The Calgary Flames were beaten by the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in OT in what was a nail-biting David vs Goliath encounter on Saturday night. While the home side put on a valiant effort, the Vancouver Canucks, who won their game earlier in the day, are now just two points below the Flames, and are certainly believers that the second wild-card spot is well within reach, at the cost of Calgary’s own playoff hopes. Here are my three takeaways from this game: 1) Power play is not looking too hot After a brief improvement in man-advantage situations against Anaheim, the Flames power play relapsed against the Knights. How bad? Calgary couldn’t set up a shot on goal in their first, second and fourth/final power plays. Oh, but it’s even worse… The Flames had four power plays of eight minutes, where they had an expected goals value of 0.32. That is LESS than the 0.35 that the Knights produced in their 3:29 minutes of 5-on-4 advantage in regulation alone. (Source: Natural Stat Trick) 2) Tied at end of regulation, but Vegas dominated the stats sheet We talked in the preview article [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/calgary-flames/game-day/game-day-preview-the-calgary-flames-vs-the-vegas-golden-knights] that in the season series, Calgary had 23.5 shots on goal per game against Vegas (second-worst against any team this season), while Vegas had 37.5 against Calgary (third-best against any team this season). Well, it wasn’t much different this game as Calgary had 23 shots on and Vegas had 34. The Flames were outshot by 11. Vegas had an expected goal value of 1.56 and Calgary had 3.38. A difference of 1.82. (Source: Natural Stat Trick) 3) Dustin Wolf Perhaps the only reason why the Flames were in this game was because of Wolf. The California-native netminder put on a save percentage of 91.2 in the loss, and the fact that he was given the First-Star award, in a game against a top-quality opponent, is evidence of his rising stardom. The final play of game should not change any of that.
