For the month of October, Calgary Flames have been everything but consistent

Some of the highs of the season include beating Vancouver Canucks in the home opener and recently beating the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But it’s been inconsistent because of a 9-1 blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

You can say with a lot of changes to the Flames, the team is still trying to find chemistry, but the team still needs to find the consistency.

Like 9-1, are you kidding me?

You are a professional hockey team and you are getting scored on nine times.

I don’t know yet if the Flames will end up being as good as it looks on paper, especially losing 9-1, but there a few trends coming up.

One of the trends is scoring goals and winning games in the third period.

This is something the team did well two years ago, but last year the Flames ranked last in the league in scoring goals in the third period.

Only three of the 16 playoff teams were in the bottom half of third period goals.

This goes to show how crucial it is to score goals in the third frame.

Last year the team finished 22^nd in the league with 64 goals for, but have moved up this year to seventh in the league with 12 goals for so far.

But the Flames are ranked 30^th in the NHL with 15 goals against which ends up cancelling out how good they are doing in the first frame

A significant number is the comparison between goals for, seven, and goals against, 16, in the second period.

Seven goals for is ranked at 30^th in the league and giving up 16 goals is ranked at 28 in the NHL.

This is where team’s should take advantage of Calgary if they are wanting to beat the Flames.

The organization will need to pick up its act in the second period in order to become a more well-rounded, playoff-contending team

However, Calgary’s biggest statistic is in the third period.

The Flames manage to offset their terrible second periods with amazing thirds.

The team goes from finishing last in the league in third period goals, to being number one in the NHL with 20 goals.

This makes a big difference because when you score more goals during a period, it gives you a higher chance to win games.

From these comparisons between last year and this year, it shows how much more resilient head coach Bill Peters compared to former head coach Glenn Gulutzan.

With bigger third periods, it gives the fans a much better game to watch because everyone enjoys a comeback especially a late one in the game.

In the end, the Flames are a much more offensive team with Peters as head coach then Gulutzan.

I wasn’t happy with the Flames firing another coach in two years, but early on I’m starting to see why the management fired Gulutzan.

All in all, the Flames just need to pick up the scoring in the second frame  to become a playoff contending team, because any playoff-experienced team will just tear the Flames apart if they only show up in the third period.