Oilers 7, Flames 5 post-game embers: Got what they deserved

It took a fluke goal in the third for the Flames to decide they wanted to have a go at this game.

Let’s get this out of the way first: this was not a particularly meaningful game. The Battle of Alberta gets very hyped up, but when you strip it down to its core, it’s just another two points on the line. One of these teams is fighting for a playoff spot; the other is fighting to stay relevant this year. But at the end of the day, on the ice, it’s just two points.

Two points the Flames, evidently, had no interest in collecting.

Honestly, this game was over in the first period, long before anyone had scored a goal. The Flames had a double minor to work with, including extensive four-on-three time, and did absolutely nothing with it. And you can’t really blame no Kris Versteeg for that, because it’s hard to see them playing that much better with him out there in any way.

They were lackadaisical, and there was absolutely no sense of urgency to be found. Even when Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik combined for a shorthanded goal – in all honesty, a truly beautiful combination, every single time – the rest of the team’s play didn’t follow suit; instead, they just gave up another goal right after.

There’s no excuse, for anybody. There’s no “well the score would have been much more out of hand if Mike Smith wasn’t in net haha!” He didn’t make the Flames give up three breakaways in one period – including two on the same powerplay, back-to-back, and I’ll get back to that in a second – but he didn’t make enough saves. He had a bad night and the skaters in front of him apparently had zero interest in trying to correct that or fight for him or do much of anything.

Seriously, responding to a shorthanded goal on a clear cut breakaway by giving the opposing team another clear cut breakaway? A team that is paying attention, that is trying, that cares, does not do that.

It took them being down by five goals to accomplish much of anything. Not just that – it took a fluke goal that never should have gone in for them to try. The flurry of goals in the third period was cute and all, and it was a nice thought, and it took way, way, way too long to happen against a backup goalie with 21 games to his name and an injured, depleted defensive group. That should have been the Flames from the four-minute double minor on, not with fewer than 20 minutes to go and a deficit just deep enough to doom them.

Johnny Gaudreau looked like a world beater in the third period. He snapped his pointless drought, reaffirmed why he’s third in NHL scoring, and looked like he was ready to singlehandedly take anyone down, and he’d do it by his damn self if he had to. (I love that picture. That’s the face of a man who means business.) I understand that it’s pretty challenging to keep up that level of play over the course of a full 60 – or 19:13, I guess – but where the hell was that before the five-goal deficit?

The Flames were a team that wanted to get embarrassed, only to suddenly realize when it was too late that that wasn’t what they wanted after all. Cute, valiant comeback effort. Try starting like that, then it might actually mean something.

So who’s at fault for being so unprepared? Does it fall on the general manager who assembled a team that’s so ready to roll over and show its belly before puck drop? Is it on the coach for not having his players ready to go or not having an adequate response once things started going haywire? Is it on the players themselves, the professional athletes who are hyper-competitive or else they wouldn’t be at this level to begin with, who entered an arena and decided tonight wasn’t the night to do their jobs, that they didn’t really care and were content to go home, lick their wounds, and maybe try the next time, if it so conveniences them?

Or is it on everybody?

The Flames might want to try figuring out what’s ailing them here, because it keeps happening and nobody seems to care. Apathy is the absolute worst feeling anyone can have when it comes to sports and it is plaguing them from top to bottom and seeping outside.

But congrats on beating the Arizona Coyotes 3-0 that one time after a really bad return home, that truly fixed everything.

And congrats on escaping with just a two-goal deficit, because I lied in the title: they deserved much worse.