Bottom of the league in goals scored and goal differential, the Calgary Flames are now the NHL’s last-place team.
They can’t score, they can’t defend.
There’s no sugar-coating where this beleaguered bunch sits a mere half-dozen games into the season, losing five in a row to sit 1-5.
And the road ahead doesn’t get any easier, facing Winnipeg in two of their next three games.
A 6-1 beating in Vegas on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday added to the frustration of an already-challenging start, especially since the effort of several players was called into question.
Coach Ryan Huska, whose players rarely shortchange him on heart, said half his forwards didn’t give the sort of effort expected.
Captain Mikael Backlund agreed the group didn’t show near enough fight after an evenly played first period saw the Flames down 3-1.
“The battle has pretty much been there from the boys, but tonight I don’t think it was up to our standards,” said Backlund.
The harshest criticism came from HNIC’s Kevin Bieksa, who blasted Yegor Sharangovich for failing to finish a check on William Karlsson late in the game.
“I would absolutely lose my mind if I saw that on the bench,” said Bieksa.
“That’s a culture thing for me. I would show that clip in practice and say, ‘where are my guys that care?’ Play the guys that care. If you’re going to get an effort like that, get rid of him. You’re disgracing the NHL with an effort like that. Be a little mad. Hate to lose. That guy doesn’t hate to lose.
“You have so many good young players … you have a young nucleus and you can’t have them poisoned by that type of behaviour.”
More takeaways from (another) nightmare in Vegas:
After missing the first five games of the season due to a pre-season injury, Jonathan Huberdeau returned to the lineup and made an immediate impact with a power-play goal three minutes in. Banging in a rebound on the power-play to tie the game 1-1, it kickstarted an evening in which the team’s best playmaker did well to inject some energy into the top line with Nazem Kadri and Joel Farabee.
“You need your best players to be your best players every night and I thought the Kadri, Huberdeau, Farabee line was excellent for us tonight, consistently,” said Huska.
“They had the puck a lot and were dangerous. The challenge becomes, it’s everybody. You can’t rely on the one group of guys. I don’t think we had enough other players that were as engaged as that line.”
Huberdeau said his club isn’t playing as a unit, trying too hard to do things individually.
“Right now it’s just too easy against us,” said Huberdeau, whose club allowed Mark Stone and Jack Eichel to pile up four points apiece.
“We’re leaving the best player on the other team wide open. We’ve got to be harder on these guys.”
Go ahead and try to blame Dustin Wolf on any of the five goals he was beaten on, but you’d be wrong to do so.
Still, after being beaten five times on 19 shots, Wolf gave way to Devin Cooley for the third period.
It was a salient move given the rigorous schedule ahead this week, with Winnipeg in town Monday, Montreal visiting Wednesday and a return trip to Winnipeg on Friday.
Cooley was spectacular in his season debut Wednesday in Utah, and was solid again Saturday, victimized only once by a Vegas power play that finished three-for-three on the night. He stopped eight of nine shots.
Having taken note of a high hit Colton Sissons made on Zayne Parekh when these two teams met four nights earlier, Ryan Lomberg took the opportunity to let the Vegas forward know it didn’t sit well with the Flames.
Two minutes in, to the surprise of no one, the two decided to settle the score.
Six minutes later, the Golden Knights took exception to a heavy Adam Klapka hit on Zach Whitecloud when Jeremy Lauzon dropped the gloves with the big Flames winger.
“The (Connor) Zary line, with Lomberg and Klapka, I thought gave us a great effort tonight – two good fights from the two guys on that line but we didn’t have much from the other two lines tonight,” said Huska.
“We’re in a stretch right now where we’re not playing poorly – I thought tonight’s game got away from us for sure – but it’s the consistency our team has to play with for a full 60 minutes. We need to be more committed and more detailed for a full 60 minutes for more than we’ve shown this year.”
There was good news on the farm, where rookie Matvei Gridin scored his first AHL goal in his first AHL game just 37 seconds into the contest Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. Hunter Brzustewicz also scored his first of the season, although the Wranglers fell 5-4 in OT.
