3 reasons the Calgary Flames lost their series vs the Edmonton Oilers

No. 2: The Calgary Flames defence and Vezina nominated goalie all disappeared.

Calgary gave up an average of 2.51 goals per game in the regular season. This put them behind only the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes.

The Flames also had the second-best goal differential in the regular season with a plus 85. Only the Florida Panthers had better. During the playoffs, they finished with a minus four.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom had a solid 2.22 goals-against average in 63 games. In the postseason, he was closer to three with 2.95.

Let’s preface this by saying Markstrom was the best option. He played one heck of a season and deserved all the praise and accolades. But when the Flames needed him to be Vezina-like, he crumbled.

The Oilers were able to find a weakness which was his glove side. They scored plenty of their goals in that area. It’s full credit to them. Markstrom didn’t do enough to make his weakness a strength.

But Marky did all he could. The defence wasn’t helping in any fashion. Understandably, it’s tough to stop the best player in the world. However, it seemed like the Flames just didn’t know what to do against Oilers forward Connor McDavid until Game 5.

The key is to be physical. Take McDavid off the puck. Limit the amount of seconds/minutes he has with possession in the offensive zone. The defence finally got physical in game five. McDavid was pretty much quiet until his overtime heroics.

But the play of defenceman Oliver Kylington, Noah Hanifin, Eric Gudbranson, Nikita Zarorov, Michael Stone and Andersson was lacklustre. They gave up too many odd-man rushes, which you cannot do with the Oilers.

Even in their zone, they seemed to be running around while Edmonton zipped the puck around and got multiple scoring chances. They needed to be more physical against the Oilers playmakers.

They aren’t all to blame. The Flames were also out-coached.