A consistent November has slowly become a December nightmare. The Flames, the picture of perfection in a tough month of sledding, losing their mojo and coming up empty in their third straight contest, this time by a 4-3 score in St. Louis.
Disconcerting? Sure. Alarming? Not in the least as a road weary hockey team loses it’s focus and likely falls right into their coach’s trap in a season that was always more about February than it ever could be about October, November, or December.
On The Line
Teams desperately try to avoid losing two games in a row. Do that and you have yourself a very consistent, elite season. If the second loss is already in the books then the chip stack is taller for game three. Lose that one and you officially have a skid. Win it and you right the ship and go the other way.
The Flow
A decent start for the Flames though the Blues opened the scoring early and had the early play. The white clad visitors didn’t roll over however, as Rene Bourque’s 10th of the season notched things at one and sent the Flames into their best stretch of the period. A late first period tally by St. Louis restores their lead.
The second was pretty much more of the same with Calgary striking twice to take their only lead of the night on goals by Daymond Langkow and Dustin Boyd. Another back breaking late goal by St. Louis closes out the period and sends things to the final twenty all tied up.
Not the best third period to finish out an otherwise solid road effort as the Flames were spectators for the most part, getting out shot 10-4 and yielding the only goal; the game winner by T.J. Oshie. Back to the drawing board.
Three Stars
1. Brad Boyes: Picked up three assists, on the first three Blues’ goals to pace the way for the home squad.
2. T.J. Oshie: Snaps a scoring funk with the game winner in the third period.
3. Rene Bourque: Goal and an assist for the visitors.
The Goat
Calgary’s top line. This mini-funk the Flames find themselves mired in has seen the complete disappearance of both Olli Jokinen and Jarome Iginla. Add in the lack of offense from Dion Phaneuf, and too many high paid players seemed to have left their best in San Jose two weeks ago.
Mr. Clutch
Curtis McElhinney. The Flames were out shot once again, and the backup was solid in a backup role against a team that generally has trouble scoring. He had his club tied up going to the third before they laid an egg in front of them.
Odds and Ends
Things were bound to go bad again for the Flames, as the NHL in this era is a league of ebb and flow. Not sure which of ebb or flow describes a losing skid, but a losing skid it is. The bright side is the timing, as this gives Brent Sutter another chance to circle the wagons and get his club back to basics; much like the Chicago blowout four weeks ago. Better to see a slide in December, and after such a strong first two months of the season then in February with little time to correct. … Anyone bemoaning the Flames carrying extra bodies on the blueline now? For weeks they seemed like wasted warm bodies, but now with Cory Sarich out long term, and Adam Pardy out for a handful of games the Kronwall/Johnson fall back has been a pretty good move by the Flames. Matt Pelech will be a good NHL defenseman but he isn’t ready to be pushed into top five minutes. … Parity in the NHL. Calgary’s third straight loss drops them into 6th place, only four points up on a playoff spot. Once again … no need to panic!
Next Up
Thursday night the Flames return to Calgary to take on the seriously hot L.A. Kings at 7.30pm on TSN.
Lines:
Dawes – Jokinen – Iginla
Bourque – Langkow – Moss
Conroy – Boyd – Glencross
McGrattan – Nystrom – Prust
Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester
Johnson – Pardy
Kiprusoff
