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Things are getting ugly.
Last night the Calgary Flames were in St. Louis looking to snap out of a five-game funk against a team missing arguably its best player (Vladimir Tarasenko). They, um, didn’t exactly succeed.
Zach Sanford scored ~halfway through the opening frame, continuing an extremely concerning trend of Calgary falling behind the 8-ball early.
To the surprise of nobody who follows the Flames closely these days, that *one* goal proved too much to overcome. They were blanked for the third time in five games despite firing 40 pucks on net.
The Flames have now scored just three goals over the last five games and netted two or less each time out during this pitiful six-game losing skid.
Part of the issue is simply unsustainably low percentages. Calgary has scored on fewer than 2% of their 5v5 shots and 4% of their high-danger shots. That’s not going to continue even if the team’s level of play doesn’t improve one bit.
With that said, the Flames are obviously not playing well. They’ve controlled ~47% of the expected goals and ~44% of the Grade A chances at 5v5 during this stretch. Those are really bad numbers.
The Flames have fared no better on special teams. They scored just one goal in more than 26 minutes of PP time. Their PK units gave up five and were full marks for it, allowing chances at a higher rate than *checks notes* every other team in the league.
It’s not an exaggeration to say every single aspect of the Flames has fallen apart at the seams. Percentages play a role, of course, but there are clearly real issues. Coaching, injuries, a lack of depth (if the stars don’t produce, nobody will), and confidence all come to mind.
I don’t know that there’s one perfect solution to fix everything. What I do know is that the Flames now, unacceptably, sit 26th in points percentage.
Be it unique line combinations, personnel moves, or something altered behind the bench, something has to change if things don't turn around – and fast.
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