Flames Versus Blackhawks Post-game Reactions and Highlights
by Kent Wilson on Nov 20, 2009 9:10 AM PST
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One of the few good things about a blow-out loss is it almost always results in some "interesting" reactions.
"We collapsed," Iginla said, sparking a quick flashback to the 5-0 lead in Chicago earlier this year that turned into a 6-5 loss -- a defeat that, to this point, had been their most appalling of the season.
That from Steve McFarlance's piece this morning. The rest is a series of quotes from players coaches talking about "competing harder and blah blah blah". The article points to the hit on Bourque by Chicago defender Hjardtospell and the subsequent retaliation penalty by Dawes as the turning point. And while that's probably where things started going down hill, the fact that the Flames couldn't kill his penalty - nor several of the ones after - is the real scapegoat here. Two minutes for defending a teammate was probably ill-advised, but would have been far less damaging if the club didn't stand around like shell-shocked vets during the subsequent penalty kill(s).
Perhaps the most provocative post-game quote came from Sutter himself, noted in this Inside the Flames post:
"This isn’t just something that just happened tonight," Sutter told the assembled throng of reporters. "We just happened to play a very talented team tonight. This has been something that has been addressed with this group since Day 1, that there’s too much inconsistency in their game. The reason why there’s too much inconsistency in their game is because there’s too much inconsistency with individuals wanting to stay with it for 60 minutes.
...
A reporter then asked if there was a problem with leadership in the dressing room.
"There’s things that I don’t want to discuss, but I know. I know what they are. But we are trying to deal with it.
"It starts with your top players and works on down."
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Four things
1) There’s nothing worse than someone defending a teammate, taking the penalty, and then the rest the team failing to pick that guy up by shitting the bed on the penalty kill. They should be busting their ass on that particular penalty, as if to say “defending a teammate is never a bad thing”.
2) I still don’t think that was the turning point, because the Flames had a number of great chances to tie it up after that. The 3rd goal (which looked weak to me when I saw it the fist time, but I haven’t watched a replay) was the turning point. Because…
3)…The Flames were the better team until the point. I know we’re conditioned to expect the Hawks to run them out of the rink and are hypersensitive to poor play by the Flames, Who’d expect anything different, right? Except I went back and rewatched large portions of the 1st and 2nd (up to the 3-1 goal). The Flames were flying; seriously, watch it again, they were forechecking well, they were transitioning the puck out of the zone as well as any game this year (against a ridiculously good forechecking team), they were generating chances. It wasn’t a ‘meh’ performance, it was the kind of hockey that will win them the division and playoff series. It wasn’t perfect, but it was really good, better than they were when they went up 5-0 on the Hawks in the last game.
4) BUT. The Big BUT. Sutter is completely right, this team is incapable of playing 60 minutes. I don’t watch most teams more than a few games a month, and I don’t watch them as closely, so this probably isn’t just a Flames thing. But their letdowns after goals scored, their one bad period (not bad stretch, bad period) a game, is mind boggling. I’ve been writing for a year that this is damning on Iggy’s “leadership”. I don’t think that word means as much as media and fans want it to mean, but Iggy is supposed to be one of the best leaders in the league, and he certainly is not a 60 minute force most games. Who on this team is? The only guys I see who look like they’re always really working hard out there are Boyd and Nystrom – certainly not always making smart plays, but always working. The guys who take more and longer shifts definitely float more (and that includes Bourque, even though he’s better than most). This has been a serious problem for 3 years now.
OK, long enough rant…
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