Flames' goal is to survive the McDavid minutes

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Before the start of the Battle of Alberta, I had a few theories as to how the series would play out. Chief among them: Calgary is the better team, Edmonton has the best player, and, by extension, the best line.

Barring a goaltending collapse from either club, these two forces would collide and ultimately decide the series.

Game 1 checked all three of those boxes. The Flames were comfortably the better team. The Connor McDavid line was as lethal as usual. And, ironically, we saw goaltending capitulation from both sides.

Edmonton’s Mike Smith (three goals conceded on seven shots faced) was horrific and yanked from the game early. Backup Mikko Koskinen (five goals conceded on 32 shots faced) wasn’t any better. The only difference between Smith and Calgary starter Jacob Markstrom (six goals conceded on 22 shots faced) was Darryl Sutter’s reticence to pull his besieged goaltender. It was bad.

Let’s set the goaltending aside for a moment – after all, it’s exceptionally rare you see a single-game stop rate of 80 per cent. Instead, let’s focus on the first two components: Calgary’s dictation of the game, and Edmonton’s ability to keep the game close on pure star power from the McDavid line.

Starting with Calgary: this was, for all intents and purposes, a possession-game beatdown. Consider what the numbers looked like at even strength:

It doesn’t matter if you are looking at pure shot volume or adjusting those shots for their threat level, the Flames were a far superior team and dictated the flow throughout the game.

We know that Calgary’s lineup runs a little bit deeper than Edmonton’s (particularly on the blueline), so much of this is expected. Notably, all four Calgary lines were in the green on the night,