If you’ve watched the Calgary Flames over the past couple of seasons, you’ve probably noticed that when the Flames look a certain way, they tend to give themselves a chance. They rely on structure, pace, a tenacious forecheck and keying in on details in key moments to win hockey games.

Over the last little while, they’ve won quite a few hockey games that way. But as we’ve written here, it’s pretty tough to play the Flames’ style of game every single game. On some nights, you just don’t have enough in the tank to play that way.

On Saturday night against the Nashville Predators, the Flames just didn’t have it. The Flames had a good first few minutes and a good last few minutes, but suffered a big lull in their game in-between those good segments en route to a 4-3 home loss to the Predators.

“I don’t think it was a great game for us compared to the ones we played over the last little while,” said head coach Ryan Huska, following the game. “I only thought we had maybe five guys ever at a level that I think they should have been at. So, Nashville was much quicker than us for the majority part of the game. Yeah, not a great night.”

The Flames got goals from Yan Kuznetsov, Rasmus Andersson and Blake Coleman. The Predators got two goals from Erik Haula, and one apiece from Michael Bunting – off an errant pass from Dustin Wolf – and Nicolas Hague – with 27.8 seconds left in regulation to break a 3-3 tie.

“I didn’t think we had a great game by any means, but we gave ourselves a shot to win, at least get to overtime and see where it takes us,” said Coleman. “You can’t give up a goal with 30 seconds left in a game like that.”

With the loss, the Flames were swept in the three game season series with Nashville. Some teams just match up well against others, and the Predators have matched quite well against Calgary stylistically this season.

“We just haven’t played well,” said Coleman. “You know, we just, again, they hold the line well. We didn’t get pucks behind them. We were stubborn all night. Fuel their game a little bit. But, again, we give ourselves a chance. We get back to even and start carrying the play towards the end there. A game that, when you get to that point, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win that at home.”

The loss snapped a five game Flames home winning streak and dropped them below the .500 mark at 18-19-4. They’re hoping that the setback was merely a bump in the road as they try to work towards a playoff berth following a rough start to their season.

“We can’t let a game like this alter our course,” said Flames forward Ryan Lomberg. “We’ve got to, you know, stay the course and stay mentally strong and stay upbeat and stay positive and keep working at it.”

Sometimes you just don’t have it. On Saturday, the Flames didn’t have it. They’ll try to find it again on Monday night when they close out their five game homestand against the Seattle Kraken.

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