Calgary Flames three stars of the week: November 20-26
The Calgary Flames had a busy four-game week where they finished off a six-game road trip, their longest for a while. Let’s check out the three stars for the week of November 20-26.
The Calgary Flames had a decent week last week. They went 2-1-1 to close a six-game road trip – a tie for their longest of the season. They finished off the road trip going 3-2-1. Earning seven points out of a possible 12 isn’t too bad and they managed to still finish the week off in a Pacific Division spot. However, the Western Conference is a very tight race right now and they could lose that spot tomorrow.
The Flames had players who impressed. Players who continue to impress, and players who rose up to the occasion last week. This sounds quite vague, but we’ll get into it in a minute here. Johnny Gaudreau is now tied for second in points among all skaters in the NHL.
The week before, he was four points back from second place and six points back from first place. Now he’s only two points back from first place and has potential to win the Art Ross trophy this season. Which sounds insane saying it out loud.
Related Story: Johnny Gaudreau could win Art Ross this season
And while he’s been impressing, he’s not a star for last week (I’m sorry). He would make it every week if we could. But we need to also give other players a chance who are also worth mentioning too.
That’s enough rambling. Here is Flame for Thought’s three stars of the week for November 20-26.
Third Star
David Rittich
David Rittich received the call-up on Friday Morning after Eddie Lack was placed on waivers on Thursday. After clearing waivers on Friday, Lack was sent down to Stockton and Rittich was called up.
Rittich played in his first ever NHL game last season in the final game of the season against the San Jose Sharks. However, he only played in the third period and stopped nine of 10 shots. On Saturday evening, he finally got his first ever NHL start vs. the Colorado Avalanche. And he looked like he belonged.
The one thing about Rittich is that people didn’t seem nervous with him in net like they felt about lack. And this is in no way to disrespect Lack, but he had somewhat of a rough start here in Calgary.
Related Story: Eddie Lack sent down, David Rittich recalled
Rittich was also impressing in Stockton so far this season and the Calgary Flames felt like he should be given a shot in the NHL and send Lack down to get some games in and help him reset. In Stockton, Rittich was 5-1-0 with an SV% of 0.931.
After losing two games in a row to the Columbus Blue Jackets (in OT) and to the Dallas Stars, a game the Flames felt they should have had, Rittich got the nod between the pipes on Saturday. And he got them the win. He stopped 26 of 28 shots to get his first ever NHL win in his first ever NHL start. And he looked confident and like he belonged.
Awesome thing about Rittich's poke-check save: poke check made Avs player make a quick move, and he kept his pads together to avoid a five-hole goal.
— Ryan Pike (@RyanNPike) November 26, 2017
Via Sportsnet:
“Very happy for him. He played well tonight, showed a lot of poise, was calm in net,” Backlund said. “He didn’t look too nervous out there, I don’t know if he was but I’m sure getting this win will help him moving forward.”
Related Story: Flames Daily - David Rittich ready
It’s only been one game, but Rittich looks promising to be able to hold his own as Smith’s backup. And hey, it’s definitely exciting playing with a fellow Czech who’s somewhat of a legend in the hockey world.
Via Calgary Flames:
“Everyone in Czech is a fan of Jaromir Jagr. He’s a legend. He played … I don’t even know how many games he played in the NHL. It’s unbelievable. He’s 45 or something and he’s still in the NHL. It’s pretty good. “If someone told me 10 years ago I will play or I will be practicing with Jagr, I’d be like, ‘No way. No chance.’ And it’s coming true so I’m happy about it.”
Rittich winning his first ever NHL game deserves a spot on our three stars of the week list.
Second Star
Mike Smith
Since the start of the season, Mike Smith has proven to be the goaltender that Brad Treliving hoped he would be. He’s been easily one of the Calgary Flames best players since the start of the season and has been there to back the team up when they needed it.
Smith went 1-1-1 this week which isn’t that great, but he’s made some big saves. In the one where he had the win vs the Washington Capitals, he stopped 29 of 30 shots against a strong Caps team who have some incredible shooters on their team. Players like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie were all no match for Mike Smith. Which earned him the first star of the night.
In his OT loss, he stopped every shot that came his way in regulation. It was a shot in OT which led to the Calgary Flames’ first OT loss of the season. But that goal was in no way his fault. TJ Brodie lost the puck right beside Smith’s net and the Blue Jacks found the puck and got it over Smith’s shoulder. There wasn’t a whole lot he could have done in that situation and other than that goal, he stopped all other 40 shots that came his way to earn the second star of the game that night.
Related Story: Flames lose first game in OT vs. Blue Jackets
In the loss to the Dallas Stars, he may have let in five goals on 41 shots, but that wasn’t the storyline of the game. The story was about the lack of performance from the Flames blueline that night. They were basically non-existent and failed to clear the zone on multiple occasions. At some points, they’d spend minutes in their own zone failing to clear. It’s hard to stop the puck when your defence isn’t backing you up. He made some big saves throughout the game when it looked like the Flames may still walk away with a win and stopped all shots that came his way during a 5on3 powerplay for the Stars in the third period.
He had a good week and was the reason the Flames even got a point in the game vs. the Blue Jackets. For this, he gets the second star of the week.
First Star
Sean Monahan
Coming off his first ever hat-trick last Saturday, Sean Monahan hasn’t slowed down and had another great week, scoring three goals and six points in four games. That was tied for third place among all skaters for points in the week. He increased to 14 goals in 23 games which puts him tied for fourth among all skaters on the season. He’s currently projected at having his first ever 40+ goal season and if he keeps this up, he’ll potentially get 50 goals.
Monahan is also averaging over a point-per-game for the first time in his career with 26 goals in 23 games.
Since that opening night 3-0 loss in Edmonton, Sean Monahan (14-12-26) has more points than Connor McDavid (7-18-25). Both have played 22 games.
— Darren Haynes (@DarrenWHaynes) November 26, 2017
The entire first line has been dominating and we’d definitely mention them every single week if we could (like we did last week). But let’s focus on Monny for now.
Five of Monahan’s 14 goals are game-winning-goals, one coming in the win vs. the Capitals. He had points in three of the four games this week and earned a star of the game in two of the games. He’s having the best start to his NHL career that he’s ever had before and he hasn’t hit any sort of slump yet and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
For all these reasons, he earns our first star of the week.
Next: Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan: Dynamic duo
And there you have it! Flame for Thought’s three stars of the week for last week. Is there someone who didn’t make the cut you would have put?