The Flames penalty killers focused on improvement after another rocky start to the season
Ahead of the Calgary Flames' clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, the team's penalty kill sat at a lowly 27th place — near the bottom of the league with a 73 per cent kill rate. An awful road trip to end November showcased the glaring issues when the Flames were undermanned, but there has been some improvement since.
During that four game road trip at the end last month, the Flames went 11-for-19 on the penalty kill, allowing eight goals against. That's around 58 per cent on the kill — clearly not good enough. Flames head coach Ryan Huska seemed to agree when talking to reporters ahead of Sunday's game against the Dallas Stars.
"We have to make it better and it falls on all of us to make sure we're committed to doing that," Huska said.
The message was clearly received, as the team went on to allow just one powerplay goal against on the next 10 shorthanded attempts. In the four games following that awful trip, the Flames penalty killers have been operating at 90 per cent. That's a massive improvement, and while that success rate is likely unsustainable, it's encouraging to see that impressive stretch is possible.
"We know the adjustments we've got to make," Flames forward Blake Coleman said before the Dallas game, during which he helped kill four of four Stars powerplays.
They'll have to continue that trend against teams that are stronger on the man-advantage. As nice as it was to see that many successful kills, it is worth noting the last four games were against teams that have powerplay units ranked outside the top 20 of the league.
The woes on the penalty kill may in part be based on the loss of veterans Flames GM Craig Conroy was forced to move out. Talented defensive players like Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and the physical Nikita Zadorov are not be easy to replace.
The team's business decisions have left a bigger hole on special teams. However, there is that glimmer of hope that the team can build on the recent success and continue to improve their special teams.