Maybe an attitude adjustment is timely. Comfort is nice, and an odd place to be for the Flames with a six point bulge and teams between in the Western Conference playoff space, so maybe gravity is a good lesson at this point in the season.
The Flames were running roughshod over their key Western Conference opponents only to run into a true cup contender that humbles them in the Pittsburgh Penguins who cruised to a 4-0 win on Saddledome ice on Friday night.
Back to reality for the Flames, just in time for a key brief 2 game road trip through California.
The Flow
Another night with a tough first shift, but Calgary recovers and the two teams go back and forth in a track meet for several meetings. A brutal turnover form the least expected … Mark Giordano leads to Perron’s second return to Alberta goal and a 1-0 Penguin lead. Teams go back and forth for the majority of the period, exchanging chances but its the Pens that find the net again when Brandon Sutter tips in a puck late to make it 2-0. We didn’t know it then, but that was the best period of the night for Calgary.
The second is all Pittsburgh. The push the play early brutally outshooting their hosts and almost blowing the game wide open. Hiller holds the fort and keeps things close long enough to make a game of it, but a late tip in by Crosby makes it 3-0 and essentially that was it. The Flames hanging by a thread and either distracted or getting completely dominated by a better foe.
If there was ever any doubt the Pens put things away in the third early when Crosby broke in and buried the game with 15 minutes to play. And lets be honest folks, that was it … pure cruise mode from there.
Three Stars
1.Sidney Crosby: Penguin’s captain was all world in his 4th game in Calgary, scoring twice and adding an assist.
2.M.A. Fleury: Wasn’t tested all that much to be honest as the Flames were dominated and then shot wide when they had a chance, but a shut out is a shut out.
3.Chris Kunitz: Another quite night for a quiet star, three assists for the Crosby battery mate.
Big Save
The easy pick would be the Hudler’s half fan on an empty net in the third period, but to me the big save probably came on a weak shot by Lance Bouma on a breakaway in the second period. Calgary scores there and its a completely different game. Fleury gets a pad on it and the Penguins giggle their way home.
The Goat
Hate to do it, but Mark Giordano. He coughs up the puck on the Penguins goal in the first period, finishes the night -3 and shoots wide on what amounted to Calgary’s 3 best chances to score. Tough night for the Flame’s best player.
Mr. Clutch
David Perron. Have to hand it to the guy. Get relegated in Edmonton (third line), kept his mouth shut, endured, then gets traded to the Penguins and commences filling the net including goals in back to back games in Alberta. Solid.
Odds and Ends
Still find it odd that the Flames optioned out Grandlund and Baertschi today and not tomorrow. Clearly Glencross is close as he wore a green jersey at the pre game skate today, but Wolf was no where to be found, leaving the only healthy body in Calgary as Cory Potter (Bennett still wearing caution yellow). Why not wait until Saturday morning in case there was a mishap or a flue recurrence. Odd. … Every 2 points are important but the Flames sure made tonight the whip cream given the fact that stand was already 4-1-0 with the two most important games (San Jose / Winnipeg) resulting in regulation victories. If you’re going to lose games from here on out, it may as well be against the East, though not seven in a row when the briar is here! Wouldn’t trade tonight’s loss for any game in the stand save maybe the Wild game. … Is a Penguin loss good timing? The Flames were on a roll and getting a lot of good bounces, maybe a good thing to get humbled before a three game run that has them facing San Jose, L.A. and Vancouver in the next week. More microscopically, I love the fact that Mark Giordano is heading into this three game junket after his worst game of the season. … Misery was well spread out tonight with seven players posting a -2 or worse record and 12 players in total finishing on the negative side. The six players with a flat +/-? Stajan, Bouma, Jones, Raymond, Engellend and Diaz. Yep you guessed it!
Next Up
With a successful 6 game homestand behind them the Flames head out on the road for a two gamer to California, their first stop is another all important clash in San Jose Monday night, game time 830 Sportsnet.
Lines:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Lance Bouma – Mikael Backlund – David Jones
Mason Raymond – Josh Jooris – Joe Colborne
Brandon Bollig – Matt Stajan – Paul Byron
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Deryk Engellend – Raffa Diaz
Jonas Hiller
