Calgary Flames 'pissed off' after embarrasing showing in home opener
What started as an exciting night for the Calgary Flames quickly turned into disappointment.
Fans packed the Scotiabank Saddledome for the final home opener at Calgary’s historic building, but they weren’t given much of a show. By the time the final horn sounded, the Seattle Kraken had walked away with a decisive 6-1 victory.
Nobody is expecting a ton from this Flames team this season, but the lack of effort didn’t sit well with the fan base. Those inside the dressing room felt similarly.
“It’s embarrassing,” Zach Whitecloud said.
“It’s going to test this group’s character. We’ll see how we react coming in tomorrow. It’s a new day, and we’re going to go over things. It’s going to be a lot of things to go over. I’m not sitting here saying that I’m not responsible for any of it. I’m at the top of the list.”
One of the few bright spots for the Flames was Ryan Strome, who registered four shots on net and scored Calgary’s only goal late in the third period. Like Whitecloud, however, Strome was frustrated by the team’s overall performance.
“If you’re a professional athlete and you go home feeling good about this one, something’s wrong with you,” Strome said.
“The good thing is we have a lot of guys that are pretty pissed off. We’ve got a great fan base, they come out and support us like tonight. To do that really sucks.”
Another interesting aspect of the loss was the ice time handed out by head coach Ryan Huska.
Morgan Frost played less than 13 minutes, while Matvei Gridin logged just 12:10. Some of that can be attributed to Calgary being shorthanded five times, but Huska made it clear that certain players simply didn’t do enough to earn more ice time.
“There are certain guys that didn’t deserve to be on the ice regularly, penalty kill aside. Let’s be honest with the way this game was played tonight,” Huska said. “I thought the penalty kill in the second period did a really good job to keep it close.”
“We need more from other guys that are non-penalty kill forwards.”
That message should be particularly noteworthy for a young Flames team entering a season in which development will be just as important as the results.
Calgary won’t be judged on one game, but the Flames’ first test of the season was about as ugly as it gets. Now, Huska and his players will have to see how they respond.
As Whitecloud said, it’s a new day. But after a performance like this, the Flames know they’ll need to be much better when they return to the ice on Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks.