CALGARY — Why did the Calgary Flames use Nick Ritchie in a shootout they needed to win to save their lives against the Nashville Predators? It’s the question that will stick in every Calgary fan’s mind from now until, maybe, forever.
It seemed like a head-scratching decision at the time when you consider the Flames needed their best players to save them. When you look at the shootout order the Flames eventually used: Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Ritchie and Backlund, Ritchie sort of sticks out like a sore thumb if you go off the name and don’t look at statistics.
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So, it’s no wonder why the Flames’ knee-jerk reaction was to criticize the decision and why Ritchie became a trending topic after the Flames lost 3-2 to Nashville in said shootout and ended their season. When asked about it by the media, Flames head coach Darryl Sutter mentioned that Ritchie had scored in the shootout before. Funnily enough, his lone shootout goal came against Juuse Saros when he was a member of the Arizona Coyotes. But why not use other players like Andrew Mangiapane or Tyler Toffoli?
“Not much difference if you do the percentages or odds,” Sutter added. “You’re going on practice and you’re going on guys who’ve scored against (Saros) prior. That’s not the point, really. It had no bearing on the game. The difference was those great chances in overtime — 3-2 game, it’s like a playoff game, right?”
When you match Ritchie’s shootout numbers up with some other notable top-six forwards plus Andersson, his numbers aren’t great. But they are somehow better than that of players like Toffoli, the team’s leading scorer. However, both Toffoli and Ritchie have scored a goal in the shootout this season (Toffoli has a 50 percent rate while Ritchie was 1-for-1 this year before his attempt).
But in Sutter’s eyes, it was the team’s play in overtime that made the difference and not the shootout that actually lost them the game.
“It’s too bad,” Sutter said. “We were better. We had all the really good chances in overtime. (Fought) back in the third to tie it. Tough.”
Player | Shots made | Attempts | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
2 | 4 | 0.50 | |
1 | 13 | 0.08 | |
1 | 2 | 0.50 | |
22 | 70 | 0.31 | |
7 | 35 | 0.20 | |
2 | 13 | 0.15 | |
0 | 4 | 0.00 | |
2 | 6 | 0.33 | |
2 | 17 | 0.12 |
The numbers may favour Sutter’s decision-making when it comes to picking Ritchie. They no longer favour the Flames when it comes to their playoff chances. It was like a playoff game for the Flames, and that is as close as this year’s team will get to play in one. By virtue of that 3-2 shootout loss to the Predators where Saros bested Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom, nobody on the Flames will get what they want this year.
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Not Brad Treliving, who made the offseason moves to radically change the core. Not Sutter, whose lineup changes and mercurial moods did not pay off. Not Huberdeau and Kadri who played seasons well below their standard. Not Markstrom, whose season was full of twists and turns like a Six Flags roller coaster. We can go on and list off so many names and so many things that didn’t go their way. It took them too long to consistently look anything like the contending team they were supposed to be.
“This is my second time missing the playoffs in the NHL,” Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson said. “It was the COVID year the last time. We weren’t good enough that year. But this year, it feels like looking around this room, we had the squad to do it. That probably makes it more frustrating. We didn’t do it. Being in so many games and not coming out on the winning side of those, that’s probably the one thing that’s the most frustrating.”
The Flames had their chances in overtime, but they ran into a hot goaltender in Saros who could care less about the Flames’ playoff aspirations that had been outlined from Day 1 of Flames training camp by GM Treliving. It didn’t matter what the media felt or what they projected when they looked at the composition of the roster. The goal was to make the playoffs. The team knew it wasn’t about winning in the offseason, because “winning in the summer is a load of crap.” They needed to win in the winter.
As definitive as that might have seemed, it always seemed peculiar that the Flames downplayed those expectations so publicly no matter what the Pacific Division looked like. It was assumed that the Flames, internally at least, would set higher expectations for themselves. Andersson might not have specified those expectations, but they seemed a lot larger than just making the playoffs.
“I think we had the most expectations in here,” Andersson said. “You don’t really pay too much attention to outside expectations. When you live in Canada, if you watch a highlight after a game, people talk and you see it. We had more expectations on ourselves than the outside world. It’s a little frustrating. It’s brutal. It’s brutal. Honestly, it’s brutal.”
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It is fitting that the Flames’ season would end on a one-goal game. According to Sportsnet Stats, Monday night’s loss stands as the team’s 30th loss in one-goal games. Of course, the Flames heavily outshot their opponent, too. No wonder the Predators looked thrilled as they celebrated with Saros at the game’s conclusion. Saros stole the game from the Flames.
It is also fitting that the Flames’ chances would evaporate against a team that the Flames should have handled on paper. The Predators entered the game having sold off assets at the trade deadline and were basically the walking wounded with a handful of key stars like Roman Josi, Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen unavailable. Still, they lurked behind the Flames in the standings with games in hand. Now, the Preds have swept the season series against the Flames.
“It’s an empty feeling,” Flames forward Mikael Backlund said. “We pushed for a long time. It’s a long season. We fought all the way until the end and it’s just an empty, hard feeling.”
It’s a feeling that will stick with the Flames through the end of the regular season with one game to go. It’s a feeling that will stick with players as they enter the offseason — an offseason that will see the Flames tackle a number of hard decisions up and down the organization.
(Top photo of the Predators’ Zach Sanford scoring against Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom: Sergei Belski / USA Today)