Sutter thinks Flames are playing "really good" recently despite losing streak

The Calgary Flames are playing “really good” hockey right now, depending on who you ask.

The team hasn’t won a game since October 25, when they sat 5-1-0 and looked to be cruising after a chaotic offseason highlighted by the loss of Johnny Gaudreau and a high-profile trade of Matthew Tkachuk for Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar.

But injuries to Huberdeau and Chris Tanev, bad luck, and just a perfect storm of bad conditions has seen the Flames now drop seven games in a row, picking up just two points over the past two and a half weeks.

“We know as a team, there’s two or three games at home in that stretch [that] we didn’t play very good,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said after last night’s 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. “But the last four, it’s what I said at the start [of the press conference]: for four games in a row, we played really, really good, just not getting the result.”

On the losing streak, Calgary has five losses by just a lone goal, while last night’s game saw them within a goal until late into the third period.

“You can’t break away from how we have to play… without the high-end scorers, you’re gonna have to play that way.”

Sutter’s words do appear to be backed up by the more advanced stats.

Per Natural Stat Trick, the Flames sit fourth league-wide at a 5v5 Corsi-For% of 54.91, while their expected goals sit eighth in the NHL at 53.63%.

But their PDO — a metric that combines a team’s shooting and save percentage — sits at just .971, the fourth worst in the league.

“We just talked about the two things we for sure have to get better at this team [are] save percentage and shooting percentage. We’re probably in [the] bottom 10 for both so it’s probably what two wins [we don’t have] based on that,” Sutter added, seemingly confirming the numbers.

The Flames play host to the Winnipeg Jets tomorrow night, with puck drop set for 8 pm MT. One can only wonder what Sutter will have to say after that game.

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