1. Hitting The Road
And then there was 12.
After dropping a pair of games over the weekend, the Flames are looking to rebound as they head into the Windy City to kick off a two-game road swing with the regular-season schedule winding down.
Saturday saw them drop a 4-2 decision to the Canucks in Vancouver, followed by a 4-1 loss to the Sabres at the Scotiabank Saddledome Sunday, with the latter seeing Buffalo score three markers in the third period with two empty-net goals.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored the lone Flames marker on the powerplay, while Dustin Wolf was solid in goal, making 25 saves.
"We need to push to win hockey games,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said after the tilt Sunday. “Whether you’re sitting in the standings where we would like to be right now or we’re not, or we’re in a situation that we are, we have to come and play hard all the time and that’s a responsibility that all players have.
“And for me, I get disappointed about these last two games moreso than anything because those were winnable games for us, and we didn’t find a way to get it done."
A quick turnaround on the road might just be what the doctor ordered for the Flames to break a three-game slide, with a current busy stretch of five games in eight days.
Gearing up for the third and final meeting against Chicago, the message echoed as of late is clear - leave it all out there.
"It's tough," Mikael Backlund said on the skid. "But, it's a new day tomorrow and we focus on the next game ... we're going to keep going in every game. Both games we were battling hard and competing and they were two tight games. We just haven't executed and that's what decides games.
"Just have to stick with it, not too many games left, we just got to go out and enjoy it."