FLAMES STEAL A POINT IN OHIO
Goalie Smith stars in OT loss to Jackets
Mike Smith nailed his post-game assessment. Mostly nailed it, anyway. “To be honest, we got what we deserved,” said the Calgary Flames’ workhorse goaltender after Wednesday’s 1-0 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. “We didn’t deserve to win that game, I didn’t think.”
A couple of technicalities: The Flames (12-8-1), with nothing doing offensively for most of the night, probably didn’t even deserve the loser point awarded for pushing Monday’s matchup beyond 60 minutes.
Smith, who delivered 40 saves, definitely deserved better.
“He stole us a point tonight, that’s for sure,” said Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk.
Echoed defenceman Michael Stone: “Especially when he plays the way he played, you want to reward that.”
The Flames were guilty of plenty of giveaways and assorted oopsies Wednesday, but none more glaring than TJ Brodie’s gaffe during the three-on-three overtime session.
Brodie was setting up behind his own net when he seemed to slip, with the puck squirting off his stick and straight to Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno.
As the Flames defenceman scrambled to undo his error, Foligno spun in the other direction and zipped a pass to Josh Anderson, who fired under the cross-bar for the only goal of the contest.
“(Brodie) has handled the puck like a champ all night, and then he’s got control of it and it just pops off his stick. Those things happen within a game,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan.
Not to be out-duelled, reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky delivered a 22-save shutout for the Blue Jackets, although the guy at the other end was much busier.
Smith’s finest work included a denial on Oliver Bjorkstrand’s early breakaway attempt, a quick snag after Artemi Panarin unloaded a slapper from the left wing and another display of gold-glovery on rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois.
With Smith sprawling, Stone somehow managed to get his stick on what looked like a no-doubter for Anderson in the third.
The Flames, meanwhile, managed nearly half of their 22 shots in the opening period.
Their first line finally looked human, with Johnny Gaudreau unable to extend his 10-game point streak.
The Flames nearest nearmiss came only 90 seconds after Wednesday’s anthems, when a dandy deflection by Michael Frolik glanced off the cross-bar.
“We still have growth in the fact that we have to get better at playing in these tight-checking games,” Gulutzan said.
“We played an east-west game. If you guys watch the video, (look at) how many times we try to pass the puck from one side of the rink to the other instead of punching it forward and just getting into a grind game. In some sense, we took ourselves out of the game by not playing that way. We got out of rhythm — and give them credit, they did that to us, but a lot of our stuff was self-inflicted.
“We need to learn from these types of games, and that’s how you grow. You learn from playing the good teams.”
The 35-year-old Smith almost spared them Wednesday’s lesson.
In the end, they deserved to learn the hard way.
“We’ve talked about it in here — it’s a mindset. It’s a mindset to do the right thing,” Smith said. “We have a ton of skilled players that have carried our group for most of the season offensively. But as a group and a whole, defensive forwards, myself … You have to buy in to what we’re trying to accomplish here.
“If we want to play a run-andgun kind of style and try to play the easy way, which is east-west, it’s going to be a tough season.”
The Flames will enjoy an offday for U.S. Thanksgiving before wrapping their six-game sojourn with a back-to-back set — Friday’s date with the Dallas Stars (7 p.m., Sportsnet Flames/Sportsnet 960 The Fan) and Saturday’s clash against the Colorado Avalanche.