Calgary Flames Start Comeback Too Late, Lose Important Game
By Ramina Shlah
The Calgary Flames were down 4-0 with four minutes left of the game. But something happened and they scored three goals in three minutes. However, it wasn’t enough.
The Calgary Flames played a very bad and sloppy game against the Nashville Predators on Thursday evening. Now, this was an extremely important game because the Preds were only four points back of the Flames, but had three games on them.
Now, the Preds sit two points back of the Flames and still have three games on hand. If the Flames keep this up, they’ll see their playoff spot go bye bye in the next week.
Something that was VERY frustrating about this game is that the Flames played quite terribly for about 56 minutes of the game. Then within the last four minutes, they decided to start their comeback. They scored two goals in 17 seconds and a third with 48 seconds left of the game. But unfortunately, they couldn’t make anything in those last 48 seconds and didn’t leave this game with a point.
Something else that’s starting to get frustrating are some coaching decisions. The 3M line (Mikael Backlund, Michael Frolik, and Matthew Tkachuk) has been the Calgary Flames best line for almost three months now. And they’ve been doing absolutely incredible on the power-play instead.
So it’d make sense to start them as the first PP unit, right?
Not for the Flames coaching staff.
The Flames even had a 5-on-3 powerplay and the 3M line STILL didn’t get the start. It was frustrating because if they had managed to score on the PP, this could have been a much different game. And not only that, but say the Predators still scored those four goals, the Flames could have potentially tied it up.
Good news is that Sean Monahan continues his goal-streak with four games. Sam Bennett was also a healthy scratch tonight, after having a nine-game pointless streak. I think this was good for the kid. Something to help him find his game again.
To finish this off, the Flames special teams took a bit of a hit as well. They killed off three of four penalties and only managed to score one PP on five PP opportunities.
Next: Coach's Challenges Are Going Way Too Far
I don’t know if I completely got through that I’m slightly frustrated. But who wouldn’t be after watching that game? One of THE most important games of the season was right there. And they didn’t even seem like they wanted to win that badly.