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To be fair, the Calgary Flames had a tendency to lose games against the NHL’s worst teams long before the trade deadline.
So while it’s tempting to chalk Tuesday night’s ugly 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks (25-47-4) up to a re-tooling team struggling to find its way, that’s probably not entirely accurate.
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The Flames (34-35-5) have, after all, already lost games against five of the seven teams below them in the standings this season. They beat the Montreal Canadiens in both their matchups, at least, and are 1-0 against the Arizona Coyotes, who they play again next week.
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But it’s probably worth accepting that games like Tuesday’s defeat at the hands of the Ducks may become a fact of life for the next little while around the Saddledome. They’ll become more common, at the very least.
Such is life for a retooling team. The losses are going to pile up. There will be frustrating nights, probably more than most would like.
Anyone looking for positives could probably find a few. The Flames finished the second period tied 2-2.
Mason McTavish scored the opener for the Ducks and then Yegor Sharangovich redirected a Nazem Kadri shot into the back of the net.
Then, Andrei Kuzmenko scored a legitimately beautiful go-ahead goal for the Flames before Troy Terry tied things up for the Ducks.
The third period was pretty much all Anaheim, though, with Cam Fowler getting one and then Alex Killorn scoring twice. Kuzmenko did get a second, too, but it wasn’t enough.
And so, the Flames fell to one of the NHL’s worst teams. It’s not the first time that’s happened this season and it may not be the last, either.
Nobody said it was going to be fun when they traded four established NHL veterans in-season for young players, prospects and draft picks. There’s a learning curve. That’s entirely to be expected.
Hopefully, the pain leads to something positive. Namely, a nice, high pick in June’s draft.
But these final eight games probably won’t be pretty. Tuesday night certainly wasn’t.
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