The Calgary Flames struggled to beat the Seattle Kraken goaltender, only getting one goal in a 5-1 defeat at home.

It’s a Team Game – It was honestly the kind of game you would expect from two teams near the bottom of the standings. Neither squad has a player that pops out as a clear difference maker on a nightly basis, so I was expecting a bit more of a close match-up. Seattle eventually had the dam break open for them – a result of getting the more dangerous chances of the groups – and after that happened, they never looked back. Calgary was able to possess the puck, get shots off, and genuinely try and stay in things. Instead, the attack came off as weak and not as dangerous as it could be. NaturalStatTrick did have them at 17 high danger chances (I’m skeptical of that), but just one of them in the third period when they needed it most. Surrendering 18 high danger looks themselves undoes all the good that gaining 17 does.

No matter how many chances there were (or were not) someone still has to actually put the puck in the net – a process that continues to hinder the Flames weekly.

Corsi King – Connor Zary (69.66 CF%) is one of these players I’m talking about. Nazem Kadri (67.35 per cent) even more so and linemate Joel Farabee (68.35%) too. Having a 2-to-1 advantage in shot attempts is great, but if the offence is too infrequent it still doesn’t qualify as working. At least Zary worked his way back into playing with some scorers for now, but it has been a hard year for them. Farabee is on a current 6 game pointless drought and has 2 goals and 3 assists total since his last multi-point outing. That’s 5 points in his last 16 games getting over 15 minutes of ice time a night. This entire top 9 is not a long term functional top 9 for a competitive NHL team and they are showcasing exactly why in real time. Where the heck is Rory Kerins, who has deserved every single breath of a possible extended opportunity? Why do you have to sit Stromgren before playing in a game? Why do you sit every callup before inserting them into a game? They’ve played hockey their whole lives, is your team structure really so complicated a professional athlete can’t pick it up? It’s becoming more and more laughable and inexcusable with each passing day. How they handle Parekh’s return might really be the last straw because at this point something big has to give and soon.

Too many passengers getting too many passes with no accountability or explanations to the people that pay for tickets and merchandise as to why it’s this much of disjointed cluster.

Taken By Chance – Look what happens when Blake Coleman (59.58 SCF% // 63.84 HDCF%) can’t score every single night. A lot of responsibility for a 34-year-old winger with a career high of 54 points to be your entire offence. Do I want the Flames to move on from Blake Coleman? Not in the slightest. Would it be smart to capitalize on what seems to be an insane bidding war for his services? Yeah, without question. The only possible reason to keep him past this deadline is because you genuinely think you can compete for the Stanley Cup this year or next. If not, you have got to move on – it’s a business and you are in 30th place out of 32. Make the right business decision. Again, you have all these self-drafted players producing in the AHL – give them a real opportunity for once. It is not like any single current player on this team is producing at a rate that makes them a guaranteed nightly lock. (Okay maybe Andersson, but we all know that pending UFA is going to be on his way soon too.)

xGF% – Brayden Pachal (39.78 per cent) got back into the lineup. I have never disliked his game and think he fits just fine as a third pairing, penalty killing NHL defenceman. Trouble for him is the Flames have some wicked youthful right-handed defenceman coming up. Weegar (52.34 per cent) isn’t likely to go anywhere and then you’ve got Brzustewicz and Parekh already pushing the door down with Henry Mews surely on his way when he gets done at Michigan in another 2-3 years. He was a waiver claim coming into this franchise so any sort of asset coming back is a win, but I think we might see him stay as the 6th or 7th guy with Brzustewicz going back down to the AHL for a while. It won’t hurt him, he’s shown he has the stuff to stick around in the show and the Flames know that now. His call-up’s been a great success, top line AHL deployment again won’t hinder his development.

In The Crease – For those that read this regularly you may recall I suggested Cooley after Wolf’s down performance in Nashville. Well, this is why. Wolf has done well after getting resets and statistically Cooley is still ranked as one of the best backups in the league. Yes, this was a pretty important in division game for positioning, so I understand why they went to their starter. It did not work and now I’m going to say it again – start the road trip with Cooley. If you want to go into the playoffs, you’ll need the tandem.

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