It was not a good weekend for the Calgary Flames.
It was pretty awful, if we’re being honest about it.
After getting blown out by the Florida Panthers on Saturday, the Flames (31-28-5) vowed to put in a better effort on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes (39-19-6).
Instead, they got played off the ice and fell 7-2 in a game where the lopsided final scoreline still didn’t fully reflect just how little fight they Flames showed.
At least against the Panthers, the Flames could take some consolation in having fired 35 shots at their opponent’s net.
There was no such consolation on Sunday.
By the end of the first period, the Hurricanes had scored twice while the Flames had managed only two shots. It was ugly, and never really got much better. The Hurricanes out-shot the Flames in every period and wound up with 42 shots while the Flames had only 19.
Eleven different players picked up points for the Hurricanes, while Dryden Hunt and Yegor Sharangovich at least managed to get the Flames on the board after the Hurricanes had opened up a big lead that was never going to be under threat.
Really, there was nowhere the Flames could point to and say they were better than the Hurricanes and they never looked like a team that deserved the two points that were up-for-grabs on Sunday.
So the Flames leave their three-game road-trip with an impressive win over the Tampa Bay Lightning and then two losses to the Panthers and Hurricanes in which they were outscored 12-3.It was only a week or so ago that people were saying the Flames were playing their best hockey of the year. They’ve come crashing back down to earth, though, with losses in three of their last four games. The fact that they traded away defencemen Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin before the NHL’s deadline on Friday meant that making the playoffs was always going to be a little bit harder.
And it certainly won’t be any easier after this weekend. The Flames are sitting eight points back of the Vegas Golden Knights, who are in the Western Conference’s second wild card position.
And this week’s schedule isn’t pretty either, with the Colorado Avalanche coming to the Saddledome on Tuesday and then Hanifin and the Golden Knights rolling into town on Thursday.
The Flames will need to be a whole lot better than they were this weekend if they plan on salvaging anything from those two games.
