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Sutter blasts Flames: “You play a second period like that? At this time of the year?”

Brent Sutter

Calgary Flames coach Brent Sutter speaks to reporters in Calgary, Alberta, Monday, April 11, 2011. The Flames failed to make the NHL hockey playoffs. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

AP

Furious with his team’s effort in a 1-0 home loss to San Jose last night, Calgary head coach Brent Sutter lit into his players.

“We weren’t good enough tonight,” Sutter told the Calgary Herald. “We’re a team fighting to get into a playoff spot. You cannot have a second period like we played — we played the whole period in our own zone. For me it was disappointing. I was disappointed how we played here tonight, frankly . . . to be quite honest about it.

“You play a second period like that? At this time of the year?”

In Sutter’s defense, the second period was a disaster for the Flames. It took over 11 minutes to register the first of three shots in the frame (yeah, three) -- and that was only marginally better than the opening period, when it took Calgary nine minutes to register a shot on Antti Niemi.

All told, Calgary put 11 pucks on net through the first 40 minutes of play.

But the middle frame wasn’t all that pissed Sutter off. He also took issue with his top six forwards, who were invisible for most of the game.

“Our top two forwards lines weren’t very good,’’ Sutter said. “When one line has three shots on net between the three of them and they end up being a minus . . . And the other line? Everything was perimeter. Our top lines have got to play well.

“For whatever reason, they never had it tonight.”

The big culprits were Jarome Iginla (21:04, minus-1, one shot on goal), Mike Cammalleri (20:04, minus-1, one shot on goal) and Mikael Backlund (16:36, minus-1, one shot on goal). Had it not been for Olli Jokinen’s six shots on net -- nearly one-quarter of Calgary’s team effort -- the Flames would’ve registered one of their lowest shot totals of the season.

“Our second period,’’ said Iginla, “just wasn’t good enough. We were lucky to be 0-0 going into the third.

“I don’t think we competed hard enough offensively.”