Flames accept that Saddledome boos deserved after putrid performance

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“I would have booed too. We deserved it.”
Elias Lindholm made no effort to hide from the boos that rained down from the Saddledome rafters during Thursday night’s 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Nikita Zadorov came right out and apologized to the fans who had to sit through the slog of a performance. 

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Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska acknowledged that the crowd’s reaction was deserved. 

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It would have been one thing if the Flames had lost a close game where they’d scraped and clawed and given every last drop of blood, sweat and tears but still wound up on the losing end.  

Fans generally forgive those sorts of defeats. 

But Thursday was different. 

Having already lost three straight games before the puck dropped and having spoken repeatedly about the need to come together and work harder, the Flames instead looked the worst they’ve been all season. 

And to make matters even worse, they never even really looked like they were putting up a fight. 

“I don’t know anyone that likes losing,” Lindholm said. “We’ve played like s— three games in a row, it’s got to change pretty quick.”
Only eight games into the season, the Flames have already had to talk about how they need to be better more times than anyone would like. They’ve talked about coming together as a group. They’ve talked about cutting down on turnovers. They’ve talked about communication and responsibility in the defensive zone and on and on it goes.  

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But they’ve always insisted they were working hard. 

On Thursday, they couldn’t even claim that much. Their shutout loss to the Blues was ugly. It wasn’t bad bounces. It was a lack of effort.
There’s no excuse for that.
That’s why fans boo.  

“When you don’t have a good game, the expectation is you would go home and figure out why,” Huska said. “Work ethic is something you always control. Attitude and energy are things you always control, so those are things guys have to look inside and see if they were there tonight. 

“Mistakes are going to happen in the game of hockey but what cannot happen is having an effort like we saw tonight, so that should just never happen.” 

The cold, hard facts about this Flames team are tough to swallow right now. 

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They’re 2-5-1. By the end of Thursday’s game, they’d gone 118 minutes and 45 seconds without scoring a goal. They’ve allowed 12 more goals than they’ve scored, and that’s with goaltender Jacob Markstrom being arguably their best player. 

In a Canadian market, that’s not going to be good enough. Maybe if you’re a rebuilding team, but this is a veteran group and the expectation was that they were going to be competitive this season. 

“I just want to apologize to our fans,” said Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov. “We’re playing like s— right now, it’s tough to watch. 

“That’s the one thing with Calgarians, I think they’re pretty honest with you right away. I think they’ll let you know right now, and that’s not what we want to hear.” 

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Huska switched up his lines relentlessly on Thursday night, trying to get something – anything – going. It didn’t work, but you can’t really fault him for trying. 

At various points, first-line centre Elias Lindholm played with Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Dryden Hunt and Dillon Dube. 

The only line that seemed to stay together from the beginning of the game until the final buzzer was captain Mikael Backlund in-between Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman. They were the best trio on the night. 

But the Flames’ highest paid forwards? Kadri and Huberdeau? They continued to struggle. 

Kadri has one point through eight games and has been kept off the scoresheet for four straight. Huberdeau does have four points this season, but only one in the Flames’ last six. Kadri is minus-10 so far. Huberdeau is minus-9.

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They’re the guys the team is paying to provide that spark and that special bit of skill that might change the direction of a game. And they’re not doing it. 

Nobody else is, either, but the spotlight is inevitably on them. 

Maybe we’re past the point of hoping they’ll emerge as the successors to Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk and will carry this team the way those two did two seasons ago, but it’s not unreasonable to expect more than this, is it? 

It’s certainly fair to expect more of the Flames as a group than the effort they put on the ice on Thursday night. 

“Canadian market, they want the best product on the ice and right now we’re not giving it to them,” said Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar. “As much as you hate hearing the boos, it’s a bit of a wakeup call for us. We’re not a good enough team right now.” 

They’re not, and it’s going to take a lot more hard work than what we saw on Thursday night for them to be good enough. 

It’s up to the guys on the ice to provide reasons for fans to cheer.
So far this season, those have been few and far between. 

daustin@postmedia.com 

www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9 

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