For the second straight night, the Calgary Flames were defeated in rather lopsided fashion. After a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday afternoon (Nov. 29), the Flames were walloped 6-2 by the Pittsburgh Penguins last night (Nov. 30). Once again, their effort was shockingly disappointing.
While their season record is still a respectable 12-9-4, the wheels seem to be quickly falling off for the Flames, who have now lost four in a row. They continue to sit in a playoff spot, but that could quickly change, as a number of teams both in the Pacific Division and Western Conference are starting to heat up. With that said, here are the three main takeaways from last night’s outing.
Abysmal Effort From the Flames
This Flames team appears to be lost right now. Heading into this four-game road trip, they sat at 12-6-3. Given that they were playing four struggling teams in the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Blue Jackets, ans Penguins, many were hopeful they could return to Calgary with 16 wins. Clearly, that was not the case.
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What made this road trip so disappointing, particularly these past two games, was the fact that the Flames’ effort level wasn’t there. The Blue Jackets game is understandable given all the emotions entering it, but last night’s game was frustrating. They seemed out of it from the get-go and showed a lack of hustle that hadn’t been an issue until this last little stretch.
Flames’ Penalty Kill Has Ugly Night
While it wasn’t the sole reason they lost this game, the Flames’ penalty kill was horrendous last night. The Penguins were handed five power plays on the night and were able to convert on three of them. Two of those three goals came in the second period, which essentially took the Flames out of it.
“You need to get some kills,” head coach Ryan Huska said. “This was a tough [road] trip penalty kill-wise for us. I know we’re a better group than what we showed on the penalty kill, and we’re going to have to dig in with it. It’s something that we want to be a strength of our team, and right now it’s not where it needs to be.”
As Huska mentioned, the Flames’ penalty-killing group fared very poorly on this road trip. All of a sudden, their power-play struggles have gone to the wayside, only to have their penalty-killing units struggle. They now sit 30th in the NHL with a success rate of just 70.9 percent. The only teams lower are the New York Islanders and the Red Wings, who are both outside of a playoff spot.
Flames Allow Plenty of Goals Yet Again
As has been well noted, this Flames team is one that struggles to score goals. They haven’t scored four or more since Oct. 13. Still, they were finding ways to win thanks to strong defensive play paired with some great goaltending. These last three games, they’ve had neither.
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The Flames have now given up 17 goals over their past four games, and that includes a 2-1 loss to the Red Wings earlier in the week. Their goaltending hasn’t been as strong as it was prior to the road trip, though it’s unfair to put the blame on them. The guys in front of them need to be much better moving forward in order to get things turned around.
Looking Ahead for the Flames
The Flames will thankfully return home, where they have had far more success this season. Their next game will come on Tuesday (Dec. 3) versus the Blue Jackets, followed up by a Thursday night (Dec. 5) affair with the St. Louis Blues. Having these next two nights off could be just what they need to reset and get back to their winning ways.
