The Calgary Flames lost on Thursday in St. Louis by a 5-0 score. It was their sixth loss in a row and, combining losses of all kinds, their 15th of the season through 25 games.
Following the game, the Flames shut the locker room door and had a players only meeting.
The team also had a meeting following head coach Bill Peters calling the team out for their reliance on third period comebacks after the Arizona game. That meeting led to a 5-2 win over New Jersey… and immediately after that by the current losing streak.
Needless to say, hopefully this one turns out differently.
Peters acknowledged the group’s frustration with their current state of affairs:
We’re frustrated, obviously. You can see that. You can tell by the fact that they had a little meeting after the game that you’re well aware of. So frustration would be the right word. So we’ve got to stay together and work our way through it and become the team that we know we’re capable of becoming, but it starts with the work ethic and the attention to detail and that’s each and every day.

A brief history of big losing skids

The current epoch of the Flames has been rolling along since the 2012-13 season, Jarome Iginla’s final season and the switchover from the veteran core of that era to Mark Giordano and the current core.
In this span – eight seasons – the Flames have had six losing streaks of six games or longer:
  • 8 games: Dec. 6-20, 2014
    These Flames dropped five one-goal games, including losing their eighth in a row in overtime. They snapped this streak with the famous “Johnny Gaudreau Saves Christmas” game – he had a hat trick to rally back from 3-0 – igniting their regular season rivalry that’s lasted until now.
  • 7 games: Feb. 21-Mar. 3, 2016
    The 2015-16 Flames were alright, but really tanked their season in the second half with this cold streak. This string included three 2-1 losses.
  • 7 games: Mar. 16-29, 2018
    The second of two lengthy skids in 2017-18, this one probably spelled the end of Glen Gulutzan’s tenure behind the bench. The Flames wee shut out three times (4-0, 4-0 and 3-0), were drubbed by 5-1 scores twice, and also lost 7-4. They were a mess.
  • 6 games: Nov. 5-16, 2013
    The first big slide with Giordano as captain, most of the games in this one were reasonably close. They lost two one-goal games and a pair of two-goal games.
  • 6 games: Jan 20-Feb. 1, 2018
    The first stretch in 2017-18 that got the Flames behind the eight-ball, this one began with four consecutive extra time losses (two in overtime and two in shootouts). Appropriately, it ended with an overtime win.
  • 6 games: Nov. 9, 2019-Present
    These guys have lost in overtime, been shut out three times, and collectively scored six goals in six games.
Hockey is a streaky game and the Flames, historically, have been a streak team. But I’m not sure what it says about Giordano’s leadership or the team’s core that they typically have one absolutely insane cold streak per season. But even in the context of the bad stretches they’ve had in the past eight seasons, this one is particularly noteworthy for how one-sided the games have been score-wise and how much of a challenge the team has had scoring goals.
The Flames are back in action on Saturday morning against the Philadelphia Flyers.