The Calgary Flames eastern road trip went from bad to worse with a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

It’s a Team Game – It was a less than inspired start followed by a second period that wasn’t much better. The never quit mantra the Flames had been living by seemingly all but vanished with many players caught watching or being a step behind the play. The kids still displayed some brief flashes of talent in the middle of a lacklustre team showing, but nothing more than a nice deke or some good hustle. As the Flames take things back home it is well past time to mix up the top 9 forward lines again, as well as allocating some ice time to those that have been regular contributors. The miracle run to the top of the Pacific division was derailed by the goaltending regressing from elite to average (not even bad!) and a complete vanishing of an ability to score at 5v5.

Oh yes, they are also up to 22 straight games with 3 goals or less. They’re 9-9-4 in that span.

Corsi King – Calgary really only had one line going all night long, that was Backlund’s (73.11 CF%). Other lines sure made the effort to have some shot attempts but they were not dangerous and not really much of a threat. The Flames fourth line was really ineffective, although Rooney (19.98 per cent) did manage to find the iron once. Rasmus Andersson (50.57 per cent) and Kevin Bahl (53.46 per cent) also didn’t spend much productive time in the offensive zone. Just not enough consistent movement towards the attacking end nor a proper attack that led to any form of sustained pressure.

Taken By Chance – The new look pairing of Huberdeau (46.60 SCF% || 32.33 HDCF% ) and Kadri (63.83 per cent || 55.48 per cent) found some nice offence late, but the game was well out of reach by the time that started to work. Would not be surprised to see that pairing play the next game together after the immediate offence it produced. Calgary should be desperate for anything that works to score goals at this point. I understand they want to be a defence first team but the problems with the offence have persisted for over two months now – it’s time for that to matter.

xGF% – It was not a good night up the middle for Connor Zary (16.05 per cent) who saw five high-danger looks against while being involved in none. One game is never enough to definitively state anything, but it was a major factor in this matches outcome. Calgary is trying to get through this season with two top nine centres while rotating Pospisil (48.44 per cent), Zary, and Sharangovich (74.09 per cent) through the pivot spot. At what point do they look to their high scoring minor league team to replace some of those that have more than ran out their time producing nothing – also known as Andrei Kuzmenko (52.58 per cent).

In The Crease – This was bad for the team – who played terribly in front of their goaltender – but Vladar let in some stinkers as well. Nobody gets a pass in this blowout loss to end a road trip. Time to go home, sleep in your own bed and show up to the building ready to get back to work. Whether you’re trying to help limit chances for the puck stoppers or are the one in the pads – there is plenty of work to do and many good habits to get back to. 2.53 expected goals against at 5v5 with three goals getting behind Vladar.

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