Poor Start, Listless Play Continues as Flames Drop Ugly One to Predators 4-1

Calgary Flames 1 vs. Nashville Predators 4

Record: 5-4-0

Official Stats

Scoring

First

19:31 NSH [1]– Jankowski (1) (McCarron (1), Smith (4))

Second

0:59 NSH [2]– Forsberg (1) (Duchene (8), Lauzon (1))

2:27 NSH [3]– Josi (2) (Johansen (3), Forsberg (8)) PPG

Third

1:43 CGY [1]– Coleman (1) (Backlund (1))

19:46 NSH [4]– Duchene (3) (Granlund (9), McDonagh (4))

Game Notes

-Stop please?: The Edmonton loss not even a week ago was not ideal to be sure, but surely it could not have been so atrocious that we be forced to sit through two consecutive games of this line reshuffle. Milan Lucic did a fine job forechecking and disrupting things, but play continues to die with the puck near him. For a coach and team that has had such defined structure and puts an emphasis on knowing one’s role on the ice, it just is so unnecessarily bizarre to have Lucic this far out of his element. Not one line displayed an iota of chemistry tonight as the team continues to start slow and sustain sloppiness.

-Lone Star: Blake Coleman notched the only Calgary goal early in the third period thanks to some hard work by Mikael Backlund.

-Of course, right?: If you didn’t know, Mark Jankowski was a late callup by the Predators before Thursday’s game in which he made his Nashville and season debut. Now that you have that information, you would have of course immediately and correctly guessed that he scored against the Flames because they always do. With a season that still has yet to feature countless matchups against Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Mark Giordano, and many, many others we should certainly buckle in for that bizarre gut punch of former players scoring.

-Heaters: Not to absolutely pile on the same guys, but by the buzz of the final horn tonight it has been 43 games (playoffs and regular season combined) and 60 games respectively since each of Lucic and Kevin Rooney scored their last goals. Lucic’s last goal directed off his foot to end a 23 game goalless drought. With some deserving talent either sitting every single night in the press box or playing with no chance of upward movement in the AHL, it’s frustrating seeing these players who do a good job of the bare minimum and not much else get every chance for no reason other than seniority.

by Gordie Taylor