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.
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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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