Post-Game: Hard to watch

The Calgary Flames have not been great lately. Since January 1, they had given up the first goal in the game in each of their last seven games. Well, the Flames gave up the first goal to the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. And then they allowed three more goals en route to a painfully dull 4-0 loss to their Canadian foes.

It was the worst of all possible outcomes. The Flames looked awful. The Leafs looked great.

There’s not a ton of things to recap from a Flames perspective.

They played a perfectly adequate first period. Just when it looked like they’d eke their way into the intermission in a scoreless tie, Mitch Marner tipped a Nikita Zaitsev point shot past Brian Elliott to make it 1-0. Shots were 13-8 Toronto in the first.

The Leafs scored again midway through the second, as Nazem Kadri scored on a wacky play: wild swings from Auston Matthews and William Nylander sent Kadri in against Engelland and despite Engelland playing it reasonably well (for him) Kadri beat Elliott short-side to make it 2-0.

Johnny Gaudreau got nailed twice during this game; the first was a big hip-check by Roman Polak on a zone entry. The second was this collision with Leo Komarov. Gaudreau left the game due to concussion testing, but was cleared and returned to the game.

Zach Hyman scored shorthanded later in the second, getting his own rebound and poking it through Elliott’s pads to make it 3-0. Shots were 12-11 Calgary, though they didn’t have a lot of gold star chances.

Kadri scored early in the second on a power play. Mark Giordano tried to redirect the puck on a Kadri wrister, but inadvertently deflected it past Elliott to make it 4-0. Whoops. The Flames shuffled around in the third but didn’t really generate much of anything. They looked defeated. The Leafs looked like they could go for another 60 minutes. Shots were 6-4 Flames.

After Saturday’s game, I asked Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan if some fragility has crept back into Calgary’s game. (He described his team back in late October/early November as “a fragile group.”) He denied that was the case. I’m thinking that he might be wrong.

The Flames give up the first goal a lot. It’s happened 29 times this season, just over half of the time. But what kills the team is when they give up the “next” goal. If they can get the game tied again, and avoid a two-goal deficit, they’re fine and can scrap their way through a game. When they go down a pair, things start to snowball and they’re dead in their tracks.

Kadri’s goal was one that Elliott had to have. It put the Flames down 2-0. It was slightly screened, but it was also far enough out and from a clean enough angle that Elliott had enough time and space to get squared up to it. It just beat him.

If I have to pick somebody, I’ll go with T.J. Brodie. He was moving around and generate some shots. But nobody was really good.

Sean Monahan’s goal-scoring streak ends at five games.

This is the third time this season, and second time this month, that the Flames have been shut out.

The Flames (24-23-3) are back at it tomorrow, as they travel to la belle provence to take on the Montreal Canadiens.

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