-play of the night. But as I mentioned, it’s going the right direction.”
