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Seguin and Benn Combine for 11pts to Take Win Over Flames...

November 15, 2013, 9:32 AM ET [101 Comments]
Colin Dambrauskas
Calgary Flames Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow Colin on Twitter!: @ColinDJD

The Calgary Flames were essentially lit up last night by Tyler Seguin and the Dallas Stars.

Having a career record night scoring four goals, the Stars’ centerman and forward Jamie Benn combined for 11 points during their 7-3 victory over the Flames. Extending their current 10 game record to 2-7-1, Calgary has been experiencing some difficulties trying to outscore their Western Conference opponents.

Currently sitting at 13th in their conference and 26th in the league, the “hard work” style of hockey once embraced by the team is simply not getting it done for Bob Hartley and the Flames. As with most teams this year, Calgay has experienced its fair share of key injuries which caused some challenges given that the Flames were already considered a weaker group on paper.

That said, the team has shown a lot of discipline and hard work throughout most games played early on this year. While we all knew their early success likely couldn’t last against much stronger opponents, Calgary will now have to find ways to improve upon their lack of success over the previous ten games, even if it means simply improving upon certain stats or positional play which they currently struggle with.

With respect to last night’s game, the team simply did not seem focused enough to maintain the Stars. While it remains rather difficult to judge how a goalie like Reto Berra or Karri Ramo have been doing in games like these, I still maintain that Berra has been looking quite good.

I won’t hold last night’s game against either of these goalies at the moment because quite frankly, Seguin and Benn were having one heck of a night as the puck always found its way onto their stick at the right time.

"You'd hope that they're catching some attention. They've had a very good start for us and they've been leading our team offensively," Ruff said. "Like most teams, you don't often find one guy up in the standings, it's usually two guys that work well together. Those two guys have had chemistry ever since camp."


It was nice to see Matt Stajan find the back of the net twice last night as being the most seasoned centerman on the team, he needs to help lead this group through the rebuild. Having a terrible first two periods, the team essentially fell apart as they watched the Stars put up point after point.


Similar to their loss against the Sharks, Calgary did not have enough energy to their game as the puck was first dropped, and as a result didn’t make it overly difficult for Dallas to walk away with two points.

"We need to get back to our game and get back to our game quick. That's unacceptable," said Flames coach Bob Hartley. "We're basically giving games away with unnecessary mistakes. Basic, simple mistakes that shouldn't happen at this level."


As mentioned by the coach, the team appears to have lost its initial rush and chemistry which was displayed early on in the season. Constant mental mistakes and proving to have the inability to cycle the puck down low offensively, Calgary has not been looking too sharp of late and needs to get refocused.

While I am sure there are many of you out there that are content with the team losing as a finish in the bottom of the standings will be rewarded with another high draft pick, the team needs to stay away from welcoming a losing environment and must understand that anything less than 100% effort will not be tolerated.

Although winning games with a starless group such as the Flames is certainly challenging, the team should not lose sight on their goal for the year – be hard to play against. I can confidently say that last night, this team was the furthest thing from being hard to play against.

How the coaching staff and veteran players will react to their recent losses is left to be seen, however I should hope to see some fire under their rears during the next couple of games as they try and improve upon the previous.

That’s all for today folks, thanks for reading!
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