Things are going from bad to worse for the Calgary Flames.
The team entered the year with sky high expectations yet have come out of the gate flat as a pancake dropping five of their first six games.
Their 1-5-0 start - including 0-4-0 at home - is the worst the franchise has seen in its history.
There are several reasons for the Flames' struggles but the biggest issues have been a) goaltending and b) 5 vs 5 play.
Those two problems reared their ugly heads again on Tuesday as Karri Ramo and Jonas Hiller combined to stop just 24 of 30 (.800SV%) while the team was out-scored 6-2(!!) at even-strength in this game.
The Flames now have a minus-13 goal differential at full-strength - only 0-7-0 Columbus is worse - and Ramo/Hiller are stopping just .866% of the pucks they face in that game state. Again, Columbus is the only team below them in that regard.
As bad as the results have been the Flames are getting what they deserve. They've regularly been outshot/out chanced and that shows in the numbers as they're the 27th ranked possession team and are 28th when it comes to scoring chances. They're generating a measly 44.2% of them at evens.
Those numbers are truly terrible and there's obviously more than one or two factors playing into it.
Here is a big one.
Sad truth: Engelland and Kulak probably #Flames best defensive pairing this season.
— Ryan Pike (@RyanNPike) October 21, 2015That the Engelland - Kulak pairing can even be put into the same conversation as the Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton pairing when it comes to quality of play is a serious problem.
Giordano and Hamilton were supposed to form one of the better pairings in hockey and right now they're not even one of the better pairings on their team.
If things don't change - and fast - the Flames could dig themselves a hole too big to climb out of in an ultra competitive Western Conference.
Recent posts: On even-strength struggles, goaltending woes & more