Calgary Flames 1 Pittsburgh Penguins 9

Complete Stats

Recap

Someone forgot to tell the Flames that they had a game tonight because it looked like Pittsburgh was out there all by themselves tonight. The Penguins chased Mike Smith from the game and hung 9 goals on the Flames like it was the easiest thing in the world to do.

Yes, the Flames looked “decent” early as they peppered Matt Murray with some high quality scoring chances, but the Flames had no answer until it was WAY too late. Murray was an absolute brick wall, stopping 38 of the 39 shots that came his way. The only puck to make it past Murray was a late 3rd period goal by James Neal that was in effect, just lipstick on a pig. Very bad lipstick on a very ugly pig.

Pretty much NOTHING went the Flames way tonight as Pittsburgh just kept coming in waves. Even while they were up big late in the 3rd, Pittsburgh was relentless with their pressure in the offensive zone. Were they running the score up? Who knows and who cares. This is big boy sports. Stop the puck from going in and you won’t have an 8 goal deficit when the clock hits the 60th minute.

This is the Flames worst loss since a 9-0 beatdown (I was there, it was worse than the score reads) at the hands of the Boston Bruins back on January 5, 2012. Calgary just had no answers to anything Pittsburgh brought to the rink. Goaltending was poor. Offence was anemic. Defence was atrocious. And as usual, the power play was 0-3, while the PK failed to stop the Penguins on both of their power plays. Just utter crap all around.

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: None

2nd: None

3rd: Neal (2) (Monahan, Dube)

Pittsburgh Penguins

1st: Crosby (3) (Letang, Brassard), Hornqvist (3) (Crosby, Malkin), Rust (1) (Simon, Oleksiak)

2nd: Kessel (5) (Malkin), Hornqvist (4) (Sheahan, Dumoulin), Kessel (6) (Letang), Johnson (1) (Brassard,Maatta)

3rd: Guentzal (5) (Crosby), Cullen (1) (Simon)

Final Thoughts

There isn’t much more to say. This was a pathetic performance by the Flames and it’s only going to be worse when the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals come to town on Saturday if things don’t get fixed. Good luck. When the best thing you could say about the Flames during the TV broadcast was from Kelly Hrudey: “Stone laid a pretty big hit on Malkin early trying to set the tone...”, well, there you go.

Flame Of The Game

HA! No one. Not a chance. On to Saturday.

What’s Next?

10/27: Calgary Flames vs Washington Capitals, 2 PM MT