For the fourth game in a row, the Flames blew their early lead and then led it into another overtime loss. The same old tune that has plagued the Calgary Flames since the bye week.
The Calgary Flames were defeated by the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night by a score of 4-3. While the team did pick up a valuable point in the loss, it was the fourth game in a row that the Flames had blown a lead.
While the negative is there to be taken away, the Flames did not play all that bad. Here are three takeaways from tonight’s Battle of Alberta:
Matthew Tkachuk continues to leave his mark
Calgary Flames
As called by Drew Doughty, the league’s most hated player continued to be a thorn in the side of the opposition. Tkachuk was a force on the ice, scoring two goals and causing many problems for the Oilers as well. He drew a ten-minute misconduct against Zack Kassian tonight early on in the game. He was easily the Calgary Flames best player tonight and it could not have been more obvious.
Tkachuk helped get this team back into this game after the Oilers scored three unanswered goals. More importantly, his strong play helped secure a point in the process. His determination and ability to drive the possession and slip into the right spot to make the play helped earn Calgary this point tonight.
He was the best player on the ice tonight, better than #97 in orange.
Eleven Game Point Streak…this is key
While losing four games in a row is never acceptable, gaining four points out of those losses makes the pain ease a little more. The Flames have managed to string together competitive games, regardless. No matter despite this poor pattern of losing games here for the Flames, they are keeping flight in the high octane Western Conference.
The four overtime losses have proven to show a slight weakness in a young team, but it is a fixable problem here. The Flames are rolling into the All-Star break with a point streak that has gone on for nearly a month now, and if they can continue to find ways to gain points without giving vital ones away, then they could make a push for the Pacific Division.
David Rittich continues strong play
Rittich played another strong game tonight. He continued to show why the Flames signed him two summers ago from the Czech Republic. What might have been a mere depth signing back then, has turned into a real bright spot for the Calgary Flames.
Tonight, he managed to fend off 37 shots and even made a strong save on a penalty kill early on. While he did not get the win, he kept the Calgary Flames in this game tonight. He has done this in his sporadic starts that Rittich has been given, given the Flames a chance to win.
Rittich will push for a bigger role next season, and he also showed that he can play in big-time moments as well.
Next: Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo heading to Olympics
Take the All-Star break to re-group
Eleven games is a good streak to maintain a point, the Flames need to re-group because the Vegas Golden Knights will be on the menu next. That team will be ready to play. The Flames better be ready to play if they want to extend this point streak to twelve.