Post-Game: Canucked

In the final game of the 2016-17 exhibition season for the Calgary Flames, roughly four or five jobs were up for grabs. With that in mind, Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan devised a roster of players on the cusp of grabbing a roster spot, probably with the hope that all of that desperation would elevate the team.

Nope.

Without Johnny Gaudreau, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and several others, the Flames lost handily by a 4-0 score in Vancouver to close out their preseason.

The Flames were okay in the first, but really biffed on an early power play opportunity. They just couldn’t get set up and were casual enough without the puck that Brandon Sutter roamed into their zone and beat Chad Johnson with a nice top-corner shot. It was a really nice shot, but one that they shouldn’t have been able to take.

Later in the period, another defensive lapse allowed Sven Baertschi to find Jake Virtanen all alone in the slot for a nice one-timer goal. Either Linden Vey (or Dennis Wideman) should’ve had him covered. Whoops. 2-0.

Shots were 10-8 in the first for Vancouver.

The Flames’ uninspired defensive play continued into the second. After X’s penalty expired, the Flames remained hemmed into their own end. With Loui Ericsson parked out front, Daniel Sedin got a nice shot off (that Ericsson) deflected past Johnson to make it 3-0. (Visible in the GIF? Calgary’s defenders just hanging out.)

Shots 9-8 in the second for Vancouver.

The Canucks seemed content to just hang out and run out the clock in the third. They added insult to injury with perhaps the wonkiest goal of the preseason, as Wideman over-skated the puck, a Henrik Sedin whack careened off a stantion and right to Ericsson for a tap-in on a wide-open net. Shots were 19-7 for the Flames, but few were impressive chances.

Hardly anybody, to be honest. Sean Monahan was fine, considering he hadn’t played in forever (and he was playing with fringe guys as his wingers). Ditto for Mikael Backlund. Aside from giving up four goals, Johnson was fairly solid on the shots he had a chance on. The Flames led in shot attempts 62-41, but a lot of them were perimeter attempts and they didn’t have many solid scoring chances on the evening.

If you’re looking for positives in a game like this, you’re probably grasping at straws.

The Flames make their last cuts likely sometime tomorrow, and then the games start counting for real beginning Wednesday night in Edmonton.