Calgary head coach Bob Hartley didn’t hold back when it came to assessing a couple of the goals that beat netminder Reto Berra during Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Edmonton.
“We gave them two goals out of three,” Hartley said. “After 40 minutes, I felt that we gave them nothing. We were playing our style. Then, their first goal and third goal, there’s only one word for those two goals - awful.”
The first goal, by Jordan Eberle, was more of a team failure, though Berra looked a little, um, unconventional on it:
Here was the third goal, by Edmonton’s David Perron:
Yet despite what happened Saturday, Hartley will apparently turn to Berra, 26, again tonight when the Flames visit Winnipeg.
Not that the coach is sitting on any great alternatives. Karri Ramo, who returned to the NHL this season after starring in the KHL, is 2-4-1 with a .882 save percentage; journeyman Joey MacDonald is 3-3-1 with a .885 save percentage.
After 20 games, Calgary’s team save percentage sits at .875, the lowest in the league.
Suffice to say, in the wake of Miikka Kiprusoff’s retirement, the future in the Flames’ crease remains very much up in the air. A 22-year-old by the name of Joni Ortio is putting up decent numbers with AHL Abbotsford, but it’s hard to say if he’s got an NHL career ahead of him.