Calgary Flames Daily: Banding together after frustrating loss

After a frustrating loss last night in Denver, the Calgary Flames need to find a way to band together and keep their cool.

So… last night was frustrating, right? After going up 2-0 in the first period, the Calgary Flames allowed five unanswered goals (including an empty-net goal) to lose 5-2 to the Colorado Avalanche. They took way too many penalties last night and they couldn’t capitalize on the man-advantage.

The most frustrating penalty came in the third period when Johnny Gaudreau got clipped with a high-stick. The official’s hand went up and he made the signal for a high-sticking penalty. However, he blew his whistle while the Flames still had possession. This was somewhat confusing and it turns out, they were giving Gaudreau a penalty for embellishment. He flinched his head back but continued skating and fans on Twitter were quite frustrated with the call.

As was Gaudreau. He argued the call, as you would imagine, and got a 10-minute misconduct with an unsportsmanlike call. Earlier in the game, he took a skate to the neck and left the ice immediately. After a slight scare, he thankfully came back unharmed for the most part, but you could still see a cut on his neck. Which further adds on to why he would flinch when getting a stick to the neck/chest area.

It was a weird series of events and left fans annoyed and frustrated. Head coach Glen Gulutzan also defended his leading point-scorer.

Via Calgary Sun:

“I don’t know how you’re supposed to react to getting hit in the face,” Gulutzan said during his post-game media scrum in Denver. “You’re flying 20 miles an hour or whatever he’s going, and you get a stick in the face? Your head is going to go back. So I just don’t get it. If I’m Johnny, I’m mad too. I’m angry. Because if you get a stick in the face, there’s no saying how you’re going to react.“And then, 60 seconds later, you’re not in the game?!? And you’re a guy who gets six or eight penalty minutes a year? C’mon.”

With the Avs picking up two points, the Flames now find themselves further from a playoff spot. They need everything to go right at this point. Gulutzan says they need to harness their anger and move forward.

“I don’t think we do park (the emotion). I think we harness it, and we take it moving forward,” Gulutzan said. “When you get into these situations like this, where you feel that it was biased and you were gypped and you didn’t react the right way; you have to learn from it but you have to harness that anger and you have to get going here.

Nonetheless, the Flames allowed four goals before that call – something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. This season, they have a knack for blowing leads and can’t seem to be consistent. For the first time, I’m thinking they may not make the playoffs after all.

Flames Tweet of the day

Hockey Tweet of the day

Some links surrounding the Flames

Flames coach says team must ‘harness that anger’ after meltdown in Colorado (Calgary Sun).

Flames lose their cool and the game in Denver (Calgary Sun).

Gary Bettman is coming to Calgary but not to talk about a new Flames arena (Calgary Herald).

Flames goalies Rittich and Gillies sharing crease … just like old times (Calgary Sun).

Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL

NHL Seattle season-ticket priority drive goes gangbusters (FanSided).

Seattle group collects 25,000 ticket deposits for NHL team (Sportsnet).

Canucks, Rangers play awesome inconsequential NHL regular-season game (Sportsnet).

Blame mismanagement: Four of the seven NHL teams in Canada now just sad punch lines (National Post).

Next: How the Flames fared at trade deadline

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