Post-Game: Losing Streak Hits Four

After going nearly the first third of the regular season without racking up consecutive regulation losses, the Calgary Flames have strung together four of them to kick off the middle third of the schedule. Their latest set-back was tonight, by way of a 3-1 decision in Pittsburgh at the hands of a Sidney Crosby-less Penguins club.

They fall to 17-12-2 on the season. The road trip ends on Sunday in Chicago.

The culprit tonight? A slow start and shoddy defensive zone play that put the team behind the eight-ball before much of the clock had ticked away. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

Before anyone really had a time to get their seat warm, the Flames were down a goal. On a bad pinch by Mark Giordano, Blake Comeau went in on a two-on-one with Evgeni Malkin and beat Jonas Hiller off the first shot Hiller faced all game. The Flames went down after 48 seconds and never drew even for the rest of the game. Kris Letang scored again off a tip a few minutes later, ending a five-minute span of play where the Flames seemed anything but the structured, confident defensive group they were last month, or even last week. Johnny Gaudreau answered back, burying a rebound off a Markus Granlund shot to make it 2-1. Shots were 8-8 after 20.

The Penguins seemed like a group that didn’t want to let the Flames back in from then on out. They out-shot the Flames 11-6 in the second and did their best to control the pace of the game, despite the Flames winning more of the face-offs in the middle period. There was no scoring in the second.

Calgary kept pressing in the third. They out-shot the Penguins 13-3. They probably should’ve scored one. They didn’t, because that’s how things are going nowadays. To make matters worse, Ladislav Smid got hurt early off a nasty hit by Simon Despres early in the period and didn’t return. It should be noted that there was no noteworthy physical retribution taken against Despres in the remaining 17+ minutes of the game. Lethbridge native Rob Klinkhammer scored late to put the game out of hand.

You’ve got to hold a team accountable to their wins. Forget the back-to-backs and the travel and the fatigue: the Flames need to play a structured defensive game to be successful. That’s how they were successful against good teams when they won games.

They were not good at all in their own zone early-on, and it got them down two goals, and that was it. On the road, on the back end of a back-to-back, against Pittsburgh, you cannot spot them two goals early and expect to win. Full-stop.

Johnny Gaudreau had the lone goal, four shots and buzzed around all night.

The Flames have lost four in a row. They deserved better fates on other nights, but this was a game that Calgary played poorly enough that a loss was probably warranted.

They’re back in action against Chicago on Sunday. The Blackhawks have won eight straight. Puck drops at 6pm on City TV as part of Hometown Hockey.