Not once during game 3 of the series between the Flames and the Avs did Calgary look like it had control of the hockey game. The Avalanche made their presence felt immediately, scoring three times in the first period, setting a pace and tone that the Calgary club could not match. The Flames were outshot 56-29 and only scored 2 goals to Colorado’s 6. That put the Avalanche at a 2-1 advantage coming into tonight’s game, which once again will be in front of their raucous home crowd.

Flames vs Avalanche Betting Analysis

In their 6-2 routing of Calgary on Monday night, the Avs got two power play goals from Nathan MacKinnon, a short-handed goal from Matt Nieto, a crowd-pleasing one by Cale Makar in his first NHL game, and then one each from Mikko Rantanen and Erik Johnson. Netminder Philipp Grubauer held back the weak offensive play of the Flames and made 27 saves.

Sam Bennett and TJ Brodie got on the scoreboard for the Flames, but once again, Calgary’s top regular season scorers were nowhere to be seen.

The bottom line is: if Calgary can’t solve Nathan MacKinnon, their playoff run will be a short one. MacKinnon has been a beast for the Avs in this series. He got the overtime goal in Game 2 and had two goals and an assist in Game 3. After the beatdown, Flames captain Mark Giordano had this to say about Mackinnon:

“You’ve got to take away the speed. Make him stop whenever you can, especially through the neutral zone. He’s one of the best players in the League for a reason. His game is a speed game, and he’s been able to get through the neutral zone and get a lot of chances off the rush it feels like. We have to eliminate that for sure.”

Calgary Flames

Where in the world are Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm? During the regular season, it was the play of that trio that made their club the best in the west, getting a combined point total of 259.  So far in this series, they’ve been ghosts. Sean Monahan has a single goal in the first three games, and Gaudreau and Lindholm have three assists. Combined. Third liner Sam Bennett seems to be one of the only players on the ice that’s aware he’s playing playoff hockey, and it shows, as he leads the team with four points and has been the most consistently fired-up player. Rasmus Andersson, a defenseman, is second on the team for points with three.

Johnny Gaudreau knows it’s a bad look for the team, but insists his club can turn it around, saying: “Up and down the ice, all over the rink, they outplayed us last night. We didn’t play our game, we know that. It was a good day today. We learned some things here and it will be good. Got to get back to the way we were playing all year. A little wake-up call there. We know where we’re at and we’re going to be pushing here the next game.”

It should be noted that none of this is the fault of goalie Mike Smith. He’s maintained a level of play throughout these first few games that should make his team and Calgary fans proud. He just doesn’t have any help. Keep in mind that he stopped 50 of the 56 shots that were fired at him on Monday night, and not once did he look panicked. The Flames need to take a page from Smith’s playbook if they want to claim this series.

Colorado Avalanche

The biggest story in Colorado this week was A Series of Fortunate Events, by Cale Makar. Makar had what was arguably the best week of his hockey playing life, and maybe the best week of his life, period. Let’s go over his schedule of success.

Last Friday, he won the Hobey Baker Award as the top college hockey player for registering 16 goals and 49 points for UMass. The NEXT DAY, Saturday, he played in the NCAA Championship with UMass, which he had led to their first national championship game in history. Pretty good so far. The NEXT DAY, he signed his entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche and had to pack up and head to Denver as quickly as possible, because THE NEXT DAY, Monday the 15th, he hit the ice for his first NHL game…and scored his first goal 16 minutes into the game with an assist from Nathan MacKinnon.

What did YOU do over the weekend?

FLAMES

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