EVERYBODY HAS A BAD NIGHT AS FLAMES GET THUMPED BY LAST-PLACE SENATORS
Edmonton foursome caps Pool A play at Scotties with an impressive victory
Before ripping the Calgary Flames to shreds, it would be absolutely appropriate to point out that there are reasonable excuses and explanations for their abysmal performance against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Alternatively, maybe there are no acceptable excuses for going down without putting up more of a fight and losing 6-1 to the lastplace team in the North Division.
The Flames were playing their second game in as many nights after losing in overtime to the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Wednesday evening.
They were also playing their fifth game in seven nights and in four cities.
That's a gruelling schedule and fatigue might understandably have been a factor on Thursday.
That being said, excuses aren't going to do the Flames much good. You win or you lose, and the Flames (9-10-2) badly need wins right now. Exhausted or not, they didn't come anywhere close to the win column against the Sens (7-14-1) on Thursday night.
“I don't know, I mean, last year one of our strong points was the second half of a back-to-back, and the last two back-to-backs we've lost 7-1 and 6-1,” said Flames winger Milan Lucic. “I wish I had an answer. They capitalized on their chances, we were giving up too many odd-man rushes tonight, where in Toronto we did a good job through the neutral zone not giving up oddman rushes and stuff like that.
“Yeah, it's on us. It's on the players. We've got to be better.”
There's plenty of blame to go around for Thursday night's debacle in Ottawa. Everybody had a bad night.
After two strong showings in net against the Leafs, David Rittich was yanked after allowing four goals on 20 shots. Artyom Zagidulin got his first NHL playing time in relief, stopping nine of 11 shots.
Lucic scored the Flames' only goal, but he also had two turnovers in the Flames' zone that led directly to goals.
Both Mark Giordano and Rasmus Andersson were on the ice for four Senators goals, although it's debatable whether they were really at fault for any of them.
The fact that third-pairing defenceman Nikita Nesterov had more shots (four) for the Flames than Sean Monahan or Johnny Gaudreau is certainly not ideal.
Ultimately, pointing fingers at individuals isn't going to help much here. Nobody had a great night, and everybody needs to be better.
“I can only look myself in the mirror. I was minus-4 today, obviously not good enough,” Andersson said. “I've gotta start by looking myself in the mirror. I feel like everyone has to do that, but I can only look to myself and I personally wasn't good enough today, and it's tough.
“Obviously, we would like to be more consistent. I felt like the first game in Toronto we played really well and even big parts of the second game in Toronto, we played well, too … It's grinding. We've got to find an answer for the inconsistency.”
Nothing that happened on Thursday night was particularly new.
They lost 7-1 to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, after all, and they lost 5-1 to the Vancouver Canucks a couple nights before that.
This Flames team is capable of having bad nights. That much is obvious.
Goals have been incredibly hard to come by recently, with the Flames scoring only eight goals in their last six games, and they're also allowing in more than they want — opponents have scored 22 of them in that stretch.
But the two Toronto games showed they've still got it in them to play hard and go toeto-toe with the top team in the North Division. The two games against the Leafs were real tests for the Flames, and they came out of them with three points out of a possible four.
Thursday's letdown in Ottawa was disappointing, but it might not necessarily be defining.
“When we looked at this part of the schedule before the season even started, we marked it down as a real tough part of it,” Flames head coach Geoff Ward said. “The last couple games in Toronto, there was a little bit of emotion involved in that.
“Sometimes, after a couple of emotional games the next one is the hardest one to play.
“We knew Ottawa is playing really well. They play with a lot of emotion, a lot of energy. They certainly did tonight. There was nothing there that they put on the ice that we didn't expect, for sure, but I think it's a combination of factors. I think the part of the schedule and I think the emotional aspect of the last two games in Toronto (led to) a little bit of a letdown tonight.”
MARKSTROM MOVED TO IR
Shortly before Thursday's game, the Flames announced that they had placed starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom on injured reserve.
The move is retroactive to Feb. 20 and per NHL rules he can return after seven days on the IR, meaning he could return to the active roster on (Sunday).
That's not guaranteed, though. Markstrom was pulled in his last two starts, including Saturday's loss to the Oilers, while Rittich has played in all three games on this road trip.
“Still a day at a time, so we'll see,” Ward said.
“Obviously, we're going to leave it to the medical people (to decide) when he's ready to come back. The most important team is the one you have on the ice that are playing right now. When Markstrom's ready, he'll re-join our group, but until then we've got to worry about the guys who are in the lineup.”
Alberta left no doubt Thursday.
Laura Walker's rink wanted in on the championship pool here at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
And the team from Edmonton made sure it got there with a loud blast — an 11-1 one — of winless Yukon to cap Pool A play in the Calgary curling bubble.
“Our goal is to stand on top of the podium and to win this event, and I don't think we're going to be truly satisfied unless that happens,” said Walker, moments after the matinee victory to guarantee their spot as one of the top 4 teams moving onto the playoffs from Pool A.
“Yes, it's a bit of a monkey off the back to be into the championship round. But we're not satisfied at this point, by any means.”
That means much more work ahead — against the cream of the crop at the Scotties — with the field now cut from 18 to eight teams for what will be a run for the Saville Community Sports Centre squad at a first Canadian women's curling championship.
“Step 1 is done, but there's a lot of curling left here and we'll want to make sure that we kind of reset going into the next round,” Walker said. “We'll meet and refocus our goals for the next four games and (figure out) kind of what that looks like.”
What it looks like is a slate of games against the top-four teams surviving Pool B action, with the schedule dependent on how the round robin wrapped up Thursday night in that other pool.
Regardless, the Alberta rink — which includes third Kate Cameron, second Taylor Mcdonald, lead Rachel Brown, alternate Dana Ferguson and coach Shannon Pynn — isn't shying away from any rock fight.
Skipper Walker talked the talk Thursday when asked if she feels like she's got one of the top teams at the Scotties.
“I think so,” Walker said. “I don't think anybody is playing as well as they can or probably as well as they will as the week goes on. As long as we also continue to get better every game, I think we can hang in there with anyone.”
They certainly proved against Yukon (0-8) that they weren't going to limp into the playoffs or rely on anybody else to get in.
From the outset — when they counted two in the first end after a draw to the 12-foot ring — Walker & Co. got busy setting the stage for what the skip called their most consistent effort.
“I think the difference was the very first end,” Walker said. “My last two rocks, the sweepers couldn't have put them in two better spots and put some pressure on them right from the get-go.
“Getting that two off the bat made us feel pretty comfortable, and then we didn't let up. I think that was the key.”
They followed with a run of steals — two in each of the second and third ends followed by one in
Step 1 is done, but there's a lot of curling left here and we'll want to make sure that we kind of reset going into the next round.
the fourth and a whopping three in the fifth — to bury the Laura Eby rink from the Whitehorse Curling Club.
After holding Yukon to one in the seventh, Alberta blanked the seventh end before scoring one in the eighth and calling it a day.
“I think we wanted to have a really strong day, hopefully going into the championship round,” Mcdonald said. “So we wanted to come out and be really sharp and polishing up any of the loose ends we had earlier in the week.”
It was the right time to show strength, even though it ended up not being a must-win given that Wild Card 3 defeated Northwest Territories, which meant Alberta grabbed the fourth ranking in Pool A, win or lose Thursday.
“We still put 100 per cent into every shot, and that's what we needed to do going into the next round,” Walker added. “Even when we had a fairly comfortable lead (Thursday) and we could've gotten away with a miss here or there, if we had a half-shot, it was always the correct half-shot.
“So I think it was really solid through the lineup, which is something we haven't really done yet. We had each player put shots together one after the other after the other.”