The Calgary Flames, looking to snap a four game losing skid, hosted the Colorado Avalanche at the Saddledome last night. The Flames hadn’t scored in two straight games, and found themselves down a three spot midway through the second period after two goals from Andre Burakovsky in the first and another by Vladislav Kamenev in the second. They outshot the Avalanche 33-26, but it was too little too late as they fell for a firth game in a row.

Statistical Breakdown

5v5 SVA CF% SCF% HDCF% xGF% 48.6 53.7 39.5 45.7 51.4 46.3 60.5 53.3

Team Stats

5v5 Player Stats

Calgary Flames

Derek Ryan led the Flames in the Corsi department with 70.6%, 24 CF and 10 CA.

Elias Lindholm posted a team low 35.7% CF.

Zac Rinaldo was seventh among forwards with 54.6% CF, albeit in just 6:36 TOI.

Colorado Avalanche

Valeri Nichushkin led the Avalanche with 57.1% CF.

Erik Johnson was a game low 33.3% CF.

Only three Avalanche players were above 50% CF on the night: Nichushkin, Nazem Kadri (54.6%), and Cale Makar (51.4%)

Stats courtesy: Natural Stat Trick

Thoughts on the Game

Well, it was just another game where the Flames didn’t want it as badly as their opponent. To their credit, they had a much better effort than in games past. David Rittich did what he could to keep them in the game, but that second Burakovsky goal was a tough one to give up, especially because the Flames almost got to the first intermission down by just one. Once it became two, the road became much steeper.

It was great to see Andrew Mangiapane score another goal. He’s been solid to start the year and a mostly consistent bright spot particularly when he plays in the top six, and it’s nice to see him rewarded again tonight. Derek Ryan, who scored the first Flames goal, has rebounded nicely since a really rough start to the season. His line with Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube on the wings looked quite good last night and generated a lot more chances than previous iterations of the third line.

This team was already struggling and losing T.J. Brodie, Travis Hamonic, and Sam Bennett, in the span of one week doesn’t help. If the Flames want to break out of this awful skid, they’ll need to start grinding out some dirty wins. They’re not confident, not strong, frustrated, and missing guys. It’s not easy to win in this league, and that level of adversity doesn’t make it easy. The Flames aren’t out of it yet, not by a long shot. They still have a very realistic chance to win their way back into the playoff race but it’ll start with full team efforts and sticking to the style of game that they so perfectly executed last season. They may not have gotten back into the win column last night, but it was a good step forward.

The Gaud, the Bad, and the UGLY

Good: They scored!

Bad: They didn’t score until the second, when they were already in a 3-0 hole and had to climb back out. Not the way to win games.

Ugly: Despite a better effort, that’s the fifth straight loss for the Flames.

Next Game

Opponent: St. Louis Blues

Record: 13-4-5

Standings: 1st in the Central

Season Series: 0-0-1

Photo by: Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images