Road skid continues despite eager top line
DENVER, COLO. — Due to injuries and lineup changes, Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley and his staff have been shaking up their lines.
And the good news is they seem to have finally found a combination that they might want to stick with after Friday’s 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, at least.
With pivot Mikael Backlund gradually earning his way up the depth chart after 20 minutes of play, he found himself with the team’s leading scorer Jiri Hudler and veteran winger Mike Cammalleri.
The evidence? Two highlight worthy goals that silenced Denver’s Pepsi Center in the second period which put the Flames within one goal and a dominant third period effort that had the visitors out-shooting the Avalanche 32-27.
But, in the end, there was nothing more the trio could do on this night — not even in the game’s dying minutes.
Avalanche goalie J.S. Giguere improved to 5-0 on the season while the Patrick Roy-coached group improved to 13-2-0.
Meanwhile, the Flames finished the road trip a disappointing 1-3-0 after Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
“Good points, bad points, this league is not a feel good league,” Hartley said. “Moral victories don’t exist and we need to put points on the board. We got two out of eight. It’s just not good enough.
“I feel sorry for many of our players because we wasted some pretty decent efforts.”
It was the same tune in the Flames’ dressing room as the club dropped to 6-9-0 on the season.
“Right now, it just seems to be the same story,” said Cammalleri who had two goals on seven shots. “There’s no doubt this group wants to work and wants to play the right way. However, we have to learn how to start games better and learn how to come out to a little more of a courageous effort to start the game than that.
“Same as last game. A little bit of sitting around and waiting a bit.”
The Avalanche jumped to a 1-0 lead thanks to Ryan O’Reilly — remember him from last year’s offer sheet disaster the last time the Flames were in the building? — as Flames centreman Joe Colborne missed his coverage on PA Parenteau.
The game was only 5:31 old when Parenteau shipped a pass across Karri Ramo’s front door and O’Reilly beat him high glove-side. And, although the Flames had a better start in the first period than Thursday’s opening frame in St. Louis, the skilled Avalanche had them on their heels (particularly the line of Nathan MacKinnon, Maxime Talbot, and John Mitchell).
Early in the middle frame, the Avalanche went ahead 2-0 on a five-onthree thanks to a nice one-timer from Paul Stastny.
It was really unlucky for the Flames, actually, as they were two seconds away killing off a David Jones’ tripping infraction while Backlund also sat for tripping. To make matters worse, T.J. Galiardi was tagged for slashing shortly after, giving his former team another 39-second five-on-three. However, some shot blocking by defenceman Chris Butler and some patient play by Matt Stajan and T.J. Brodie, the visitors were unscathed.
Enter the Hudler, Backlund, Cammalleri combo. Right after MacKinnon was doing his thing in the Flames zone, on the next Flames’ possession, Hudler offered a superb pass to Backlund from the top of the circle. Backlund toe-dragged around Colorado winger Jamie McGinn and offered it to Cammalleri who one-timed it to put Calgary on the board.
But the Pepsi Center roared again when Mitchell made it 3-1 (and why not when MacKinnon, Colorado’s first-overall pick from the 2013 NHL draft, was left all alone behind the net to make the obvious play to his teammate in front?).
The Flames hung in with Cammalleri’s second of the game, converting another heads-up set of passes by Hudler and Backlund. But that was all the offence the Flames’ could get on this night.
Despite the loss, Backlund’s performance deserved a lot of credit.
Not only did his offensive touch shine (he also drew a momentumshifting penalty near the end of the second to give the Flames a power play heading into the third) he had finally worked his way from being a healthy scratch Oct. 30 against the Toronto Maple Leafs to the fourth line to the team’s top-producing line.
“For Backs,” Hartley said, “that’s the best game I’ve seen him play. We have three young centres plus Matt Stajan and they compete for quality ice time and I felt tonight Colborne wasn’t skating as well as he’s been in the past games and I threw Backs in there and he had great legs and made great plays.”
The 24-year-old Swede has battled injuries the last few seasons and spent most of his icetime this season among the grinding bottom six forward group.
“That’s the game I’ve been looking for from myself,” said Backlund who won six of 10 faceoffs and notched two assists in the end. “I had a down period for a bit but I’ve been trying to work hard and get back at it. I’m going to keep building from it now.”
Meanwhile Flames goalie Karri Ramo was playing his first game since the team’s 5-2 loss to Toronto. Since then, the Flames had sent Joey MacDonald to Abbotsford and recalled Reto Berra who had been the starter against Chicago, Minnesota, and St. Louis.
“We got off to a great start in Chicago,” Backlund said. “Had a real tough night in Minnesota and had two close games. I felt our second and third periods in St. Louis was really good. (Friday), same way. But we’ve got to find a way to win games.
“These close games ... we have to find a way to start winning them.”
ICE CHIPS: LW Sven Baertschi, who had been a healthy scratch in Thursday’s 3-2 loss to St. Louis and Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to Minnesota, returned to the lineup on Friday ... Flames RW Brian McGrattan shucked the gloves with Colorado LW Patrick Bordeleau in the first period.