The Calgary Flames have played games against the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers over the past few evenings. Those two clubs are among the top teams in the Western Conference, and the Flames arguably out-played both of them in their meetings – Thursday night against Dallas and Saturday night against Edmonton.
In the midst of a desperate bid to keep pace with the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference’s playoff race, the Flames captured just one of a possible four points in those two games. Despite being the better team in each outing. They lost 5-2 to Dallas on Thursday night. They lost 3-2 to Edmonton in overtime on Saturday night.
History, as they say, doesn’t repeat itself, but it does tend to rhyme. And there are commonalities – frustrating ones – that emerged in the Flames’ past two losses.
On Thursday, the opening 20 minutes were fairly even before the Flames took things over. They ended up out-shooting Dallas 48-19, and dominating the five-on-five-scoring chance tally 45-26. High-danger chances were 19-12, though, and Dallas thrived with their high-danger chances. The Stars scored four times at five-on-five – doubling their expected goals – because when the Flames made mistakes with Dallas’ big guns on the ice, they made the Flames pay.
The Stars got five-on-five goals – all scored right around the immediate vicinity of the Flames net – from Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantanen. And the Flames couldn’t out-score their mistakes because they couldn’t translate their territorial dominance and oodles of scoring chances into goals.
On Saturday, the Flames were really good against the Oilers… for two and a half periods or so. Through two periods, they out-shot the Oilers 19-16, and held a five-on-five scoring chance advantage of 18-11. But the Flames could only translate that relative dominance into one goal, and after Brayden Pachal gave them a 2-1 third period lead – on the road, during a playoff race – they seemed to run out of steam, and the Oilers roared back and won the game in overtime.
The Oilers got five-on-five goals from Viktor Arvidsson and Leon Draisaitl. Draisaitl added the overtime winner. All three goals were scored off Flames turnovers or defensive lapses:
  • Arvidsson’s goal was scored after the Flames broke up a rush play but couldn’t claim the puck. Draisaitl found Arvidsson with a pass through a gap in coverage and he buried the scoring chance.
  • Draisaitl’s first goal was scored after Morgan Frost turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Draisaitl was given enough space by Kevin Bahl off the rush to get a great shot off.
  • Draisaitl’s second goal was scored after the Flames couldn’t maintain possession in the offensive zone and Nazem Kadri was knocked down in the offensive zone, creating an odd-man rush that ended with a Draisaitl shot.
When the Oilers were given high-danger opportunities by Flames miscues, they capitalized. And, once again, the Flames couldn’t out-score their mistakes because they couldn’t turn their territorial and scoring chance advantages into goals.
Following Saturday’s game, Flames head coach Ryan Huska was asked about the third period.
“It’s a little bit like the whole game for me,” said Huska. “There was parts that we did like. There was other parts where I thought we sat back and, again, just didn’t have that assertiveness or that killer instinct tonight that I thought we needed.”
Did the Flames deserve a better result than they got against the Oilers?
“Yeah, but we didn’t get it,” said Kadri. “So, I mean, at the end of the day, that’s what matters is the result, and it’s disappointing.”
The Flames have played well enough this season to fully deserve their spot in the West’s playoff race. But to convert that spot in the race into a playoff spot, they need victories. Moral victories and good showings don’t count for very much at this point of the season unless they translate into standings points.
But with a seven point gap to close on St. Louis and just 10 games remaining on the schedule – even with three games in hand – the Flames’ margin for error has been shaved down to basically zero. They need to go on a run if they want to continue playing past Game 82.

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