Post-Game: Shut Out Again

The Calgary Flames continued to stumble their way out of the Christmas Break on Sunday night, hosting the Vancouver Canucks at the Saddledome. Surely with the arrival of the club’s possibly most bitter rival, the team would show some fire and put their stamp on the game early?

Well, they did, but probably not in the way they intended.

After seeing Brian McGrattan get tossed less than three minutes into the game, the Flames never seemed to get the car out of the garage. They fell 2-0 for the second straight game, at home, to a traditional rival.

After the emotional high of the come-from-behind win against St. Louis, the Flames have lost two straight. And not scored a single goal.

The game began with some truculence, as Brian McGrattan got his elbow up on Andrew Alberts – knocking Alberts from the game, prompting a fight for McGrattan with Tom Sestito, and banishing McGrattan from the contest. The Flames had a five-minute penalty kill, and kept the Canucks to the outside. The Flames tended to out-work those Canucks for the first period, until they gave up a late first period goal as Jannik Hansen was sprung for a break-away by Henrik Sedin. After 20, the Canucks led 1-0. Shots were 13-2 Vancouver.

The second period was full of perimeter play by both clubs. Even when the Flames got a power-play, they largely kept their passing to the outside and failed to generate much in the way of chances. To be blunt, nothing much of note occurred in the second. Vancouver led in shots by an 11-6 margin in the middle period.

The Flames pushed back in the third period, really pushing the pace and occasionally breaking from their perimeter play to attempt to score in the middle. They led the Canucks 10-6 in the third, but failed to score. The Canucks did score, though, as Ryan Kesler and Mike Santorelli took advantage of a turnover at the Flames blueline and beat Reto Berra on a 2-on-1.

The Canucks out-shot Calgary 30-18 on the whole.

Lance Bouma made the most of his ice-time tonight, blocking two shots and adding five hits.

They didn’t score any goals. Moreover, they were generally out-chanced and out-shot at even-strength, and couldn’t turn the momentum they gained from their five-minute kill in the first to much in the way of sustained offensive pressure.

The Flames (14-19-6) are now 27th in the NHL, a point below below Florida. They close out 2013 with a date with the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. The game’s at 7pm on Sportsnet West.