The final scoreline might not suggest that the Calgary Flames were especially better against the Ottawa
Senators than they’d been two nights earlier against the Dallas Stars.
There really was a lot more to like about the way they played, though. The 4-1 scoreline only tells us so much. There were two empty-netters mixed in there for the Sens, so the Flames kept it close, at the very least.
It might not have been exactly the response they wanted, but it was a response nonetheless.
And coming after an emotionally exhausting Wednesday during which the guys in the lockerroom had lost one of their leaders and most important defencemen when MacKenzie Weegar was traded away, it’s maybe not a surprise that they weren’t quite at their best.
That’s not to make excuses. Nobody around the Saddledome was doing that after Thursday’s game and they were legitimately disappointed to have lost.
But there’s been a lot going on this week.
“I don’t know if it’s the trade deadline in general but I think some of our players have had a long couple days with the trade that went down for us, I think that plays into it,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska.
“They’re human and we came off a road-trip where I thought we played pretty well and then we had a stinker against Dallas and it sits with the players. It takes a little bit to get it back.
“The responsibility for getting that energy has to come from everybody in the room. It has to come from within. You want to be a person that’s an energy-giver, if that makes sense.”
Finding that energy is going to be one of the big challenges coming down the stretch. Getting past Friday’s 1 p.m. NHL trade deadline should help. The Flames have been dealing with persistent trade rumours for months now and they’ve only grown louder in recent weeks.
With Weegar moved, guys like Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman will have been hearing rumours non-stop. There’s been speculation about loads more players, too, including everyone from Devin Cooley to Brayden Pachal to Zach Whitecloud.
A return to normalcy will be welcome, whatever happens on Friday morning.
The Flames were disappointed to lose to the Senators. This is still a group that fully intends on going out and trying to win every game, regardless of who is in the lineup or where they’re sitting in the standings.
It hasn’t been an easy week, though. There’s only so much value in unpacking Thursday’s loss. They played better than they did two nights earlier, and that’s noteworthy. Martin Pospisil scored his first goal in over a year, which was nice. Devin Cooley was legitimately outstanding between the pipes, as he’s been for most of the year.
If the energy wasn’t quite there, that’s probably understandable. The goal is to make sure it doesn’t become a persistent issue over the final 21 games of the season.