They fought hard, but it wasn’t meant to be on Monday night, as the Calgary Flames fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Nashville Predators. Twice they were able to erase deficits in order to send this game to extra time, but struggled to solve Juuse Saros despite peppering him with shots.
With this loss, the Flames have now been defeated 17 times past regulation, which is just one shy of an NHL record. As you can imagine, those losses have been costly, as being able to pick up the extra point even just a few more times could have had their 2022-23 season looking much different. With that said, here are the three main takeaways from Monday night’s loss.
Flames Have Been Eliminated From Playoff Contention
Though they were able to keep themselves in the race for this long, the Flames’ inconsistencies throughout the 2022-23 season have finally caught up to them, as their loss to the Predators officially eliminated them from the playoffs. Had they won, they would have still been alive, though the Winnipeg Jets were also able to pick up a win on Monday night, meaning their chances would have been extremely slim.
This means that the Flames have just one game remaining this season, which will take place on Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks. There is no way to describe the 2022-23 campaign other than it was a massive failure for this team, who coming in had Stanley Cup aspirations. Aside from a 5-1 start to the year, things just never seemed to click as they were unable to string together consistent play on a game-to-game basis.
Trailing Early Yet Again
One common theme for this Flames team has been to go down early in games. In fact, Jacob Markstrom came into Monday’s contest having allowed the first shot he has faced on nine occasions. While he didn’t do so in this outing, he made a costly error behind the net that ended up being capitalized on by Egor Afanasyev early in the first frame. Though he did play solid the rest of the way, this was yet another glaring mistake in what has been a tough season for the 33-year-old.
Related: Revisiting the Flames’ 16-Year Stanley Cup Playoff Streak
With the loss, Markstrom’s record falls to 23-21-11 while he has a goals-against average of 2.92 and a save percentage of just .892. Those numbers are simply not good enough, and while it is unfair to blame the entire team’s struggles on him this season, he certainly played a role in them.
Top Stars Nowhere to Be Found
This offseason, so much noise was made around this Flames team due to the fact they picked up two players who had combined for 202 points the season prior in Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri. Unfortunately, things just haven’t worked out for them in their first season in Cowtown, as was the case once again in this one.
Though Huberdeau did have a second assist on the evening, both he and Kadri failed to make much of an impact, which is simply unacceptable for players of their caliber. That said, adjusting to new teams and new cities can be a difficult process, so the hope is that they can bounce back in 2023-24. If not, both of their contracts could turn ugly in a hurry.
Looking Ahead for the Flames
As mentioned, the Flames have just one game remaining on their schedule which will take place on Wednesday night against the Sharks. There is still a race between the Jets and Predators for the final wild card position in the Western Conference, but this loss ends any hopes the Flames had at getting in as they can only tie the Jets in points and do not hold the tiebreaker of regulation and overtime wins (ROW) over them. This was certainly a disappointing night for the fan base, but can hopefully go a long way in motivating this group to come back much stronger in 2023-24.
