Rather than offering postgame summaries FlamesForum well now all offer postgame vignettes.
Tonight was a demonstration of how the Calgary Flames stack up against an elite team in the league. In the past St. Louis is dominated the Flames, tonight you can see improvement but we’re still not there. mental lapses late in the period ultimately cost Calgary the game.
Some additional thoughts:
- The lack of secondary scoring is evident. Teams can shutdown the top-line and gamble that scoring won’t come from anywhere else. Although secondary scoring accounted for two goals tonight, they didn’t control play or threaten consistently.
- Michael Backland is totally absent. He spent it’s time of the fourth line tonight.
- Still waiting to get moving is Sam Bennett.
- The defense looks out of sync in particular the top pairing. TJ Brodie can’t come back soon enough.
- After being placed on waivers, Mason Raymond has played two solid games including a goal tonight.
- Lacne Bouma left the game with an apparent knee injury in the second.
Some improvements yet to be had, and the Western Conference certainly isn’t getting any easier. But then again we could be the Oilers, so there’s that.
It is truly disappointing particularly after the optimism from the players. Nevertheless, defense has certainly plummeted without the Giordano-Brodie pairing. Regarding the Flames’ performance, there is definitely something amiss. There seems to be minimal effort minus the aggressiveness that is evident among elite teams, which has been disconcerting of late – and this is not to target any player per se but more the lack of chemistry. The likelihood of an emotional setback could also be blamed…but what can be the reason behind this?
Talking about St. Louis, they have played exceptionally so far winning eight consecutive games and Elliott can be credited for their success. So, Flames can hardly be faulted for that.
In closing, whatever happened to Lance Bouma had been disheartening and worrisome. Was Reeves penalized for his actions?
The hit was clean, just a freak play.