Struggling Flames find positives, but still lose sixth straight

Despite another strong outing from goalie Jacob Markstrom and after thoroughly outplaying the Dallas Stars for long stretches of Wednesday night’s contest, the Calgary Flames still dropped their sixth straight game.

Calgary came out with far more intensity and urgency than on previous nights in a 4-3 loss at the Saddledome, and were aided by rookie Connor Zary scoring on one of his first NHL shifts. 

“I feel like I was able to showcase myself a little bit,” the 22-year-old said.

“First period I was a little nervous and had to get the butterflies out, but I think it became just another hockey game…it’s a little harder to enjoy when you don’t get the win.”

“I thought Connor was excellent tonight,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said.

“He played with confidence. He played with courage and he was one of our better forwards tonight.” 

Nazem Kadri had one of his best games of the season, finishing with two assists and driving his line. Despite his efforts, along with Zary, and another strong start from Markstrom, who stopped 26 of 30 shots, the Flames were undone by mental lapses.

Near the end of the first period and with the Flames on the power play, Markstrom and blueliner Rasmus Andersson miscommunicated on a Stars dump-in, which led to the tying goal. At the end of the second period, the Flames simply stopped skating, which led to a Mason Marchment goal that was ultimately the game winner. 

“Every team is going to have lapses,” blueliner MacKenzie Weegar, who scored in the loss, said.

“Dallas had many lapses. You’ve just got to stick with it. If you start thinking about the mistake you had the shift prior, it’s just going to make it worse for yourself…are you going to go back out there in the same situation and make that mistake or…make the right decision? It’s all mental.”

Huska agreed with his defenceman, repeating that the team has to “stick with it.”

“When there is a shift in momentum, which happens in every game…you have to dig in and find a different level to make sure you shift it back,” he said.

“You need someone or a line or a pair to step up and say, ‘That’s enough. We’ve got to get the momentum back on our side.’ We have to get to that sooner than later.”

While work ethic has come up after other losses in this skid, Kadri re-stated that the team’s standard internally is higher than outside expectations.

“As hard as the media can be, we’re even harder on ourselves,” he said.

“We understand the standard we have to play. We didn’t get here [by] not holding ourselves to that standard. Whatever the narrative is, we expect even more out of ourselves. With that attitude, sooner rather than later, you’re going to start seeing good things happen.”

The coach and players pointed out that their effort in the third period, where the Flames outshot the Stars 22-5 and controlled the flow of play, was an example of a positive step. To get out of this funk, they’ll have to build off that final frame. 

“The third period was more of our team showing a bit of swagger,” Huska said.

“The only way to get out of it is together and I thought in the third period, we did a much better job of that.”

Given where they are in the standings, now 2-7-1 with the second-worst record in the NHL, it’s fair to wonder about the morale of the group. Ten games into the season, the Flames are already five games under .500 and have regressed in key areas compared to last season. They’re focused on turning the page, but with a sense of urgency in knowing that it’s starting to get late early. Calgary is already seven points out of third place in the Pacific Division and is quickly losing ground in the wild-card race.

“You’ve gotta move on quick,” Weegar said. 

“If you get frustrated, if you get down on yourself in this league, it’ll eat you right up and spit you out.”

“You’ve got no choice [but to keep the belief],” Kadri said.

“If you’re a negative person and just focus on the negativity and let it consume you, that hole’s going to get a lot deeper. If you have that positive energy…you can still feel good about yourself and tonight, I think we can.”