This was a fun game to watch. Lots of scoring, high pace, extra hockey, and a win to boot. Here’s a quick summary.

  • Top line was on fire all night. Ferland with a penalty shot, that he missed, and then a goal in the 3rd. Monahan with a goal; and boy Johnny Hockey, the man has the silkiest mitts around. His two assists were displays of elite level skill.
  • Hamonic out with a leg injury. Stone factored into the second pairing and didn’t disappoint. He also found some work on the PP and used his big shot to score in the second.
  • No Hamonic meant Bartkowski the ‘Tank Commander’, was back in. The usual tire fire on ice. When he and the 4th line were on the ice, it was a complete disaster, a COMPLETE DISASTER.
  • Mike Smith stood tall in the end, but let in a couple questionable goals. we’ll give him a pass since he can’t steal the game every night.
  • The top two lines played 20 minutes average ice-time each. That means the bottom 6 were around 10. Reason? They aren’t scoring. they can’t score, they’ put up 2 goals ALL SEASON (I’m not counting Versteeg’s 5v3 goal. That’s terrible stuff, and this team is going to struggle to achieve their goals without the 3rd line waking up.
  • No Jagr, again, he may kick start things but won’t be the whole answer since 6 guys need to find their game, not one.

Calgary is notorious for slow starts, which they suffered again tonight. They eventually found their game and took the two points late in the shoot out. The shootout hero, none other than Matt Tkachuk, who pulled his slow-mo wrister off to win it. Clutch.