LEAFS SPOIL HOMECOMING
Flames stumble in return to Dome
TORONTO 4 CALGARY 1
For a team preaching better puck management, the Calgary Flames certainly missed the mark Thursday against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
They also proved again they can be their own worst enemy.
Bad turnovers, lazy plays and a pair of unfortunate goals they basically scored on themselves sealed a 4-1 Saddledome loss to the high-flying, offensively gifted visitors who had been in Calgary since Sunday.
“This is something I’m concerned with our hockey club — when there’s big games, we have a little bit of nervous energy,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan.
“We need to overcome that in big hockey games. We didn’t really start to skate and move until we scored.
“We have to find a different mental level — not the way we start games, but when we approach big games.”
Heading into the game, the buzz was all about Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and the young, exciting, entertaining Leafs.
However, they hardly had to lift a finger as the Flames (13-10-1) essentially gift-wrapped this one.
They looked like they’d thrown in the towel after the Leafs had scored to go up 3-0 just 1:54 into the third period.
A lazy turnover along the wall by Matthew Tkachuk in the defensive zone coughed the puck directly out to Nylander who fed Nazem Kadri in the slot.
Michael Stone did put the Flames on the scoreboard a few minutes later with his cannon of a point shot thanks to a helpful screen by Mark Jankowski and a nice play along the boards from Troy Brouwer and Sam Bennett.
From there, however, the Flames went radio silent.
“We didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Stone said.
“We had a few bad breaks off some guys. We had a good team coming in here and it was a big game to get up for — I wouldn’t blame the road trip (fatigue). They’re a good team and we didn’t establish enough offensive zone time.”
In the end, the hosts had only had five shots in the third period as the Leafs outshot the Flames 30-20.
Leo Komarov added an emptynetter with 0.9 seconds left to help the Leafs improve to 16-9-1 on the campaign.
“We’re trying to be a more consistent team,” said Flames veteran Mikael Backlund. “Of course we wanted to start off better at home, especially after winning the last game on the road. But we’ll move on and hopefully get the next one.”
The second period was Frederik Andersen’s show, but it wasn’t like the Flames tested the Leafs goalie all that much, only firing six shots his way. His best stop was when Tkachuk, Micheal Ferland and Backlund cruised into the Leafs zone tick-tack-toe style.
Ferland set up Tkachuk for a tip-in, but Andersen read the play perfectly and slid over to his right and stuck out his toe to make the sliding save with 13:20 to go in the second period.
So the fact the Leafs scored to go up 2-0 with 7:24 remaining — an unfortunate deflection directly off Backlund’s stick that gave Nikita Zaitsev his fourth goal of the year — was deflating for the home side.
Backland took a high-sticking penalty with four minutes remaining in the middle frame.
But it only lasted one minute and eight seconds as Bennett drew a Morgan Rielly interference penalty. And when Patrick Marleau took an interference penalty with 18 seconds left, they had an another power play.
The Flames, outshot 23-15 and down by two goals at the end of two periods, looked like they couldn’t get off the ice fast enough.
And without goalie Mike Smith, the Flames might have been worse off than 1-0 after 20 minutes — even after a tumble behind the net that could have been disastrous as he went to play the puck. To make matters worse, TJ Brodie slipped after him.
The only goal of the period went in the way it did off two Flames players: Jankowski and Travis Hamonic.
And, of course, it was just how the Leafs drew it up — with Roman Polak playing only his seventh game of the season and scoring his first goal of the year.
“The first (bad bounce) was going eight feet wide and hits Hammer and goes in,” Stone said. “That being said, Smitty made some real good saves to keep it scoreless until then. It comes back to bite you.”
The Kris Versteeg-less power play went 0-for-3 and played tentative with Jankowski in Versteeg’s place, said Gulutzan.
“Without Steeger, you could tell we were a little out of sync,” Gulutzan said.
Tuesday was the start of a fourgame homestand for the Flames, who host the Arizona Coyotes Thursday (7 p.m., Sportsnet 360/ Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
This is something I’m concerned with our hockey club — when there’s big games, we have a little bit of nervous energy.