Calgary Flames: Five Things That Are Not Working
By Ramina Shlah
No Discipline
The Calgary Flames are second for most amount of penalties with 75. They are leading the league for minor penalties with 70 of them and they’re sixth for PIM with 159. So clearly, this teams doesn’t have a whole lot of discipline.
Not only do they not have discipline, but they’re getting penalties that can easily be avoided. They’ve gotten a few too many men penalties, and some hooking calls that can be avoided if they don’t allow a giveaway in the first place.
In a game against the Ottawa Senators, Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk both got offensive zone penalties that could have and should have been avoided. They both got them in the first period, one after the other, and those both led to goals by the Sens.
Of course, these guys are still young and they’ll learn through experience. But right now, the Flames can’t afford to be risking taking bad penalties, especially offensive zone penalties, and especially when their penalty killing is lacking.
Currently, the Flames are averaging five minor penalties per game. This needs to change because, like I mentioned, they’re tied for first for allowing most amount of power play goals against. In their last five games, there has only been one game where they didn’t allow at least one ppga (I mean, that game they still ended up losing 5-0, but we’re all going to pretend that game didn’t happen).
Conclusion: Stop taking bad penalties. Please. For my sanity.