Feeling low in the Mile High City – Avalanche bury Flames

“We showed up tonight and the power play was clicking. Andy (Craig Anderson) made some big saves, and when it came down to it we blocked shots and got pucks deep.” – Colorado’s Chris Stewart

The Calgary Flames dominated the third period of Sunday’s game against division rival Colorado, outscoring the Avalanche 1-0, limiting the denizens of Denver to a pair of shots on goal and controlling the tempo and pace of the period.

Someone should remind them that a game in the National Hockey League consists of three periods, each of which is 20 minutes in duration.

On Sunday, the Flames were on the ice for 60 minutes but only played one period. The rest of the time, they were spectators – on the ice, on the bench and in the penalty box. The view from the sin bin must have been particularly appealing, since various members of the team spent over 20 minutes in the box in the first period alone.

The constant parade of white jerseys to the prison of penance kept Miikka Kiprusoff busy. Kipper faced 20 shots in the first period alone and only his brilliant play between the pipes kept the deficit at a single goal.

There were plenty of observers wearing white in the middle stanza as well, especially the five forlorn faces that watched Chris Stewart and Paul Stastny played a spirited – and uninterrupted– game of give-and go and go-and-give in front of Kiprusoff’s crease. They’d probably still be out there slapping the pill back and forth if Stewart hadn’t decided to end the exercise by slamming the puck past an exasperated Kiprusoff.

The result was a third consecutive 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, who climb onto the top rung of the Northwest Division with the victory and fully deserve their perch on the top of the pack.

I’m not sure how many pundits, prognosticators or sideline scribes out there would consider the Colorado Avalanche to be a better team than the Calgary Flames. I suspect the number is equal to the amount of victories Sutter’s Stampede City side has collected against their inter-division rival so far in the 2009-10 campaign.

Yet, for the third time in succession, the Avalanche easily defeated the Calgary Flames. And don’t let the similarity of the 3-2 scores in each contest fool you – the closeness of the outcome flatters the Flames. The team have been out-hustled, outworked, outplayed, out-shot and out and out ousted in all three affairs by a club of youngsters, rejects and reclamation projects that quite simply wanted the win more than their adversary.

There’s no excuse for the Flames coming out as flat, uninterested and uninspired as the club did on Sunday evening. They have now lost four of their last games, have scored only 10 goals in that span and have found the back of the net while playing with the man advantage only once in this current six-pack of shame.

With eight more games left in the month, including double duels with the resurgent LA Kings and always resilient Edmonton Oilers, the Flames better turn up the heat or it will be a cold Christmas.