Talk about bad signs.
The Flames are in a rebuild.
The Flames are heavily injured missing their two best defenseman, and two of their best forwards.
The Flames were playing an afternoon game, something they’ve never been proficient at.
Oh and they were playing in Anaheim, a city in which they haven’t tasted victory since Roman Turek was their goaltender.
All they were missing was the second half of back to backs and they’d have the gamete of really good reasons they’d lose a tough one in Anaheim.
The result? It wasn’t all that tough as the Ducks cruised to an easy peasy 5-2 pasting of the Flames at the Honda Center on Black Friday afternoon.
On The Line
The Flames simply have to keep pushing.
Just two months into a rebuild and so far the club has been a pleasant surprise with their work ethic and ability to hang in against tougher and more skilled opponents. With the recent rash of injuries this “motif” will get challenged big time, can they continue to be the plucky, unlikely club? Or will they wilt?
The Flow
I’m not even going to break this up into periods as they all looked pretty much the same.
The over matched Flames did little by way of offence; their two goals were suspect at best as far as quality scoring chances. Defensively they panicked with the puck, got running around in their own zone, and turned the puck over on numerous occasions.
The goaltending was pretty much in par with the rest of the club, as Berra struggled with his positioning again from time to time, but was worked pretty hard from an advancing Duck crew.
1.Dustin Penner: Former Duck, Oiler and King scores twice at key times to pace the home side.
2.Cory Perry: The good are well good, Perry’s quick hands on a first perod tip was a key goal for the Duck’s making it 2-0 and putting the writing on the wall.
3.Ryan Getzlaf: The man with receding hair hasn’t seen a similar surrender in his game, setting up two goals.
Big Save
Was there a big save? Honestly I don’t think so in this one. I’ll give credit to Kari Ramo though for coming off the bench cold, and having not played since Denver in the first week of November with a few solid shots including a pad save on Getzlaf.
Big Hit
Matt Beleskey was a one man hitting crew, running over Smid twice, and Colborne in the neutral zone to be the most notable body muncher.
The Goat
Can you pick one? Chris Breen had a tough night but that hardly seems fair given his experience so I’ll give him a pass. Butler had a nasty turnover, Reto Berra had a tough night especially on the Ducks first goal. I thought the first line was soft on advancing the puck. Not a good night.
Mr. Clutch
Guess I’ll give David Jones the nod for two goals in a game where the pace and style of play seemed more 6-0 then 5-2.
Odds and Ends
When the rebuilding Flames are healthy I see their defense core as a 2, a soon to be 2, a 3 or 4 that’s paid like a 2, two 5s, and a few 7s. But when the 2 is hurt, the expensive 3/4 is out and everyone has to play like 106 it’s a tough road! Working in one defenseman like Chris Breen is a good experiment in future development, but with Giordano and Wideman out it was certainly obvious that the Flames just don’t have the horses to compete in their own zone. When your number one defense pairing is an emerging T.J. Brodie and a Blues’ cast off you just don’t have a chance. … As expected the Flames moved Backlund up the lineup to fill in for the injured rookie Sean Monahan. He didn’t move into Monahan’s spot but actually into Colborne’s who moved up a spot to take Monahan’s role. Backlund could be seen taking a stern talking too by Hartley after taking a penalty for flipping the puck over the boards; never a good sign. In the end though he was actually +1 which is pretty ironic in a game like today’s. … Colborne? -2 in front of the Flame dads. If you feel there’s a Backlund conspiracy theory you have some ammo. … Funny watching Ladislav Smid do his little running man dance on the bench after thinking he scored his first goal as a Flame. The book on Smid is a good room guy with a great sense of humour. … Damn Oilers, Flames blow a lead to the Hawks, and get buried by the Ducks and the guys from up north lay an egg in Columbus and still don’t pass the Flames. How many of you had the Flames up on the Oilers heading into December? I didn’t. But then I didn’t see the Oil collapsing and almost drafting ahead of Calgary last year either. Sure makes this rebuild more tolerable to see that one at the same time. … Hard to believe the Flames only have 69 man games lost to injury this season for a position of roughly 15th league wide. The site I found had guys like Mcintyre in Edmonton our for 23 games though so maybe they’re a little liberal on who counts as hurt. … The Flames are now 14 points out of a playoff spot in the west, which makes their magic number to miss the playoffs 50!
Next Up
Things don’t get much easier for the Flames as they travel across town to take on the L.A. Kings last night; game two on HNIC 8pm start.
Lines:
Cammalleri – Stajan – Stempniak
Baertschi – Colborne – Hudler
Bouma – Backlund – D.Jones
B.Jones – Reinhart – McGrattan
Russell – Brodie
Smid – Butler
Smith – Breen
Berra
