'You have to crank it up': Takeaways from the Calgary Flames' 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers

Consecutive home wins over the pair of Sunshine State squads.

That is a tidy two-game homestand for the Calgary Flames.

The Flames head into their final clashes before the holiday break — road games against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday and Los Angeles Kings on Saturday — able to enjoy Monday’s solid 3-1 victory over old friend Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers.

Thanks to a 33-save performance from goaltender Jacob Markstrom in his first game back after missing two weeks due to a broken finger and goals by Martin Pospisil, Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, the Flames are once again flirting with the NHL’s version of .500 with a 13-14-5 record and in the crush of clubs who will be battling for the wild-card playoff berths.

Here are three other takeaways from Monday’s victory:

Tanev leads the blockade

Speaking of top-shelf performances in a first game back from injury, shutdown defenceman Chris Tanev recorded a career-high 10 blocked shots (none with his face), the most recorded in a game by any NHLer this season.

As a team, the Flames blocked 28 Panther shot attempts.

“He missed just under a week but he blocked shots right away,” said Huska, who has referred to Tanev as a “security blanket” for his squad.

Short-handed success

Thanks to a pair of short-handed goals, courtesy Backlund and Coleman, the Flames are tied with the St. Louis Blues for most in the league with eight.

Five of those shorties have come in the last seven outings.

What are the Flames taking advantage of? With power plays relying on so much motion, and often with only one defenceman, the opportunity for a short-handed scoring chance has increased.

“There’s a fine line between cheating and making smart plays, and I think for the most part they’ve made smart decisions as to when to try to generate offence,” Huska explained. “And we have some guys that can skate.”

On the other side of that coin is Calgary’s anemic power play.

In 21 games since Nov. 7, the Flames have only four power-play goals and six short-handed tallies. Against the Panthers, the Flames managed only two shots on net with their five advantages.

If only they could apply some elements of their penalty kill success to the power play.

“Your penalty kill has to outwork the power play. When they do that, they’re going to be successful more often than not,” Huska said. “On the flipside, it’s also true. We always talk about having a five-on-five mentality on the power play. You have to work to be available against penalty kills that pressure really hard, work that much quicker to be an option for your teammates.

“It’s not time to rest when you’re on the ice. You have to crank it up more.”

Inside the numbers

Sure, the shot clock, therefore Corsi numbers, were unkind to the Flames, but delving deeper into the analytics, the game was not as one-sided as you’d think.

While Calgary’s fourth line of Adam Ruzicka, A.J. Greer and Dillon Dube was absolutely obliterated in all areas, the other three lines were at acceptable levels and even generated more high-danger chances during five-on-five play according to Naturalstattrick.com.

True, it’s a byproduct of the shot-blocking success and rebound control, but the Flames weren’t as man-handled as it first appears.

With a couple of full days in between games, it also meant Huska could essentially play only three lines in the third period.