FLAMES CAN’T KEEP UP WITH JONES
Smith does his part despite Calgary being stymied on the road by Sharks goaltender
A few days ago, Mike Smith gave an honest summation of his 2018-19 season so far and admitted he has more to give.
The Calgary Flames gave him an opportunity to back up those words Sunday, starting the 36-year-old netminder against the San Jose Sharks, and he did his part facing 28 shots in a 3-1 loss at SAP Center.
This one, unfortunately, can’t be blamed on him as the Flames (10-7-1) dropped the second half of a back-to-back after winning 1-0 Saturday against the L.A. Kings.
On a four-on-four scenario in the third period, Smith stopped Joe Pavelski in front and then Marc-Edouard Vlasic to keep the Flames in it.
Then, when Mark Giordano was desperately trying to break up a two-on-one against Evander Kane and Joe Pavelski, Smith was there to shut the door on Kane. And he was good on the ensuing power play — San Jose’s third of the game — and didn’t let anything past him. He also stopped Joonas Donskoi with just under 10 minutes remaining.
Down by a goal, Calgary called a timeout with 2:19 left and a faceoff in their own zone. Their best chance at tying the game came with just over one minute remaining when a scrum in front of San Jose’s net prompted Kane to flip the puck over the glass behind San Jose’s net.
Instead, the Sharks sealed it with Pavelski’s empty-net marker with 52 seconds left.
Up front, however, nothing was going in for the Flames, while San Jose, losers of two straight, were focused on clamping down defensively.
Snakebit Sam Bennett — who can’t buy a goal right now — had a breakaway with 7:39 left and was awarded a penalty shot when Brendan Dillon was caught for holding. Bennett couldn’t score on the chance, going low on Sharks goalie Martin Jones, who made 29 saves in earning the win.
Jones gave the home side standout goaltending for the remainder of the game, stoning Johnny Gaudreau on a wraparound and Mark Jankowski on a point-blank chance in front.
It took the Sharks only 50 seconds into the game to get on the board, with Kane beating Smith on the glove side. It was the second shot Smith faced on the night and it continued a trend that has seen Smith allow a goal within the first six shots in nine of his 12 starts.
Unlike Wednesday’s 3-2 loss, which seemed to rattle him at every opportunity, Smith shook it off and settled in.
He made a blocker save on Pavelski, who was coming down on a two-on-one in the first period, and that calmed things down significantly. He was key on a late first-period penalty kill when Juuso Valimaki was sent off for tripping, making one particularly nice save on Brent Burns.
There wasn’t much he could have done on San Jose’s second goal of the game, a one-timer from Donskoi off a feed from Kane. Michael Frolik dropped the ball, leaving Donskoi completely unmanned in front of Smith’s net.
The Flames, who managed only 16 shots in the first two periods, managed to cut into the Sharks’ lead when Sean Monahan nabbed his 300th NHL point, going top shelf on Jones. (Jones would get retribution later when he stopped Monahan’s one-timer three minutes into the third period).
The scoring chance came when Erik Karlsson blew a tire at the blue-line and Jankowski made a smart play to pick up the puck and find Monahan, who went to the net. But they couldn’t get the equalizer.
HAMONIC’S ‘HOT STICK’
Travis Hamonic was not acquired last summer for his offensive prowess.
But with a season-high five shots on net against the L.A. Kings on Saturday night, along with Calgary’s lone goal in a 1-0 victory, there might be an untapped element of his game worth exploring.
“A hot stick, I guess,” said the 28-year-old defenceman with a grin.
It was Hamonic’s second goal in nine games (before Sunday’s game at San Jose), so we’ll slow down with the Art Ross predictions. But having an added push from the Flames’ blue-line, coupled with Hamonic’s shutdown ability (case in point, his attention to limiting Ilya Kovalchuk’s offence on Saturday) gives the team an advantage. It also shows how much Hamonic has improved since the 2017-18 season.
“I’m just trying to stay involved,” he said. “I’m trying to do a bit more of that this year to stay with the play, and I think if you’re staying with the play, it gives you a chance to have a better gap, which is something our coaching staff wants. If you’re doing the work to get up the ice out of your zone, the chances are you’re going to be able to make those plays on the defensive side of things on the blue-line. And then on the rush coming back your way, you have a good gap.”
It has been eight games since his return from the surgery that kept him out of the first nine games of the campaign apart from the season opener, which saw him suffer a facial fracture after a fight with Vancouver’s Erik Gudbranson.
And on Saturday, he was the best player on the ice.
“I thought he was a real gamechanger for us on the back end,” said Flames associate coach Geoff Ward. “Not only in terms of what he did defensively, which is what he’s known for, but for what he happened to do offensively. You look at the sheet at the end of the night and he’s got five shots and scores a goal.
“He did things at both ends of the ice for us.”
STONE BACK IN
Michael Stone drew back into the lineup on Calgary’s back end Sunday while Flames rookie Rasmus Andersson took a seat in the press box.
The veteran blue-liner had been a healthy scratch for the previous seven games as the rookie third pairing of Andersson and Valimaki gained traction.
Including Sunday’s game at San Jose, Stone has played 11 games this season with four assists during that span.
“It’s never fun,” said Stone. “It’s never fun to sit and watch your team rather than be a part of things, not that you’re not a part of it. But when you’re not battling out there every night, it’s difficult. I don’t think it makes a difference (whether the team is winning or losing), when your team is struggling I think everyone feels the same, but if you’re not in the lineup it’s never fun.”
It’s never fun to sit and watch your team rather than be a part of things, not that you’re not a part of it. MICHAEL STONE
While C Joe Thornton recently surpassed the 1,500-game mark, C Logan Couture hit the No. 600 milestone Sunday against the Flames … Word out of Stockton is that Flames prospect LW Andrew Mangiapane suffered a lower-body injury in warm-ups before their game Friday and is out for approximately a week … Calgary was 6-5-1 in the second game of back-to-back scenarios last season.