Keeping an even keel amid highs and lows
Balancing highs and lows remains crucial to the team relaxing and maintaining focus
Wins and losses are going to affect the mood of any hockey player.
They're competitive, so that's only natural.
But right now, the Calgary Flames are looking for some sort of middle ground where the highs aren't too high and the lows aren't too low.
It's not only the goal in terms of managing how they react to wins and losses, either. It's also how the Flames are experiencing the inevitable peaks and valleys within games.
“I think we have a lot of highs and lows instead of staying even keel throughout the game,” said Flames defenceman Chris Tanev. “When we're going good, we feel like we're on top of the world and then when the other team scores, we feel like the world's ending.
“It's definitely something we need to work on and be even keel regardless of what happens. Things are going to happen throughout the game.”
Over the past couple weeks, there have been moments where a goal has seemed to take the wind out of the Flames' sails.
Against the Vancouver
Canucks on Feb. 17, a late second-period Andrew Mangiapane goal drew the Flames to within one. When J.T. Miller scored for the Canucks just 15 seconds later, it seemed to deflate the Flames, and Nate Schmidt would make it 4-1 for the Canucks just 37 seconds after that.
It happened again on Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators. The first period was rough for the Flames, but they came out flying in the second and cut their hosts' lead to 2-1 when Milan Lucic scored.
A couple of minutes later, Connor Brown scored for the Sens and it seemed like the energy drained from the Flames bench. When Erik Brannstrom put the puck past David Rittich from the neutral zone to make it 4-1 shortly after, it was game-setmatch even if there were still 30 minutes of hockey left to play.
“You see teams around the league and they're able to come back from deficits and for whatever reason this year we haven't been able to do that,” Lucic said. “We've got to find things to build off of no matter what the score is to try to get back in it.
“We can't allow a goal to suck the life out of us the way that is has recently.”
This has not been an easy season for the Flames. Expectations were high, both externally and from within the locker room, and the team has been far too inconsistent for anyone to seriously consider them to be a contender.
The past couple of weeks, in particular, have been difficult. They have won only one of their last five games and, while they are absolutely still in the playoff hunt in the North Division, they're currently outside a playoff spot. Even the one game they did win in that stretch may be instructive.
“I think you look at all good teams and they expect to win every game,” Tanev said. “When they win a game it's not like they won the Stanley Cup or a big playoff game. We beat Toronto and we did follow up the next game and play a pretty good game, but the highs and lows, you beat a really good team in Toronto and you get too high and then you lose and you're right back at the bottom.
“It's something we have to learn to deal with as a group and get better at.”
If the Flames are reacting emotionally to the ups and downs of the season, it's not clear why. If they had the answers, they'd have fixed it by now.
Head coach Geoff Ward believes the nature of this season — with an abbreviated schedule and an all-canadian division — can raise the stakes of every game. Blocking outside noise is imperative.
“Everybody's talking about how every series is like a playoff series, so I think that ramps it up,” Ward said. “The expectation of a win or loss, in terms of how the public perceives it or management perceives it or could perceive it, how your team perceives it, how a coaching staff perceives it … I think all those things may lead — especially to younger players — to the highs that may be too high and the lows may be too low.
“It's something you have to steel yourself against. We've talked about it a lot, we only have to worry about our own perspective and not listen to the outside noise. If we play to the standard that we set, then we're happy.”
NO MARKSTROM
The Flames are hoping to get Jacob Markstrom back soon, but it won't be this weekend.
Ward confirmed that his starting goalie will be out for Saturday afternoon's game in Ottawa. He was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, but it's retroactive to Feb. 20.
Under the NHL'S rules, Markstrom is eligible to return to the active roster after spending seven days on the IR, which rules him out against the Sens on Saturday, although he could return for Monday's rematch.
“He's on IR through the weekend so he won't be available tomorrow,” Ward said. “Once we get through that, we're hopeful that he'll be ready to go.”