After a disappointing loss to the Edmonton Oilers last night, their sixth loss in a row to their province foes, the Calgary Flames have their heads down.
The Calgary Flames seem to have a kryptonite. And that kryptonite goes by the name of the Edmonton Oilers. Dating back to the start of last season, for some reason, the Edmonton Oilers play like they’re the President’s Trophy winners against the Flames. And the Flames play like they have no idea what they’re doing. They’ve now lost six in a row against the Oilers.
Last night was so different. The Oilers basically dominated for a good 45 minutes of the game. The Flames did manage to score four goals in a span of seven minutes in the third period to bring the game to 6-5 for the Oilers, but they still lost it 7-5 with a puck that bounced off TJ Brodie‘s stick and into their own net. That’s karma for all of us laughing at Kris Russell, isn’t it?
But nonetheless, those goals were exciting, but it’s hard to win a hockey game when you only battle for about 10-15 minutes.
Related Story: Flames Daily - Battle of Alberta
Via Calgary Sun:
"“What we really have to evaluate with our group is what emotional level are we at when we play big games?” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan after Saturday’s setback. “I’m not concerned about energy. I thought there was energy. I just thought there was a ton of nervous energy, the way we passed the puck . . . We couldn’t catch a pass. We couldn’t make a pass.“What concerns me with this group on the mental side of the game is that fight, flight or freeze mentality. We seem to freeze a bit until something good happens, and then we can start to move.”"
After four losses to the Oilers last season and a shutout loss in the season-opener this season, many people thought that the Flames could have had this one in the bag with how each of their seasons have been going since the season-opener. But this wasn’t the case, obviously.
"“Most of the time, when you’re down four or five, it’s just dressing up an ugly one. But not tonight. We had a chance,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “We had a lot of momentum there. With six minutes left, we get a power-play. We had a two-on-one right before that. We had a lot of looks.“So tonight was different. I really felt like we could have had a point out of that one.”“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing, but I think we’re too hesitant,” Bennett said. “It’s like we’re going into games and we’re just dipping our toe in the water. We’re not going after it. They have some unbelievable players on that team and they’re going to take advantage of you when you don’t go after it.”"
The Calgary Flames have their work cut out for them against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday evening to finish out their homestand. The Flyers are hungry for a win and the Flames shouldn’t be too confident going against them.
Some links surrounding the Flames
Flames Thoughts: Oilers appear to be in Calgary’s head (Sportsnet).
Flames fall short in Battle of Alberta (Calgary Sun).
Jankowski potential replacement for Versteeg on first powerplay unit (Calgary Sun).
Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL
Bissonnette’s new mockumentary aims to show lighter side of NHL players (Sportsnet).
NHL’s next expansion franchise could cost $600-700 million (Sportsnet).
Five things we learned in NHL: Streaks extended and droughts ended (Sportsnet).
Next: 12 Days of Flames Christmas - 2017 edition
That’s all in today’s Flames Daily!