Calgary Herald

As Flames flicker, fans left to wonder how it all went awry

- ERIC FRANCIS

The Calgary Flames are done.

There’s a better chance the team will broker a deal for a new arena by the spring than there is of seeing playoff hockey here this April.

The players have no choice but to point out that mathematic­ally they still have a chance, but they’ve stopped believing it.

While fans have been bracing of late for the possibilit­y their squad wouldn’t be able to pull a rabbit out of its hat, there’s still an element of shock involved.

This team, most of the time, seemed too good to miss the playoffs.

Alas, with eight games remaining the sputtering Flames sit too far back with too many teams between them and a top-eight spot.

Most of the teams around them have games in hand and hold the edge in playoff tiebreaker­s.

It’s futile.

More than anything else, they’re simply not playing well enough to be a post-season club, as they limp towards the finish line. Outside of Dallas, none of the Flames’ competitor­s are doing them any favours on Calgary’s off nights.

So, how on earth did this happen?

How did a team with Mike Smith’s all-world goaltendin­g find a way to sport a minus-15 goal differenti­al and compile a record that saw them lose more games than they won?

Johnny Gaudreau spent the entire season top 10 in NHL scoring, Sean Monahan hit the 30-goal mark again and Michael Ferland rounded out the top trio with his first 20-goal campaign. No problems there.

The second line was a dependable, shutdown group once again that saw 20-year-old Matthew Tkachuk take even greater strides, scoring 24 times as he establishe­d himself as one of the NHL’s most complete youngsters before last week’s head injury.

Granted, Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik weren’t as prolific as they were last year, but were once again formidable foes for the opposition’s top players. So where did the team fall short? Let’s examine:

BOTTOM SIX: The third and fourth lines were horrific.

Among the league’s worst.

It took 16 games before anyone from the bottom two units scored a single goal and things didn’t get much better from there.

Mark Jankowski’s arrival seemed to be the answer early on, especially when he combined with Sam Bennett and Jaromir Jagr for a hint of chemistry. Alas, Jagr’s injuries rendered the 45-year-old useless, Bennett struggled offensivel­y for the fourth year in a row and Jankowski faded as his first, long NHL season dragged on.

The 49-game injury to Kris Versteeg didn’t help matters, further exposing how thin the team was up front as a long list of AHLers breezed through town, unable to contribute offensivel­y. POWER PLAY: The Flames entered Monday’s tilt in Arizona with the league’s 25th-ranked power play.

Despite all the top-six talent this team has, they rarely found a way use the extra man to score when needed most, especially down the stretch.

Locals are well aware assistant coach Dave Cameron was in charge of the unit, which so often lost momentum for the club against all logic.

HOME RECORD: After losing 10 of their last 13 home games, the Flames have the fourth-worst home mark in the league at 15-17-4. For whatever reason, the team’s power play, shooting percentage and goals against average were all significan­tly lower at home than on the road where they were 20-11-6 before Monday’s game in Arizona. BLUE LINE STRUGGLES: So much for this team having one of the league’s top defensive units. Not even close.

Mark Giordano and Dougie Hamilton have been a solid pairing, with the latter leading all NHL defencemen with 16 goals.

However, the second unit of Travis Hamonic and TJ Brodie wasn’t as cohesive, as Brodie’s minus-16 can attest.

The freewheeli­ng Brodie struggled all season long with endless giveaways and positional breakdowns, making Hamonic’s job as a first-year Flame a tough one.

GOALTENDIN­G: Smith masked the Flames problems most of the season as Miikka Kiprusoff did in his day.

But when it mattered most, the Flames goaltendin­g was not playoff-calibre. Smith missed a full month until his return last week and during that time David Rittich and Jon Gillies were unable to fill the starter’s shoes well enough.

At home, the trio was unable to combine for a save percentage higher than .900, which is unacceptab­le in the NHL. COACHING: Cameron was on the hot seat all season long for the power play’s failures, while Glen Gulutzan now joins him as the man most likely to take the fall for the team’s underachie­vement.

Liked and respected by the players who appreciate the rope he’s given them, many believe Gulutzan is simply not hard enough on a group that started too many games flat and relied far too much on its netminder.

Should the coach take more heat for the team’s home record, as he had last change and perhaps could have done better to motivate the lads?

More questions than answers, which is the way it will be for the months ahead, as other teams play for the Stanley Cup.

 ??  ?? Matthew Tkachuk
Matthew Tkachuk
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