Time to give kids more looks as Flames lose 5-3 to Anaheim after great effort against Kings
Facing a two-goal deficit with a little more than a minute to play, and a faceoff in the offensive zone, Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska chose not to pull goaltender Jacob Markstrom for an extra attacker.
It’s the NHL equivalent of waving the white flag.
Given the relatively rough outing the Flames starter had in a 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, and the countdown on for an early offseason, minutes for Markstrom may be rare the rest of the way.
Wins don’t matter. It’s time to let the kids have more time in key situations.
In goal, that means more Dustin Wolf before his inevitable return to the AHL to backstop the Calgary Wranglers’ playoff run.
The Flames have eight more games and only one more back-to-back situation. They want to get a good late-season evaluation on their prospects and players they may need to make decisions on next year.
Andrei Kuzmenko is making a statement right now, showing his value either as a potential longer-term addition to the Flames as a pending UFA next season, or a nice trade chip for next year’s deadline. The talented Russian is hot right now, scoring another pair of goals to run his Flames total to nine tallies in 21 games since joining Calgary in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31.
Yegor Sharangovich also enters next season on an expiring contract. He, too, has been a top offensive producer with the Flames.
Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Matthew Coronato and Daniil Miromanov should enjoy more minutes, too, in search of the consistency needed to take major steps at this level.
“We had a handful of players that they came to play tonight, and everybody probably knows who those players are. And the rest did not,” Huska told reporters after the game, frustrated after such a solid win in the previous outing. “We looked for an easy game, was my opinion on it.”
Nothing was easy despite the opponent being even lower in the standings. Another Flames characteristic this season. They’re 2-6 against the league’s worst — San Jose, Chicago, Anaheim and Columbus.
Mason McTavish scored first, tipping the puck past Markstrom late in the first period. The Flames took the lead on second-period goals from Sharangovich (29) and Kuzmenko (16) but went into the third tied thanks to Troy Terry’s 20th on the powerplay just three minutes after Calgary took the lead.
Cam Fowler and Alex Killorn piled on to make it a 4-2 Ducks lead early in the final frame and the Flames basically quit on the night. Kuzmenko’s second of the night cut into it but Killorn’s second was the nail in the coffin.
