FLAMES FACING AN IDENTITY CRISIS
Roller-coaster six-game road trip leaves team with far more questions than answers
Maybe we've been asking the wrong question.
What's wrong with the Calgary Flames? Pfft.
Let's start with this one instead … What are the Calgary Flames?
After their latest lacklustre loss, after a roller-coaster sixgame road-trip with more catapults than climbs, the Flames returned home with an identity crisis.
Again. Or maybe still.
What are they?
The short-term answers are simple.
They're frustrated, as you should be when you've been on the wrong end of too many blowouts and just dropped two of three to the basement-dwelling Ottawa Senators, a rebuilding bunch that is suddenly surging but has mostly been a punching bag for the top troupes in the NHL'S North Division.
They're snake-bitten, scoring a grand total of one goal in each of their past eight setbacks.
They're so inconsistent that it's actually become oh so predictable. And they're mediocre. According to their record, that's actually a smidgen generous.
After Monday's 5-1 defeat to his younger brother Brady and the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre, Flames alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk was asked a big-picture question about the state of his squad: “Where is this team at right now?”
“The easy answer is we're at 10-11-2,” Tkachuk deadpanned. “So we have to figure this out these next two days before we play them again.”
There's a lot to figure out — and if it's just how to beat the Senators
in Thursday's rematch at the Saddledome (7 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West/sportsnet 960 The Fan), they're in big trouble.
What are the Flames? Or what do they want to be?
They don't have as much highend talent as the division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs or the provincial rival Edmonton Oilers. (They don't have a Matthews or a Marner, a Mcdavid or a Draisaitl, let alone two of them.)
And they don't have as much depth as we thought they did, with head coach Geoff Ward forced to reunite his top 6 forward cast from last season since none of the newbies or supporting-casters have stepped it up a significant notch (that's hardly ideal since their best centre is once again skating on right wing).
That said, they're too skilled to be averaging just 2.52 snipes per night. Across the NHL, only four teams are tickling less twine.
Just gaining the offensive zone seems to be an adventure. Gruntand-go-get-it isn't working for some of their top guys, but coughing it up at the blue line isn't much of an alternative.
Their captain, Mark Giordano, told reporters not long ago that the identity they're after is “a hard-checking team that can score goals.”
Right now, they can't do either. Not nightly, anyway.
The Flames arguably have the best netminder in the North Division, but Jacob Markstrom's soonish return from an upperbody injury isn't going to fix all that ails them. David Rittich was guilty of a few brain-cramps in Ottawa — one blooper goal from the neutral zone, one costly giveaway and one mind-boggling decision to head-butt a wall after being hooked — but he hasn't been the problem.
So what is?
There has been no shortage of finger-pointing from a frustrated fan base, understandably upset that their evening escape has been causing as much exasperation as the rest of their day. Maybe more.
There have been criticisms of Brad Treliving's roster construction, of his hesitation to send a core piece packing after another early exit from the summer bubble. The Flames' playoff hopes are far from shot, but the tear-it-down crowd is already out in full force.
There have been familiar questions about the leadership, locker-room culture and collective give-a-rip, about whether these guys are actually fed up with the
losses or are just saying that.
The bench boss is, by far, the most popular target for the blame-gamers. It's been less than six months since he had the interim tag removed and yet #Fireward has become a trendy hashtag on Twitter.
“It's the same players, same coaching staff as last year when he took over and we bought into what he was trying to get us to do and it seemed to work for us — we became one of the hardest teams to play against from December on and into the bubble,” reminded wily veteran Milan Lucic — a loyal supporter of Ward thanks to a relationship that dates back more than a decade, when one was a first-liner and the other an assistant in Boston — on Monday's postgame interview on Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
“For whatever reason, we've gotten away from that. It seems like the players, we just want it easy on a night-to-night basis. We don't want to work hard, like we did when this coaching staff took over last year. It's easy to point the finger at him, but there are more than enough people in this organization that need to look in the mirror before they can point it at him.”
On Monday, at the tail-end of a season-long six-game getaway that they admitted would be a crucial juncture in this condensed campaign, the Flames checked out of their hotel after sleeping five straight nights in Ottawa.
A few hours later, they checked out for the second period.
Over the next 20 minutes, they surrendered 22 shots and three goals.
They have, countless times already this season, arrived at the Zoom podium to defend their work ethic, their competitive spirit, even their interest level.
In a strange twist, after this
5-1 loss, they were defending the Senators, now on a six-winsin-their-past-nine roll but still with a gruesome minus-26 goal differential.
“They're probably the hardest-working team, I think, that we've played,” said Tkachuk, going beyond just praising his younger brother. “And I think even they'll tell you, outside of probably Brady, (Tim) Stuetzle, (Drake) Batherson, (Josh) Norris, (Thomas) Chabot. … They're not going to out-skill some of these teams, I think they'll tell you that, but they'll outwork you and they did that to us tonight. They outworked us and they outsmarted us. When I say that, I mean that they didn't give us anything easy. We had to work for it. They weren't turning it over and giving us anything for free.
“They are a very hard-working team and a tough team to play against and we knew that they are very, very committed to playing for each other. So I think after we beat them Saturday, we knew they were going to come ready to play today.”
Knowing what to expect from a team … Wouldn't that be nice, Flames fans?
What are you going to get from this group? It feels like a nightly guessing game.
So what's wrong with these Flames?
No, what are these Flames? That's the first question.
It seems like the players, we just want it easy on a night-to-night basis. We don't want to work hard, like we did when this coaching staff took over last year.