The Calgary Flames continued their up-and-down form in Raleigh, downed 5-2 by the resurgent Carolina Hurricanes.
What can be said?
The game started out poorly for the Calgary Flames, mired by the pseudo-trap game the Carolina Hurricanes play. The Calgary Flames were forced to make hasty decisions, which amounted to an early 1-0 deficit.
Things never really came back for the Calgary Flames after going down early when Victor Rask scored on a nice individual effort very early on in the first period.
Chalked full of mistakes, missed opportunities, the Calgary Flames tumultuous first period was capped by a penalty shot, of which Elias Lindholm made no mistake.
More of the same in the second frame, although the Calgary Flames did eventually get on the board when snake-bitten right winger, Jiri Hudler finished off a broken play at the top of the crease.
After conceding another goal, the Calgary Flames went into the third period down 3-1.
From this point on, it was all ugly.
Apart from a neat little wrist shot on the rush from forward Joe Colborne to bring the game to a somewhat feasible 3-2. Unfortunately that’s when the scoring stopped for the Calgary Flames.
#Flames have won 21% of face-offs after 1. Monahan is 0/6..
— Leo (@leovf44) January 24, 2016
Conceding two more goals later in the third, resulting in the final score of 5-2 and bringing the Calgary Flames record on this road trip to a dismal 1-3.
The Calgary Flames looked lost.
No, I mean it.
I don’t understand what happened this game. Our power-play was blatantly bad. The Calgary Flames were unable to hold the zone in any situation.
The result was a 0/5 on the power-play; maybe the Calgary Flames should look to decline a penalty from now on!
Any semblance of offensive structure on the power-play is gone. The Calgary Flames are reliant too much on luck and free-wheeling offense; they have no set structure to the power-play – and it shows.
Smart money is on special teams coach, Martin Gelinas making some changes. But we are well into the season and this problem continues to persist.
In a game so closely monitored by the whistle-happy referees, it is paramount that you convert on the many chances being handed to you.
What should be called the man-advantage can be from now on seen as a disadvantage to the Calgary Flames. I’ve never been embarrassed witnessing something, until tonight.
Let this game be stricken from our collective memory.
The one question that remains is, how close are we to the bottom of the league?
It might be time to play for draft picks, this Calgary Flames team has put themselves in an awkward situation if they plan on being playoff contenders.
Next: Flames Head To Raleigh To Face Hurricanes
Were there any positives to be drawn from he Calgary Flames performance against Carolina? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.