Music City Miss: ‘Slow and sloppy’ Flames take step back in Nashville

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NASHVILLE – MacKenzie Weegar, we get it.

We’ve all done it.

The game’s out of reach, your frustration level is through the roof and the opposition is dangerously close to piling it on even more with yet another scoring chance.

So you toss your timber.

Been done on roads, ponds and rinks around the nation for decades.

Sometimes it even works.

Symbolic of just how disappointed the Calgary Flames were to see their shot at reaching .500 disappear like a Michelob at Tootsie’s, Weegar slid his stick to effectively break up a two on one with under two minutes left in a game the Nashville Predators had put out of reach Wednesday.

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The stick intercepted the pass and while the Preds still managed to get a shot off, the result was a penalty shot.

As he did all night long, Jacob Markstrom bailed his defenceman out with one of his 41 saves.

But the damage was done and the game was already lost.

A 4-2 Nashville win prevented the Flames from heading into their Thanksgiving party hosted by Blake Coleman’s family in Dallas with an 8-8-3 record.

An opportunity missed by a club that has otherwise played well in its previous eight, as the 5-1-2 record showed.

“I thought we were slow and sloppy – it’s the best way I could probably put it for the entire night,” spat Ryan Huska after his club was outshot 45-26 by a far faster and more engaged host.

“A missed opportunity for sure. The more disappointing thing is the way we played tonight. 

“It was a step back tonight, but now it’s how you respond.”

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The coach said he understood the frustration that went into the stick toss, but didn’t love it.

“You don’t have to do stuff like that either — I get it, but you don’t have to do it,” he shrugged.

“They know they didn’t play well.”

In the quietest of dressing rooms, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin concurred.

“Obviously not a good game – slow, left Marky out to dry, a million scoring chances against – our game just wasn’t there,” said Tanev, whose club was down 2-1 going into the third period before the Preds scored two in the latter half of the third to hand the Flames their first regulation loss in five games.

“We were slow. We weren’t connected. Huge gap between our forwards and D, so it allows them to skate through the neutral zone with a lot of pucks and generate a lot of chances.” 

“A chance to get back to .500, would have been a huge win, and we definitely laid an egg. We’re going to have to learn from this and get ready for a good team in Dallas in two days.”  

What lies ahead is a Murderer’s Row of opponents, as four of the best teams in the west line up against the Flames over their next five, including Dallas twice.

One night after seeing the Stars, they’ll be in Colorado to face the Avs.

Buckle up.

That’s why the lads were peeved about not picking up a win in Tennessee.

What they did do well was stick up for one another in a game that got salty early on, and had the temperature rise when Dennis Gilbert announced he was back in the lineup (after sitting for eight games) by fighting six-foot-six, 232-pound Michael McCarron to a draw.

He didn’t like the big lug jamming his stick into Markstrom’s pad and did his best to lift the bench late in the first.  

Nikita Zadorov took exception to a hit on Martin Pospisil by fighting Jeremy Lauzon one period later. 

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“I mean, that’s huge — it’s a big part of it, whether you’re winning or losing games,” said Hanifin, whose fourth of the season tied the game 1-1 less than five minutes in.

“That’s stuff that matters and goes a long way when you see guys like Z and Gibby stepping up to the plate and answering the bell.

“That’s good for the morale of the team. And, you know, that’s something that was definitely noticed by us tonight.”

The coach went even further when asked about Gilbert.

“Good on him for coming in and doing what he did — I thought he was probably our best defenseman when you really look at the six tonight,” said Huska. “He did a really good job coming in like that and trying to get a little bit of emotion and engagement in the game.”

Markstrom kept the Flames in a game they had no business being in, as his spectacular evening included a save-of-the-year candidate as he raced from behind his net to make a five-beller.

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He’ll be counted on to make plenty more of those over the next little while as we see what the Flames are really made of.

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