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On the finish of the season, possibly the Calgary Flames will look again to the beating they took by the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night and see it as a low level.
Ideally, it is going to be the nadir of their season-long journey. The embarrassing defeat catalyzes their resurgence and leads them to lastly turn out to be their true, profitable selves.
That’s the hope, at the very least. The choice is a season that probably ends in bitter disappointment.
Instantly after Wednesday’s lopsided 5-1 letdown, head coach Geoff Ward referred to as the Flames out for his or her lack of dedication to the little particulars that go into persistently profitable hockey video games.
After Thursday afternoon’s apply, the gamers had been all saying the precise issues.
They’ve mentioned the precise issues earlier than, although. Their inconsistency has been a supply of frustration because the begin of the season, and acknowledging that there’s an issue isn’t the identical as fixing it.
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Now, although, there’s urgency. Beginning Friday on the Scotiabank with the primary of a home-and-home in opposition to the Edmonton Oilers, the Flames enter a stretch of seven video games — in 4 cities — in 11 nights.
If the Flames can’t discover some consistency and put collectively a profitable streak of some kind by the tip of this little stretch, they’re not going to love the place they discover themselves within the North Division.
“I undoubtedly assume it’s a pivotal second,” mentioned Flames winger Milan Lucic. “You take a look at the standings and also you take a look at what the following seven-game phase means for our workforce and our season (and) if we’re underneath .500 or maintain taking part in .500 hockey, we’re going to need to win at a near .750 or .800 winning-percentage price to get ourselves in a playoff spot.
“This phase right here proper now may be very pivotal and I believe … that’s why we have to stay within the second, stay within the current, take it one sport at a time. Concentrate on simply profitable the interval, profitable the shift, profitable the sport and from there you’ll be able to transfer on to the following shift.”
Regardless of all of the perceived doom-and-gloom surrounding the Flames proper now, it’s price noting that they’re not truly in all that unhealthy a spot when it comes to making the playoffs. The place they anticipated to be or wished to be? No. They’re in fifth-place within the North Division and if the season ended as we speak, they wouldn’t technically be heading to the post-season.
With that mentioned, they’re additionally three factors again of second-place and just one behind the Oilers, who sit within the fourth-and-final playoff spot however have performed two extra video games than the Flames.
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They management their very own future. The frustration comes from the truth that a few of the identical errors maintain being made over and over. Specifically, they’ve made a behavior of falling behind early.
There’s no one-size-fits-all resolution to the Flames’ struggles, however getting off to sooner begins over the following seven video games could be a superb begin. How do you do this? Properly, with out going into specifics Ward defined that specializing in the main points of game-preparation was key.
For the Flames head coach, it’s all about particulars, particulars, particulars on this seven-game stretch.
“The straightforward factor to do is to tie it into numbers, however I’m not going to tie it into numbers,” Ward mentioned. “The (most essential) factor for us is discovering our sport. We really feel like if we get to our sport and persist with our course of the outcomes will take care of themselves, however we’ve received to verify we’re working our course of much more diligently and effectively than we’ve got been.
“If we get to that stage the place we’re working our course of and falling in our approach and we’ve received our sport on the ice, the outcomes take care of themselves.
“What I’m actually in search of these subsequent couple days and heading into the highway journey is that we will get again to our sport, put our sport on the ice for a full 60 minutes. Let’s begin there. As soon as we get there we will begin speaking about what we’re going to do points-wise, however proper now, till we ante-up in a few of these areas it’s a steep hill to climb when it comes to making an attempt to get the factors on the finish.”
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If Wednesday’s powerful loss is to be a turning level, Friday’s Battle of Alberta matchup represents a golden alternative to get issues again on monitor and show that this ship isn’t, in actual fact, sinking.
The opponent alone figures to offer greater than sufficient motivation to actually dig in and decide to the main points. It’s the Oilers, in spite of everything. If the Flames can’t rise up for this one, it’s a must to surprise who they’ll rise up for.
“There’s no higher alternative to do this than in opposition to your greatest rivals right here,” mentioned Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk. “We’re going to rise up for this sport, it’s going to be inconceivable to not. Friday evening with a back-to-back on Saturday of their place. This can be a enormous second in our season for us and I believe we’ve got to indicate each other that we’re going to be prepared from the primary drop of the puck.
“These subsequent few video games will present us lots and can inform us lots about ourselves and what we’ve got.”
daustin@postmedia.com
