TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

Flat-lined at the start. Full bore at the end.
In the final analysis, though, the chasm proved too deep, the deficit too large, the near-impossible task they themselves had created just a shade too daunting.

"We're in our own head a little bit sometimes,'' admitted captain Mark Giordano, trying to make some sense of a chaotic, error-saturated, near back-from-the-dead 7-5 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
"Trying to play too safe and not make any plays.
"Mistakes are going to happen. We have to live with them. When someone makes a mistake we've got to all help out and play together.
"I just feel like way too much space out there for them in the first couple periods."
In losing a sixth straight to their northern nemesis, the Flames fell behind 6-1 before mounting what would've been classified a comeback for the ages had they finished it off.
This wasn't any old hole they were trying to clamber out of, understand. It was floor-level at the Grand Canyon.
Still, down a five-spot, they resiliently chipped away, chipped away, and when Johnny Gaudreau cashed his 12th of the season, unbelievably, the homeside found itself only one shot away from even, at 6-5. And plenty of time, over seven and half minutes, remaining.
With the Saddledome gone from silent to rocking, Gaudreau, on fire over the closing 20 minutes, then wired a 2-on-1 chance wide.
The Oilers, on the ropes and reeling, finally put the matter to bed once and for all at 18:59 on an unfortunate deflection off the stick of Flames' D-man T.J. Brodie.
"We made a push there in the third,'' said Giordano. "We had a couple looks there when it was 6-5 to tie the game so in that way it's disappointing.
"Honestly, it feels like we could've got a point.
"But way too many chances against tonight. Again. What did we give up, four or five breakaways?
"That team feeds off transition and turnovers and we hung our goalie out to dry."

As the skipper said: Too many chances, too much room, too loosey-goosey.
Three Oiler breakaways allowed during the second period alone. Two of those, almost unbelievably, shorthanded - one goal, one luminous Mike Smith save - in a shocking 16-second span.
A goal surrendered in the final minute of the second period, another 1:29 into the third.
Hardly the conventional way to win a hockey game.
"We started too hesitant,'' agreed Sam Bennett, who pulled the Flames to within 6-4 at 11:39 of the third on his second of the evening. "We were just dipping our toes in the water. We didn't go after it.
"You could see in the third when we started to go after it we started to get goals and better looks."
From a 3-0 whitewash of Arizona on Thursday to giving up a seven-spot 48 hours later to the Oilers.
A puzzling pattern.
"What we really have to evaluate with our group,'' said coach Glen Gulutzan afterwards, "is at what emotional level are we at when we play big games.
"I'm not concerned about energy. I thought there was energy. Just a ton of nervous energy. We couldn't catch a pass. We couldn't make a pass.
"What concerns me with this group on the mental side of the game is that fight, flight or freeze mentality. We seem to freeze a bit until something good happens and then we can start to move.
"I think our guys are ready. They're serious. They want to win. They care. They don't have personal agendas.
"But it seems with our group the more tension there is, the more tension there is in their sticks.
"We have to get past that."
While glad to see the fight back in his group, Gulutzan, wisely, is more concerned with addressing the reasons for finding themselves in such a pickle in the first place.
"I don't look think it's a positive,'' he said of any perceived moral 'victory' for staging the comeback but still falling short. "For me there are other issues. You can't win in this league down 5-1 after two periods.
"You can't."