Death Valley for Flames in California
LOS ANGELES — Come this spring when the Calgary Flames reflect on the 2013 season, a three-game road trip to the California sunshine looms as the most probably cause of death.
Without a victory Monday night at the Staples Center, the post-mortem will almost certainly cite this Anaheim-Los Angeles-Los Angeles junket as the place Calgary’s faint playoff hopes went to die.
The Happiest Place on Earth? Not a chance, for this group. Death Valley is more like it. “We have to win,” defenceman Mark Giordano was muttering in the aftermath of a 6-2 pounding Saturday night courtesy of the defending Stanley Cup champions “Time is running out quick here.
“We almost have to start treating games like do-or-dies, because you’re not going to gain six, seven, eight points here down the stretch.
“You’ve got to stay right in the pack.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Flames sat six points (and six teams) back of the St. Louis Blues for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
And after wins by both Columbus and Edmonton, the Flames have fallen into last in the West.
“We have to win,” said head coach Bob Hartley.
“That’s the urgency we’re facing right now. There’s no denying about this. We’re not far from eighth spot, but at the same time, there’s so many teams stuck in that log-jam.
“We have to put a winning streak on.”
First off, they need to win one game after two demoralizing losses in California. On Friday, they ran into a hot Viktor Fasth and fell 4-zip to the Anaheim Ducks.
“We could have played a full week against that goalie,” Hartley mused. “And we would never have scored a goal.”
On Saturday night, Calgary’s defensive zone coverage looked at times like an elementary school fire drill — no offence intended to all those kids out there in Grades 1 and 2.
On the other end of the ice, Jonathan Quick enjoyed a relatively easy evening at the office.
“We never had any sustained pressure against that team,” said Flames defenceman Chris Butler, a fresh gash from an errant stick disturbingly close to his left eye.
“When you allow them to have the puck all night, they make a lot of plays. It’s tough when you’re chasing all night and spending time in our zone.” He sighed. “We dump it in, and we have to go for a change because you’re exhausted, and then they come right back at you. We have to find a way to get pressure and maintain pressure on teams.”
Sticking to the original game plan, the Flames took the day off Sunday to convalesce and rest up for Monday’s date with the Kinds.
The question remains whether 24 hours of down time will help matters against a team with so much skill and so much, in the immortal words of Brian Burke, truculence.
On Calgary’s part, the troubles keep mounting.
Left wing Curtis Glencross flew home Sunday to meet with team doctors after missing Saturday’s game with what the team is calling an upper-body injury.
(CBC cameras captured footage of Glencross gingerly taping his right wrist.)
Roman Cervenka has yet to establish himself in the NHL (three goals, eight points in 19 contests). Top prospect Sven Baertschi is in search of his lost confidence in the minors. Captain Jarome Iginla is a pending unrestricted free agent with just over three weeks remaining before the NHL trade deadline.
And goalie Miikka Kiprusoff — just three games back from missing 13 with a knee injury — surrendered six goals on 21 shots Saturday night before receiving the mercy pull at 8:38 of the third period.
“His stats look ugly because we gave him too many screens, tips, tap-ins right in the crease,” Giordano sighed.
“There’s not much he’s going to do about those ones.”
Should the Flames lose again Monday night, they’re running out time to do much about their waning playoff hopes.
Simply put, they need to string together some wins starting right now.
“Let’s come back with a better effort,” Hartley said. “It’s a normal process to regroup in this business. We’re not in the CFL or the NFL that we have a game a week. We’re in the business where three games in four nights and back-to-backs are part of the job of an NHL coach, an NHL player.
“We just have to regroup.”