Another difficult night for Flames and Elliott
The next one — Saturday’s date with the St. Louis Blues — has likely been circled on his calendar for awhile.
Calgary Flames netminding newbie Brian Elliott was hoping to have a few wins under his belt before his old buddies come to town.
Elliott’s tough start to the 2016-17 campaign continued with Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at the Saddledome.
Acquired from the Blues in a draft-day swap and billed as the answer to Calgary’s puck-stopping problems, the 31-year-old Elliott is winless in three starts, having surrendered 14 goals so far.
His backup, Chad Johnson, was between the pipes on both nights the Flames (1-3-1) managed to collect points in the Pacific Division standings.
Let’s be crystal clear about this — it wouldn’t be fair to pin Thursday’s loss on the man in pads, but Elliott was hoping for a better introduction than three straight setbacks, all to teams that were non-playoff squads last season. Although he made 28 stops against the Hurricanes, goaltending is once again the hottest topic around Calgary, and not in a good way.
Teuvo Teravainen opened the scoring Thursday with a rebound marker, cleaning up his own leftovers from the edge of the blue paint.
Elliott was screened by defenceman Deryk Engelland — not much of a window — as former Calgary Hitmen standout Victor Rask tickled the twine with a shot from the high slot on the power play to give the out-of-towners a two-goal edge at the first intermission.
And Viktor Stalberg’s secondperiod strike was a breakaway tally.
You can’t blame your masked man for those.
When Elliott handled the puck just moments later, he heard some jeers from the home crowd. Ouch. At this point, fans should probably be hissing when the referees raise their arms to call a penalty on the opposition, too.
The Flames had a half-dozen man-advantage opportunities against the Hurricanes, with nothing — zip, zilch, nada — to show for it.
They’re now 1-for-22 on the power play this fall. Again, ouch. Flames alternate captain Troy Brouwer, another guy who was on the Blues payroll last season and will be facing his former mates Saturday at the Saddledome, and wee wizard Johnny Gaudreau provided Thursday’s offence for the home side.
Brouwer picked off a pass in the neutral zone late in the second, zipped into enemy territory and sizzled a short-side shot past Hurricanes goaltender Eddie Lack for the unassisted notch. Brouwer is now tied for tops on the team with three tallies so far this season.
Gaudreau scored on a smooth move to his backhand in the third, his first strike of the season, but Jeff Skinner scored on a power play in the final minute to quash any hopes of a comeback.