"It's a crazy comment," Blake Coleman said of his goalie's post-game comemnts, where he told a throng of reporters that he "sucks at hockey" right now.
Markstrom's criticism comes on the heels of a 2-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, where he surrendered the first goal 13 seconds into the contest. He strayed from his crease to beat former Flame Sean Monahan to a 50-50 puck in the high slot, but slid too far, knocking the puck even further away, and onto the stick of Habs rookie Juraj Slafkovsky.
The game-winning goal then came hot off the stick of the sharp-shooting Cole Caufield - a powerplay marker that he had absolutely zero chance on.
In all, Markstrom stopped 17 of 19 shots, while the Flames put up 40-plus of their own for the eighth this time this year, as part of a season-high 83 attempts in all situations.
Sometimes, you don't get the bounces.
But Markstrom is one of the most guttural competitors you'll ever meet - and instead of pointing the finger and placing blame at the feet of others, he predictably looked inward and saw a need for improvement.
Agree or disagree, it certainly is noble.
"He's more than earned everybody's respect in our room and he's been the backbone of our team for a long time," Coleman said. "The bottom line is we didn't give him the run support. We had (46) shots and scored one goal. That's on us to lift him up and give him opportunities to win games. Obviously, you respect a guy that wants to put that on himself, but at the end of the day, we've got to play better in front of him and give him the support he needs."