The Flames are back in the win column but that doesn’t mean they’ve solved their problems, which are significant, particularly on 5v5 play. The inability to generate offence 5v5 is killing the team. It’s only tonight that the lines finally got a major shakeup, save for the defence, where Dennis Wideman continues to play a regular shift. Why he was on the ice with one minute left is anybody but the coach’s guess.

Keys to the victory: great forecheck, good goaltending, and timely scoring lead by Gaudreau, who’s been gawd awful, but managed to redeem himself with some key plays late.

First a sweet goal by boring Monahan:

Then the OT winner where Gaudreau got lucky, out of position, knocking the puck away that lead to a pretty tic-tac-toe OT winner.

The Flames will head in the All-Star break and play 5 games in the next 3 weeks. By the time it’s all over, we’ll get an idea how this team stacks up in the standings as teams catch up with their games in hand. it’s not going to look pretty.