The Calgary Flames had a decent enough start on Friday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, generating some decent scoring chances in the first period.

They trailed 1-0 off a power play goal by the Blackhawks, but they entered the third period with the proverbial “puncher’s chance” to get back into the game. A bounce or a bloop off somebody’s skate or stick or shinpad would tie the game. They had an opportunity, on home ice, to win the game by winning the third period.

However, they did not win the third period.

Chicago scored three times in the final 20 minutes of three Flames turnovers to run away with the game, beating the Flames by a 4-0 score at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Flames alternate captain MacKenzie Weegar had the inauspicious distinction of being on the ice for all four of Chicago’s goals. He offered his assessment of what he saw from his club following the game.

“I don’t know why we thought we were down four goals going into the third period,” said Weegar. “We just lacked our structure. You know, the first one, kick in, second one, 2-on-1, third one, 3-on-1, fourth one, turnover. And we didn’t score any, so that’s what I saw.”

“I wasn’t a fan of our game tonight,” assessed head coach Ryan Huska. “To me, we were slow because there was a lack of execution in a lot of different places. With the puck, without the puck, lots of issues for us.”

Chicago made it 1-0 on a first period power play, with Rasmus Andersson in the box, when Tyler Bertuzzi deflected a Connor Bedard pass in off his ankle.

They made it 2-0 on a two-on-one rush off an offensive zone breakdown, with Bertuzzi scoring off a Bedard pass. The 3-0 goal was on a three-on-rush rush off another offensive zone breakdown, with Andre Burakovsky scoring. The 4-0 goal came when Bedard stole a puck from Morgan Frost and went in alone against Dustin Wolf.

Asked about Weegar’s comments about the club lacking structure, Huska added his assessment.

“He probably said [we] got away from structure because we gave up two odd man rush goals, right?” said Huska. “And the [second] one, there’s a wall player in a pinch, whatever you want to call it, but we had two players go to the same guy. So that happened. And the third one, we had a forward already filling for a defenceman and we had no presence in the middle of the ice. So those for sure are the issues that we had to be talking.”

Weegar thought the Flames had their moments, but didn’t think his club had a ton of energy in the game.

“Half the guys were into the game, half the guys weren’t,” said Weegar. “I could feel the sense, you know, after the first period, during the first period, it felt quiet. It wasn’t much energy. Half the guys had some energy, half the guys didn’t.”

After the strong showing up and down the lineup on Wednesday, when the Flames beat Columbus by a 5-1 score in Nazem Kadri’s 1,000th game, Weegar wasn’t sure why the Flames had the dip against Chicago.

“It’s tough to explain,” said Weegar. “I don’t know why we have passengers. When we’re trying to get back into, you know, being a 500 team, and then we can kind of take off from there. So, you know, everybody should be showing up every single night, prepared, ready to go with lots of energy.”

It was a weird game, with Zayne Parekh leaving early in the second period off a hit from Nick Foligno, and Joel Farabee playing roughly 3:44 as a defenceman in the second period with the Flames missing both Weegar and Joel Hanley as they served fighting penalties.

With Friday’s result, the Flames are the first club in the NHL to reach 10 regulation losses in 2025-26, dropping to 4-10-2. They remain in 32nd place, last overall, in the NHL standings. They’ll attempt to bounce back on Sunday night when they visit the Minnesota Wild.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.