Calgary played a regular game, nothing out of the ordinary, good grit, generally stuck to the system, but they just couldn’t match the Minnesota Wild. That’s right, the Flames can’t handle the Wild, they were overwhelmed, didn’t have answers, hardly pushed, and were outscored (obviously). Imagine when Calgary plays San Jose in the opening round. Someone get the brooms.
This loss put the Flames out of contention for first place in the division and also without a clinch on a playoff berth. Although the likelihood of not making the playoffs is small, the Flames displayed a different concern, the likelihood of even winning a SINGLE game in the post-season. With the current system, players, effort, whatever, Calgary is not a winning team as they’ve displayed time in and time out.
Consistency is what separate average teams from good teams. Iginla has been consistent, but has disappeared in the stretch run (goal wise). The rest of the team has marginally improved, but case in point tonight, Kiprusoff kept the Flames in it with great saves while his mates out front took penalty after penalty after penalty. Not like a team looking to make headway in the post-season.
So Flames fans, don’t be disappointed if you don’t see the team beyond the first two home games of the post-season. Anything could happen, but right now, nothing’s happening for the Flames.
