Flames insist losing streak not indicative of their play
There’s a dump of snow in the forecast for Calgary.
How’s that for a pick-me-up, Flames fans? The sky isn’ t all that’ s falling.
This certainly hasn’t been a warm-and-fuzzy stretch for the local hockey heroes. The Flames have suffered six straight losses, the sort of cold-funk a warm Chinook wind won’t fix.
As cool- headed centre Matt Sta jan acknowledged after Thursday’ s 7-4 bummer against the Tampa Bay Lightning ,“It definitely feels like the walls are caving in on us right now, but it’s on us to get out of that.”
Unless they root for one of the out-of-town teams, your hockeycrazed co-worker was probably in a miserable mood this week.
Dude, don’t hammer so hard on the stapler.
It was discouraging enough that the Flames settled for four straight loser points between the bye and the all-star break.
On Tuesday, they were two minutes shy of besting the Western Conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights when everything turned haywire in 53 seconds.
For a couple of periods Thursday, the Flames looked every bit an equal to the Lightning, the top team in the standings. Trouble is, their all-star goaltender Mike Smith had a rotten night, his worst of the season, in a 7-4 defeat.
It’s been nearly three weeks since the Flames last won — a Jan. 14 triumph over the Hurricanes.
Despite the setbacks, the Flames (25-18-18) woke up Friday just two points out of the final wild card perch. They’ll try to snap out of their skid in Saturday’s clash with the Chicago Blackhawks at the Saddledome (8 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
“I don’t even think we’re in a funk really ,” said defence man Dougie Hamilton .“The last two games, we could have or should have won. Even before that, it was all overtime games and shootouts, so they were all close. And before that, we won seven in a row.
“It’s not like we’re playing bad. We’re not getting dominated. It’s just the way hockey goes.”
Added forward Curtis Lazar: “Sure, we haven’t been winning, but we’ve done a lot — I mean, a lot — of good things. I think that gets over looked, because at the end of the day, you do need to win in this league.”
Indeed, this is a results-based business, but the skating staffers at the Saddledome are certain the rewards are coming.
There were no emergency meetings Friday, no sacred ceremonies.
Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan didn’t try for a personal-best distance on his stick-toss.
“You can lean on your team when they’re winning. You can lean on your team when they’re losing and not competing,” Gulutzan said. “I think you stand behind your team when they’re playing hard and good hockey but they’re not getting results. That’s when you have to stay the course. You stand behind them, and you stand firm.”
The consensus among the Flames seemed to be they’ll get things turned around pretty quick.
“Right now, I think everybody realizes that we are doing good things. (Thursday) night, for example, I didn’t feel like that result for the team or me personally was reflective of the way we played,” said defenceman Michael Stone, dinged with a career-worst minus-5 rating in Thursday’s loss. “But that’s something you just have to let go and move on.”