The Calgary Flames, after a tumultuous trade deadline behind them and a “marching order” from ownership to general manager Jay Feaster to make next year’s playoffs, got off to a good start against the surging Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
And then the Flames wilted. After grabbing a 2-0 lead, Calgary surrendered the next eight goals, in an 8-2 loss. Forget the Battle of Alberta. This was a Hockey Beating in Alberta. In fact, that was just the second round.
The Flames lost the first half of this home-and-home with Edmonton, and have been outscored 12-3 in that span.
“I don’t think we could get much worse than that. That’s rock bottom, I think,” Flames forward Matt Stajan told NHL.com.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, though. That’s our effort. That’s what we deserved. We didn’t deserve anything better than that. We left our goalie out to dry. It’s on ourselves to turn it around and come to the rink and expect a lot more of each other.
“It doesn’t matter where we sit in the standings. You’ve got to come to the rink. We’re NHL hockey players. You’ve got to play with a pride and give it your all every single shift. If we do that, we’ll compete every night. Today we didn’t do that.”