Anaheim may not be playing well this season but they have the Flames’ number. All meetings this year have gone to Anaheim. Tonight, on a three game losing streak, Calgary started well, Oli Jokinen’s 10th gave them the early lead.
A minute later the house of cards came crashing down with three unanswered goals from Anaheim. A PP goal to start, then a weak goal against McElhinney, finished by soft defense by Dion ‘I got one hand on my stick’ Phaneuf, and there you had it, 3-1.
Calgary got life with 15 seconds left with Jamie Lundmark drew the team back to within 1.
The tide changed in the second when Giordano fresh off a penalty, and then Glencross both scored on the the breakaway to give the Flames the 4-3 lead.
In the third, two goals, one another weak goal against McElhinney (he’s probably done as a Flame after this season given his play as a whole), gave the Ducks the lead again.
Calgary couldn’t get things rolling for 60 minutes. They had moments of brilliance, but a ll the line juggling and third line pluggers passing off as first line C or LW don’t combine to make a Stanley Cup team.
And that’s the thing, the Flames can barely make the playoffs with a league max payroll, to think they even have a remote chance to be a Stanley Cup team…..not a chance. Not with lackluster players like Dion Phaneuf, big bust ‘first line’ C, and one star player who hasn’t scored a goal in seven games.
Say goodbye Flames fans, it will be another first year exit for this overrated team, assuming they even make it.
That’s the sad part about this team. When they finally score goals, they can’t keep the opposition from scoring more than them. Bah, I’m not in the mood to rant tonight…
On an optimistic note, at least they came back from a 3 goal deficit to tie the game and then lead by one goal – they showed momentum in the second. Too bad, they couldn’t sustain their one goal lead and also gave up a power play goal. That hurt a lot…