Facing Connor Bedard for the first time, the Flames fell flat in a 3-1 loss in Chicago
Facing Connor Bedard for the first time, the Flames fell flat in a 3-1 loss in Chicago
Watching the Chicago Blackhawks beat up on the Calgary Flames kind of gives you hope for what a rebuild could look like. A team having some fun even while losing frequently.
Then again, the Blackhawks have Connor Bedard. He’s worth the price of admission every night.
The NHL rookie of the year candidate finished with just one assist in his first game against the Flames this season, kicking off a 3-1 victory with a helper on Seth Jones’s powerplay goal just 3:35 into the game with the visitors finding themselves in penalty trouble early.
But Bedard — who missed the first two contests against the Calgary Flames recovering from his broken jaw — seemed to have the puck on a string on nearly every shift, piling up nine shot attempts with five hitting Flames netminder Jacob Markstrom. The 18-year-old freshman fell into the Hawks’ lap via lottery, and with four straight losses, maybe the Flames are headed in that direction.
The loss only further whittles away any glimmer of hope they had for the playoffs. Officially, their magic number (I still don’t understand the ‘magic’ of it) is now eight. Any combination of lost points or points gained by the Vegas Golden Knights will mathematically eliminate the Flames. That could happen as soon as Saturday if things continue to go off the rails.
The first period was a train wreck for Calgary.
A slashing penalty on Daniil Miromanov in the opening minute was followed by a hooking infraction by captain Mikael Backlund, who tried to slow Bedard down on the powerplay.
By the time Jones scored, the penalty killers were exhausted.
Jason Dickinson netted his first of two on the night before the end of the opening period. The Blackhawks fired 15 shots at Markstrom in the opening 20 minutes, with the Flames responding with just a handful of their own.
Those wondering if they’d crumble or fight for a comeback might look at the shot count the rest of the way and assume the Flames dominated the final 40, but even as they outshot the Hawks 34-12 the rest of the way, there weren’t too many high-danger chances for goaltender Petr Mrazek to worry about at the other end.
Dickinson gave Chicago a 3-0 lead early in the third and it was almost 4-0 a few minutes later when Blackhawks rookie Landon Slaggert appeared to score his first NHL goal. But video showed it went off the crossbar. Don’t worry, he did earn his first two assists in the league on a pretty good night against what’s looking like a really bad team right now.
Whether it’s the weight of the season that saw a handful of key players get traded away, the controversy over the trade that didn’t happen (Markstrom), or just a case of players making mistakes whether they’re veterans or developing players, the offensive has disappeared over the current losing streak.
MacKenzie Weegar scored at 12:25 with a wrister through traffic, but it rarely felt like the lead was in danger.
That’s something the Calgary Flames will have to fix if they want to finish with any fight.
