If you’re in a fantasy league right now, do your best to try to get whatever goalie is playing the Calgary Flames on any given night.
Is there really anything else that needs to be said after last night’s game… And the game before that… And outside of their “blip” against Colorado, every single game since Christmas?
I guess the holidays really ARE over.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Despite the eerily similar result, and the perception that the Flames just mailed another one in, they were actually a lot better than they were in Phoenix. They did well in killing two penalties but gave up a goal that Brodie just missed the pass on that was a bit of a momentum killer after the great PK work, but that didn’t stop the Flames. In fact, they had a great scoring chance a short time later when Lance Bouma had a tap-in slide through his skates… Actually, a lot like the pass from Derek Roy to Chris Stewart went through Brodie’s legs… Maybe there’s a drill out there somewhere to work on that, but I digress…
Anyway, it was the subsequent Blues rush and the “soft” goal that Ramo would love to have back off of the Sobotka shot that really took the wind out of the Flames sails.
To their credit, they at least created a lot more scoring chances than they did against the Coyotes, but they simply can’t buy a goal right now and it’s evident in the body language of the players as they struggle through these games. The frustration is palpable as they search for answers to their issues.
You could shoot for the “positive” spin and claim that if Bouwma scores on his chance (one of a couple golden opportunities to be frank) or Hudler get’s his shot to go off the post and in, then we’re looking at a completely different game.
That’s true.
It’s also true that if fishes were wishes we’d all have wings.
That’s the thing about trying to romanticize events that happen during a game, your turning points if you will. As the old adage states: “You have to be good to be lucky, and you have to be lucky to be good”. Sure, it trivializes things a little and simplifies what are actually complex events (You know… Like Corsi tries to… and fails miserably at… but anyway) but the fact is that good teams find ways to get bounces. Another classic standby is: “You create your own luck”. It certainly seems like good teams find ways to get good bounces more consistently than bad teams, can’t argue with the evidence there.
Right now the Flames are going through a monumental struggle to score goals. It’s the kind of adversity that can build character, and an appreciation for how hard it is to win at this level, and a renewed commitment to doing everything you can to squeeze everything you have out of your abilities and do whatever it takes to be successful.
Conversely, it can also completely destroy the confidence of a young, fragile team and render them virtually ineffective and stunt their development for a long time as complacency with losing sets in and just becomes “the way it is”
In the case of the Calgary Flames, let’s hope it’s the former.
Have a great day!
Oh… Just as a side note, despite a 5-0 loss, Mark Giordano was named the game’s third star by nhl.com. Fun fact. :D
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