CALGARY — It’s far too simplistic to suggest this is life in Calgary without Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev.
But surely, allowing 18 goals as part of three straight blowouts is a sign that the significant reconfiguring of the defensive backbone of this team could be a problem.
For a while.
To put in perspective just how sharply the team’s play has dropped since the trade deadline hit, this marks just the third time in 25 years that the Flames have lost three consecutive games by four goals or more.
Down a forward and dressing a septet of defenceman, which included three newbies who are still trying to learn everyone’s name, the Flames were on the wrong side of a humiliating game of keep-away courtesy of the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday.
The final was a flattering 6-2 loss that saw the Avs score five times in a second period in which they had 31 shots on goal at the midway point.
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The Flames’ defensive structure was abandoned by some, unclear for others and exploited entirely by a bolstered Avs team brilliantly equipped for what should be a very long spring.
Sure, the undermanned Flames’ last three losses were to legit contenders in Florida, Carolina and Colorado.
But without the injured Jacob Markstrom to mask defensive breakdowns, and without the “Tanifin” duo to block shots, shut down stars and suppress the opposition, this team is a shadow of its former self.
Not that the losses moving forward will be this lop-sided, but this ugly stretch demonstrates what the impact of significant deconstruction of a lineup can look like.
“You miss a lot of guys, and new guys come in, and they’ve got to understand how we do things around here,” said Nazem Kadri.
“That’s not anything on the new guys.
“That’s kind of expected.
“You’ve got to have some patience.”
Well said.
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The diminished depth of a team that traded four pending UFAs during the season was further compromised hours before Tuesday’s thrashing when Andrei Kuzmenko and Andrew Mangiapane were ruled out day-to-day.
Markstrom was also shelved day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
It forced the team to play with 11 forwards, jumbling the lines all night while seven blue liners took turns trying to find chemistry.
It would be easy to suggest the likes of back-end newbies Nikita Okhotiuk, Daniil Miromanov and Joel Hanley were a big part of the problem, but Miromanov actually scored and none of them ended up as minus players.
“The new faces I don’t think are the issue, per see,” said coach Ryan Huska, whose top pairing of Oliver Kylington and Rasmus Andersson were both minus-three.
“There are guys who’ve been here for a number of years who have made mistakes over the last couple of games they don’t usually make.
“The last couple games the detail and structure side of things has left us a little bit and put us in a tough spot and left our goaltender in a tough spot also.”
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Learning in the afternoon he would start due to Markstrom’s ailment, Dan Vladar stood tall in the first period before being mercifully lifted (for afternoon call-up Dustin Wolf) after a second period in which he allowed five of the six goals against him.
In his past five periods he’s faced 75 shots, allowing 13 goals.
Those shot totals were incomprehensible when Tanev and Hanifin were here. Those two would have been chiefly responsible for limiting damage from the Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin line that piled up nine points Tuesday.
“We’ve got a lot to figure out with this new group,” said Mikael Backlund.
“We got three good lessons here.
“We’ve got to play to our system and our structure.”
Suffice it to say, no one should be talking playoffs for this group anymore.
“It’s definitely repetitive for sure, can be difficult to deal with, but we’re professionals and we’re supposed to go do our jobs,” said Kadri, whose club faces Hanifin and the Golden Knights Thursday.
“We haven’t been given the easiest circumstances this year, but disappointing to lose in this fashion, and tonight’s another example of that.
“We could have found excuses a long time ago but we pride ourselves for not making any, even though there could be a few.
“We’ve got a lot of new bodies, and faces, learning a new system, so there’s going to be some crossover where chemistry is not great and there are some brain lapses.
“It’s just what we’ve been given.”
