Flames eliminated from playoff contention after shootout loss to Predators

With the Calgary Flames’ season on the line in Monday night’s shootout versus the Nashville Predators, leading scorer Tyler Toffoli was on the bench.

As was top-line centre Elias Lindholm. Same with former 35-goal scorer Andrew Mangiapane. And top-nine wingers Dillon Dube and Blake Coleman. 

Nick Ritchie, who came in with just five shootout attempts (and two goals) in his 481-game career, was tabbed by head coach Darryl Sutter to close out a come-from-behind game that would have kept the Flames in the playoff hunt, albeit faintly. He missed, and the Flames’ season effectively came to an end in front of more than 17,000 fans at the Saddledome.

Calgary was officially eliminated from playoff contention with the 3-2 shootout loss after the Winnipeg Jets, currently in second spot in the Western Conference wild-card race, had earlier beat the San Jose Sharks.

Sutter justified the decision after the game.

"Not much difference, if you do the percentages or odds,” the coach said, in choosing Ritchie over more prominent names on the Calgary roster.

“You're going on practices, you're going on guys that have scored against [the goalie]. That's not the point. It really had no bearing on the game. The difference is those great chances in overtime."

The Flames dominated parts of the extra frame, and both MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson had opportunities to end the night.

“[Tyson] Barrie just gets a stick on it at the last second and it misses,” Andersson said ruefully after the game.

“If you take half the OT losses we lost this year or shootout, we’re in by a few points. It’s probably the most disappointing that we’ve been in almost every game and that we just didn’t manage to rack a few wins together more often.”

Sutter praised his group for their resiliency in twice coming back and tying the game.

“We deserved better,” Sutter said.

“We had really good chances in overtime, fight back in the third, tied it. Tough.”

Jacob Markstrom, who stopped 27 of 29 shots, was irked at referee Kelly Sutherland for being out of position and the puck hitting him, leading to Nashville’s second goal.

“I didn’t see it until after the game,” Markstrom said.

“It’s probably a good thing. I would have been really upset there. I don’t know why he’s going behind the net. There’s two, three guys in front of the net and they throw it towards the net and it’s going to bounce off the one guy and he’s trying to make a play behind the net. I don’t know what [Sutherland] was doing.”

While Sutter was in no mood to publicly reflect on what could have been this season, the mood in the locker room was one of shock and disbelief.

The team came into this season with a re-modelled group featuring Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and Weegar replacing Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk. There was some talk that they might even be better than the group that took the Pacific Division by storm a year ago. Instead, it will be a far longer off-season than even the most pessimistic of fans could have predicted six months ago.

For Andersson, the feeling hadn’t sunk in yet that there will be no more meaningful hockey this season.

“It’s still so fresh,” he said.

“Coming home tonight and waking up tomorrow, you’re gonna realize what an opportunity we missed. Now, it’s that you can hardly believe it. It’s painful. Coming home tonight, waking up tomorrow, that’s when you’re gonna realize that we’re out. And it sucks.”

There will be plenty to dissect in the coming days. Calgary had below-average goaltending for much of the season. There was their franchise record in one-goal games and how often they outshot opponents. There were the three losses to Chicago, including one last week, that left five points on the table. There were nights where they simply didn’t look invested or engaged. The were the perpetual questions about chemistry and who fit best with Kadri and Huberdeau. The development of young players like Jakob Pelletier, Adam Ruzicka, Matthew Phillips, Connor Mackey, and Juuso Valimaki stalled, with the latter two eventually getting moved. And there was friction at different levels of the organization, which sometimes became public.

It will be a long summer of reflection for the coach, general manager Brad Treliving, players, executives, and fans. 

“It feels like most of the nights, you know, ‘What if? What if?’” Andersson said.

“It’s a ‘Do’ league, it’s not a ‘What if’ league.”