The Calgary Flames lost to the Dallas Stars by a 4-3 score in overtime on Wednesday night. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.
Contact with the goaltender on overtime winner
It’s not a controversial statement to say that there was contact between Stars forward Jamie Benn and Flames goaltender David Rittich prior to Tyler Seguin’s game-winning goal. There was obviously contact as Benn cut behind Rittich.
Tyler Seguin ends this game just 24 seconds into overtime #Flames #GoStars #DALvsCGY pic.twitter.com/YC6Eaz2OB3
— Sportsnet 960 (@Sportsnet960) November 29, 2018
The degree to which Benn’s contact hindered Rittich’s ability to play the position on Seguin’s shot was a subject of much discussion following the game.
“He hit me, so, I was a little bit set but not 100% ready for anything,” said Rittich. “I didn’t have too much time for recovery.”
Flames head coach Bill Peters relayed what he was told by the officials regarding why the goal stood.
“The ruling that they came up with out of Toronto is that he had time to get reset,” said Peters. “Anytime you go to a review, it’s a little scary, right? You don’t know how it’s gonna turn out. Could’ve went either way and you could’ve agreed with it either way, probably.”
Obviously Rittich did not agree with the officials’ decision.
David Rittich is not happy, to say the least 😡😡 #Flames #DALvsCGY pic.twitter.com/IIwFCrRWft
— Sportsnet 960 (@Sportsnet960) November 29, 2018
The Flames weren’t great
If you watched the game and thought “Man, the Flames look a bit off,” you likely weren’t the only one with that opinion. One person that shared the opinion that the Flames weren’t great against Dallas was their head coach.
“You know what? I think we were fortunate to get a point out of the game,” said Peters. “I didn’t think we were very good. I didn’t think that our attention to detail was very good and that our commitment to doing it right wasn’t where it needs to be to get two points.”
Flames captain Mark Giordano didn’t love their inability to sew things up defensively when they were nursing their 3-2 lead late in the third period.
“We could’ve did a better job of shutting it down I thought,” said Giordano. “A couple breakdowns and we end up with one instead of two. It doesn’t feel good, honestly. It feels like we cost ourselves a point there.”
Flames gave up 11 high-danger scoring chances (per Natural Stat Trick), including seven in the first period alone. It was their worst defensive performance, by that measure, since their Nov. 11 loss in San Jose and just the second time dating back to their 9-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Oct. 25 that they’ve allowed 10 (or more) high-danger chances.
Return of the old flames….
Peter Pan need to give Janko more ice time then Ryan on the PP.. not like Ryan doing much for that $$…
Been to several games this year and have paid particular attention to Neal. I sure don’t like what I’m seeing. The play constantly dies on his stick. He does not drive the play whatsoever. I have to admit that I was pretty excited about him coming here at first but if that’s what a 5.75 mill a year hockey player looks like then the pay scale in the NHL is completely out of whack. I thought he maybe he was a finisher but I’m not seeing any of that either. If we don’t get a good setup man for him soon then we are screwed. This is a buyout waiting to happen. What a waste of cap space. Right now he is replacement level. BT must be looking at him wondering WTF did I do here. Unless a miracle happens there is no way he is around for the length of that contract. As a fan I don’t usually pay much attention to cap space and contracts but surely to God there has to be better options than this. Neal you suck right now for what you get paid. You must have been riding some pretty good coat tails in your career to get this far because your skating and puck handling ability is really average and I’m being generous even saying that. You don’t fight and you’re not much of a physical presence either. This is our Lucic lite contract right here. Would rather overpay for a stud goalie than have him on the roster.
How anybody could trash your comment has to be a relative of Neal’s. Exactly my thoughts, was excited about the prospect of having a guy with a real edge and soft hands around the net. Not so much and I’m losing faith that he can turn it around as his skating is bad and he handles and passes the puck like a hand grenade? Who is scouting these guys before we pick them up for $5 mill, come on guys use our $200 a game ticket money for better investments than this guy.
The biggest thing about that’s different other than 250 g’s, is atleast most player’s in the league are afraid of lucic and nobody’s afraid of Neal. I see both player’s getting bought out before Seattle comes in as compliance buyout’s that wont count against the cap.
Alberta hockey fans are contributing handsomely to their swan song retirement contracts. At this stage Lucic is certainly nothing to brag about but yeah at least he is a physical presence at times. Neal borders on being completely useless more often than not. I’m no fan of Brouwer but at least he would hit and fight when necessary.
Brouwer with 6 goals so far, majority of you here couldn’t run him out of town fast enough
Yeah because he sucked here
I was one of those guys and rightly so at the time. GG was a big contributor to the problem though so I blame both of them.
Oooooof. Last place again. These guys suck.
Ohhh wait…first in the Pacific?
Made up ground on San Jose?
It’s a long slog guys.
That they get a point from their off nights is very, very good.
Also, Ritter was interfered with.
Not enough that it should have mattered. The bigger problem was leaving one of the leagues top goal scorers alone in the slot with enough time to get a shave and a haircut before deciding where to shoot the puck.
Hey Burn I get where we are in the standings. My comment was directed more towards one individual than the whole team in general. Being critical of one player is not suggesting the sky is falling. Neal is paid to produce and he is failing miserably right now. If you’re happy with the state of affairs overall then all the power to you. The Ducks and the Knights who have both battled injuries and have excellent goaltending are coming on strong. The Sharks with lousy goaltending are right there with us and the Pacific division is nothing special . My standards for the Flames are higher this year. If you’re satisfied with us salvaging a loser point against a team on a back to back who are missing 4 starting D men when we had 3 days rest then great. I’m not. If we want to contend for first in the division we need to be better on a more consistent basis. Games with that end result are not acceptable to me under those circumstances.
well if we play like this vs the Kings we will be in Big Trouble
we will see new lines in the new year if we have a bad Dec.. 2nd and 3rd line need helps most nights on the goal sheet ..Lindholm can fix that,
Neal looked like his head was still in vegas… those two turnovers in one shift – unbelievable