Drubbing at the ‘dome

Flames fail to find focus in 7-1 smashing

“Our penalty kill was nowhere near good enough. We had too many breakdowns…It is something we need to learn from. We all have to make sure we are better for the next game.” – Robyn Regehr

Outplayed, out-hustled, out-gunned and outclassed. The Chicago Blackhawks cruised into Calgary and laid a liberal licking on the Saddledome citizens, embarrassing the Flames by a count of 7-1. Kris Versteeg led the onslaught with a pair of goals, while rearguard Duncan Keith chipped in with a trio of assists.

The Hawks controlled every aspect of the contest, jumping on every Calgary mistake and depositing many of those miscues behind a bewildered Miikka Kiprusoff. Lethargic line changes, timid turnovers and porous passes documented what can only be classified as a drubbing at the ‘dome. Since many of the Flames were passengers and observers on this night, let’s recap what they saw.

Calgary watched Chicago notch four power-play goals, receive a nine-point performance from their blueline brigade and win every battle in the corners, around the slot and on the scoreboard. On the Hawks’ opening marker, Troy Brouwer was surrounded by a flock of Flames but he somehow managed to stay on his skates and poke a rebound past Kipper the Keeper without paying any kind of physical price.

After Olli Jokinen tied the contest at 1-1 early in the middle frame, Chicago exploded for five straight goals on 14 shots. The Hawks managed to inflict their harm in a wide variety of ways – odd-man rushes, one-timers from the slot, pure breakaways, off-angle bleeders from the circle and out-manned scrums on the lip of the crease.

Kiprusoff was yanked after 40 minutes giving Curtis McElhinney the opportunity to feel part of the pain by allowing a goal on one of the two shots he faced in the final frame. Chicago has now beaten the Flames in 10 of their last 12 games, including the last six regular season meetings.

All day long, the Calgary Flames preached unity, family values and downplayed the significance of yesterday’s behind closed doors paint-peeling tete-a-tete between Dion Phaneuf and coach Brent Sutter. The club contended that heat-of-the-moment exchanges between the bench boss and his on-ice employees are healthy, natural and necessary. Whatever. Between the diatribe and the demolition, the club clearly lost their focus and appeared sorely unprepared – and uninterested – to compete with a team of Chicago’s caliber.

The coach can spin the events of yesterday’s deluge any way he likes, but the scoreboard spells the story and the tale it tells is ugly, unfortunate and unanimously unsavory. If Thursday’s performance was a retaliatory response to the coach’s storming and spewing, then it’s up to Sutter to start simmering before the boiling pot burns the broth.

Flame Flicks:

The Flames now hit the road for a pair of games against left coast opponents. On Saturday afternoon, Calgary visits the surprising Los Angeles Kings – led by the league’s top scorer Anže Kopitar – before trekking down the interstate for a match with the struggling, but sill lethal, Anaheim Ducks.

Rene Bourque left the game and did not return after being slammed into the boards by Chicago’s Niklas Hjalmarsson. Details of the injury were unreleased but we can assume he will be listed as day-to-day.

Coincidence? Dion Phaneuf, (-1) on the evening, saw 20:13 minutes of action, his lowest on-ice total of the entire season. Mark Giordano led all Flame skaters with 23:08 of ice time.

The Flames actually out-shot the Blackhawks 28-26, with nine of the inconsequential attempts coming in the third period when the horse had already left the barn.