It’s been a bad weekend for Calgary. Our city got spanked twice, first the Stampeders lost against the Argonauts, tonight the Flames squandered a 2-0 lead to lose to the Leafs.
Toronto isn’t known for winning sports teams as of late. Only problem, Calgary’s teams are worse. Missing in action, pretty much the entire Flames roster. Without jumping off the bandwagon after game four, let’s just say the Flames are in a bit of trouble.
One win in three games is terrible. The problem with the Flames tonite was two-fold: lack of scoring outside of second line, getting crushed on transitions.
The Leafs scored their goals off of the transition on odd man rushes. Calgary’s defence appears to be struggling mightily with the loss of Robyn Regher. Third pairing Cory Sarich and Anton Babchuk were stuck in their own end all game. Jarome Iginla is MIA, completely invisible and also a major defensive liability everytime he’s on the ice. Couple that with his obvious lack of scoring touch and the fact a third line winger is the top line center, and yea, you get why the Flames are losing.
Usually you see the Flames battle, but if the entire team doesn’t battle together, and only a few players take shifts off, it shows. The Flames lack spark throughout the lines, Rene Bourque is scoring goals but he’s a pain to watch coast around the ice hogging the puck and taking long shifts.
Toronto for their part is a much improved team. Will they make the playoffs? Who knows, maybe, but they didn’t look that dominant. Calgary missed chances to pot goal into gaping open nets only to be scored on on the ensuing transition.
Pretty much every aspect of the Flames game is in need of tuning. The center position is the biggest problem with a massive drop off after Oli Jokinen. The defence is floundering. Not everyone is putting it all out every shift…..
Edmonton comes to town on Tuesday to kick start a homestand. I dont know what can be done between now and then, but the Flames are only going to start playing much harder teams from here on in, and if they decide to put in marginal efforts every game we can kiss the playoffs goodbye by November.
Your thoughts on yet another painful loss by an underachieving team?
It had been truly disappointing to see the Flames lose last night – a game in which die hard fans were anticipating that their heroes would come outshine their opponents particularly after a 2 goal lead in the first. Unfortunately, the team is lacking the motivation to sustain leads less alone play a defensive style hockey – and it was said to see the Maple Leafs have an upper hand. Too bad that the outcome of the week had not been rosy but hopefully, the Calgary Flames will regroup and play a determined style of game against their Albertan counterparts – Too early to think about the playoffs, and as usual Flames fans are hoping for the best…. Go Flames Go.