The Calgary Flames lost back-to-back games over the weekend, falling to the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night and the Seattle Kraken on Sunday to drop them to 0-3-0 this season.
The defeats haven’t been particularly close, either, as Calgary has lost 6-1, 4-1 and 6-1 in their three games, which amounts to a league-worst minus-13 goal differential. Only the Canucks (18) have allowed more goals, except Vancouver has scored 19 of their own through four games compared to just three from the Flames, who are one of only three teams without a point thus far.
Head coach Ryan Huska told reporters after Sunday’s 6-1 drubbing that he feels his team has been out of sync early on.
“It was a tough night. I feel like right now we’re disconnected, I guess, is maybe a word I could use. You get yourself a little bit of momentum, things start going the right way, and one person goes off script right now for us and it seems to end up in the back of our net. That’s something that we have to work to eliminate right now,” he said.
“You have to make sure that you stay on script as a unit, not just as an individual. I think that’s one of the big things for me that’s standing out right now.”
Huska doubled down on his players needing to stay within themselves.
“For me, I think you’ve got some new people that are trying to find their way a little bit. And they’re trying to do a little bit too much at times. And when I talk about going off script, you start to cause problems for the other guys on the ice… I think it’s really a matter of just settling yourself down, look yourself in the mirror and make sure you’re committed to playing to the game plan.
Berkly Catton gave the Kraken an early lead at 2:22 in the first period and Seattle scored twice more in just over five minutes to take a three-goal cushion into the first intermission. They scored two more to build a five-goal lead in the second before Morgan Frost scored the lone goal of the night for the Flames mid-way through the third, well after the game was out of reach.
Dustin Wolf allowed six goals for the second time in two starts this season, as he was in net for all six goals in the Flames’ 6-1 defeat in the season-opener Thursday night.
It wasn’t all on him Sunday, according to Huska.
“Early on, some of the shots that he faced, you don’t want to give those up. Their guys with flips over the top and we’re losing footraces in those situations, so we have to be better in front of him.”
“It’s tough to start the game that way, obviously,” Frost told reporters. “I felt like we were prepared and felt good about trying to bounce back after how we played in the third last game. And I feel like one mistake is just leading to another, and we’re letting it pile up on us.”
Forward Joel Farabee said the team is not looking for any moral victories and it’s up to them to pull themselves out of their early funk.
“We’ve just got to tighten it up as a group. ... Nobody’s coming to save us, so we’ve got to do it together, and we’ve got the guys to do it.”
Huska agrees that the Flames are destined to get back on track.
“We’re dealing with some adversity right now. Guys will find a way to come together, and we’ll be able to move on from this.”
The Flames will have some time to work on things as they don’t play again until Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
