Flames burned by scoring dryspell
In many ways, it had been the play of the season for the Calgary Flames.
Jiri Hudler — in the dying seconds of the Dec. 23 match against the visiting St. Louis Blues — skims a perfect pass to Mark Giordano, who cranks home the equalizer. The Flames, with a feel-good finish, end up winning in a shootout.
Nice stuff, but then came the dryspell.
Two-plus games’ worth. More than 60 fruitless shots.
And when the dam broke? More trickle than torrent.
Yes, Sean Monahan’s second-period wrister put the Flames on the board Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers — ending the scoreless drought at 159:35 (not far from the franchise record for dustiness, 182:42, Nov. 5-11, 2002) — but that was all the locals could muster. A single goal. Post-game, Lee Stempniak had been asked about the erosion of the team’s confidence.
“That can be a little bit of an excuse,” said Stempniak, goalless in 11 dates. “We’re all in the NHL because we’re good players. Ultimately, you just have to believe in yourself and believe that you’re capable of getting the job done. Certainly, you feel a little bit better if you’ve been scoring.
“But to me, (the confidence issue) is a little bit of a cop-out. I think you have to take ownership of it and be ready for the next opportunity that comes.”
Averaging 2.32 goals per game, the Flames rank 26th. (Only the New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabres high-five less often.)
“It’s tough because I think we’re playing well, but we’re not scoring goals,” said Giordano. “We have to find a way to get some. I mean, all of us, myself included, we’re not finishing. We’re getting some pretty good looks and it’s not going in for whatever reason.”
The hot-handed Flyers, meanwhile, have recorded three or more goals in eight straight games.
“I felt they were more opportunistic than us around the net, tips,” said Flames skipper Bob Hartley. “We had some chances. I’ll give credit to our players. We went to the blue paint. We did lots of great things around the net, but we couldn’t get that big goal. I think (Brayden Schenn’s) goal late in the second period kind of hurt us. I felt we were getting good momentum, we were skating better and that goal — I felt it on the bench — we took a big hit from that.
“We kept working but we just couldn’t get back in the game.”
The bench boss declined to publicly spank his hard-luck skaters.
“We need to support them,” said Hartley.
“They are working. No one makes a bad read or makes a bad pass on purpose. The one thing we will not accept is a lack of effort and that is definitely not the case.”
POIRIER INKS ENTRY DEAL
The Flames have signed prospect Emile Poirier to an entry-year deal.
Poirier, who turned 19 in December, is a first-round pick, 22nd overall — part of the return for D Jay Bouwmeester. This past fall, in his first training camp in Calgary, the six-foot-one winger collected two points, going plus-two, in three friendlies.
This season with QMJHL Gatineau, the Montreal native has stacked up 53 points, including 24 goals, in 36 games. He is plus-18.
The three-year contract’s average annual value is $925,000, which includes a signing bonus of $92,500 each year.
C-NOTES: C Markus Granlund has been returned to AHL Abbotsford ... D Dennis Wideman (hand), according to coach Bob Hartley, will suit up Friday against Tampa Bay ... LW Sven Baertschi, in five games with Abbotsford, has one point — a power-play conversion — and a minus-three rating.