The Morning After

Calgary Flames 0 - Edmonton Oilers 4

Full Stats

Well, as far as preseason openers go, that was a dud.....for the Flames. Calgary was blanked 4-0 by the arch rivals, the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night. Calgary mustered only 15 SOG (not one period with double digits), while surrendering a ridiculous 49 to the Oilers. And this was an Oilers team playing without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. In true Darryl Sutter fashion the Flames were the more physical team, throwing 30 body checks as compared to Edmonton’s 9, but unless hits count as goals it doesn’t really matter. On top of that the Flames also had 14 minutes in penalties, which isn’t exactly something to write home about.

Now it’s only one preseason game and Calgary only played with five of their regulars on the ice: Mikael Backlund, Milan Lucic, Dillon Dube, Jusso Valimaki and Rasmus Andersson. The problem is that those five players accounted for only six SOG and four of those belonged to Backlund.

The Flames will need a better showing in their next effort when they play the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night. Again, it’s only one, mixed squad game, but a few stinkers like that and it’s time to get uneasy.

Post Game Reaction