The Calgary Flames' losing streak reached four games last night as they were on the receiving end of another blowout against the Montreal Canadiens.
A few notes: 1) For a while, the Flames were playing very good hockey and I was confident they would be climbing the standings, not falling down, as the games piled up. Boy, I was wrong.
The Flames have been a complete disaster of late losing six of their last seven and allowing 20 goals during their four-game skid.
Goaltending has been a big reason for the team's recent struggles, but the rest of the roster hasn't exactly helped the cause. There have been way too many turnovers and bad penalties, which has made life even more difficult on the already struggling Chad Johnson and Brian Elliott.
2) Though the Flames need to be better in front of their goaltenders, that doesn't excuse how terrible they have been of late. Over the last 11 games, the Johnson/Elliott duo has combined to stop 88% of the shots they've faced. For the sake of comparison, Karri Ramo, Jonas Hiller, and Joni Ortio combined to stop 89% of the shots they faced last season. The goaltending has been *that* bad of late.
3) Can we stop with the Troy Brouwer thing? Seriously. The guy is spoonfed 17 minutes a night, quality linemates (he is almost always with at least one of Sean Monahan or Johnny Gaudreau), power play time, etc. and he's producing at a 32-point pace over 82 games. He has also been a black hole in possession.
I was against the signing at the time and he's been worse than I expected. Only 3.5 years to go!
4) A good way to put the Flames' struggles in perspective: they were one second away from being blanked by a goaltender who allowed 38 goals in 11 starts heading into last night's game. I know Carey Price is Carey Price, but they made life pretty easy on him.
5) The All-Star break could be a blessing in disguise for the Flames as they'll have a handful of days off to recharge, regroup and forget about the recent struggles. Having time off to regain their footing is a lot more ideal than piling up the losses when they're in a bad state. Maybe this will stop the bleeding.