After putting up one of the worst efforts of the entire season Monday against the Phoenix Coyotes, the Calgary Flames had a chance to right the ship tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. Three thoughts from tonight’s game.
1) Everyone is talking about how the Calgary Flames on Another one targets for NHL officials. It’s not something that can be hidden anymore. All the sportscasters and journalists joke about it without referencing it directly. It may be unsaid but it can’t be ignored anymore because it’s gone on so long. Alex Chiasson was injected from the game for a ‘spear’ in the first period. That’s not a penalty, even with Cousins embellishing the love tap HARD. If the officials were idiots they’d give two minutes, but no, it was a five minute game misconduct. Why? #Widemaneffect that’s the only explanation possible. Frolik’s partial break late in the third and NO call? Can’t believe my eyes….
2) It took nearly 3/4 of the season for Glen Gulutzan to figure out Wideman has to play bottom pair minutes. 58 games (that’s FIFTY EIGHT) until we saw Wideman play as the 6th Dman. Even with his new assignment he didn’t waste time screwing everything up with a horrid game on his first shift putting the Flames down by 1. Wideman can’t even be traded, so why not just demote him to the minors.
3) Elliot stood tall as the Flames were dominated in possession. The Backlund line was leading the way, Matt Tkachuk doing his part to carry the Flames; he was on the ice for all 3 Flames goals. Same can’t be said about Gaudreau. Had some chances, but that top line just won’t click. Monahan won’t hit or fight for the puck, Brouwer is a spare part, and Gaudreau is too small to battle. The coach tried to double shift him all night, but not even a point.
The Flames signed Matt Bartkowski to a PTO and will sign him to a 2-way deal. We get an idea of why Grossman was around at the beginning of the year–expansion purposes. Grossman was SO bad that it made Wideman look good. Bartkowski is unfortunately barely an upgrade….will he be an upgrade over Wideman though? Doubt it.
Awesome to earn the two points on Wednesday courtesy of Brian Elliott and the goal scorers!
Undoubtedly, the Flames have been prime targets for referees but the Wideman effect has long gone sour…Whatever happened to Michael Frolik happened to Garnet Hathaway against the Coyotes; and talking of consistency….this has been consistent every since Flames fans can remember. Finger pointing boils down to psychological pressures – Johnny’s situation can be correlated to high expectations and focus. Alternatively, Sean Monahan had scored is 100th against the New Jersey Devils, but his goal had been waved off – unfair and unreal reasoning. Was Sean Monahan responsible for dislodging the net minder’s helmet?
Why would anyone want to perform when resolutions are always biased?