Calgary Flames Daily: Glen Gulutzan blames Johnny Gaudreau in loss
By Ramina Shlah
After the Calgary Flames gave up a goal late in the game and lost one, maybe even two points, head coach Glen Gulutzan wasn’t happy.
Well, we keep saying it, but it was a disappointing loss for the Calgary Flames last night. After having a decent first period, falling asleep in the second period, then dominating in the third period, it was a weird game. They lost to the San Jose Sharks where it looked like the teams were headed to overtime.
It was a 2-2 game and the Sharks got the third goal with just 2:48 left in the game. Many Flames fans weren’t too happy with the goal. Johnny Gaudreau had the puck in the offensive zone. He gets hooked and then he gets tripped and loses the puck (you know because he got tripped). No call was made. Then the Sharks head back the other way and are trying to squeeze the puck through Mike Smith‘s legs. One of the officials had the whistle in his mouth ready to blow (there is really no other way to word that) when they squeeze it just enough to get it through Smith.
They called it a good goal.
Calgary Flames
What’s frustrating is that the Flames have had goals overturned this season because of the refs having the intent to blow the whistle. This happened after the Flames basically dominating all of the third period. They had 27 shot attempts (5v5) compared to the Sharks’ nine and had 13 scoring chances compared to the Sharks’ four. People were frustrated. But at the same time, the Flames didn’t quite deserve the win as much as they have the last few games. Their third period was their only great period.
The most frustrated person was head coach Glen Gulutzan. Who put the blame on the Flames’ leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau.
Via Calgary Sun:
"“You can’t turn back with three minutes left,” the head coach said, fuming over his star player’s decision-making. “You’ve gotta play forward. We needed to get points. We needed to take that into overtime and get the points. We’re good at three-on-three. We just can’t turn back.”"
Many people on Twitter were quick to defend Gaudreau right away. There’s not much he can do when he basically gets mauled down by two Sharks defenders that lead to a three on two breakaway. Mike Smith also took the blame himself for that because as much as it sucked that Gaudreau got tripped, he should have had that puck as well.
Gulutzan has praised Gaudreau a lot this season and singles him out a ton on a usually positive note. So this one definitely didn’t sit well with Calgary Flames fans. Especially when Gaudreau also had the game-tying goal in the third period. First of all, singling out a player in a loss never has a good outcome. Second of all, singling him out when it wasn’t even his fault will have an even worse outcome. I’m not excited for these next few weeks.
Some links surrounding the Flames
Joonas Donskoi scores late in third to lift Sharks over Flames (Sportsnet).
Flames give up late goal in loss to the Sharks (Calgary Sun).
Flames Thoughts: Special teams struggling without Versteeg (Sportsnet).
Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL
Connor McDavid is one sick dude (FanSided).
Fleury has night to remember against former team (NHL.com).
Check, mates: NHL top lines are expected to do it all (National Post).
Next: TJ Brodie and Travis Hamonic finally finding chemistry
That’s all in today’s Flames Daily!