Calgary Flames Daily: Home-ice struggles could cost them

With the Calgary Flames continuing to struggle on home-ice for some weird reason, this could be something that costs them a playoff spot.

This has been a weird season for the Calgary Flames. They’ve been quite inconsistent in many areas, and now, their home-ice struggles could cost them a playoff spot. It’s not that common to have one of the best road records in the NHL but be below 0.500 at home, but I guess that’s the Flames this season.

Yesterday against the Boston Bruins, the Flames barely even showed up until the last five minutes of the second period. They were lucky to even get to overtime tied at 1-1. And they have David Rittich to thank who made some big, key saves, especially in the third period.

But a costly turnover in OT by TJ Brodie led to the Bruins scoring on a breakaway. You’ve got to feel for Brodie who hasn’t quite been having that great of a season. That wasn’t his only costly turnover this season.

With all these home losses, are the Flames playoff hopes starting to fall? Glen Gulutzan doesn’t seem to think so.

Via Calgary Sun:

"“No. I’m not going to get into talking about missed opportunities,” Gulutzan said, clearly frustrated.“I know where you’re going with this, but I don’t look at how we’re not going to make it, I look at how we are going to make it.”"

Since 2005, only 10 teams have made the playoffs with fewer wins at home than losses (including OT/SO). None made it last season.

"“It’s not like we’ve been playing bad at home.” Brodie said. “We’ve gotten chances. It’s just one of those things. A bounce here or there and we could be talking about the same record as the road.”“It’s like any slump – sometimes the harder you try, the more you grip the stick, the worse it is,” said Brodie, the first to use the s-word publicly.“It’s one of those things where there are games we’ve lost and we’ve played good games. Mentally it’s hard when you lose a game you think you have to change something or do something different, but that’s not necessarily the case.”"

The Flames have now lost seven of their last eight games at home. Yet yesterday afternoon vs. the Bruins, they managed to sell out the arena. So I guess the fans are also pleased with being disappointed (jokes) (sort of).

Some links surrounding the Flames

Brad Marchand scores overtime winner as Bruins beat Flames (Sportsnet).

Francis: Flames chase playoff history with losing home record (Calgary Sun).

Flames’ home indigestion could see them miss playoff feast (Sportsnet).

Call-up to Calgary ‘dream come true’ for Flames prospect Klimchuk (Calgary Sun).

Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL

The Boston Bruins are the first beneficiaries of the New York Rangers’ fire sale (FanSided).

NHL 2018 Trade Deadline Team Needs: Toronto Maple Leafs (Sportsnet).

Player tracking being tested at Olympic hockey, could come to NHL (Sportsnet).

NHL Rumour Roundup: Latest on Karlsson, Hoffman, Tanev, Grabner (Sportsnet).

Next: Flames powerplay heading in the right direction

That’s all in today’s Calgary Flames Daily!

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