CALGARY – Far be it for the Jolly Rancher to mince words at the best of times.
But when the league’s youngest franchise waltzes through town to score six goals on his Calgary Flames, you have to know somebody’s going to be singled out.
While plenty of folks are mildly concerned about the pedestrian play of Jacob Markstrom so far, the coach wanted to make it clear the sextet in front of him played just as big a role in their 6-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
With Noah Hanifin out of the lineup for undisclosed reasons, inquiring minds wanted to know how the rejigged pairings fared.
“They were all over the map,” said Darryl Sutter, who replaced Hanifin with Nikita Zadorov alongside Rasmus Andersson.
“I think there were only two defencemen who played in Game 4 or 5 last year and they struggled with it mightily.”
He lamented the turnovers that played a big role in the 3-1 hole the Flames dug in the first period, prompting Sutter to replace Markstrom with Dan Vladar, who started the second period being beat by an Alex Tuch laser on the first shot he faced.
What bothered him more was that after his club clawed back to 4-3 early in the third, Rasmus Andersson was caught out of the play while shorthanded, opening the door for Tuch to ice the game with his second of three.
It was symbolic of just how many times his defencemen had breakdowns leading to a humbling loss to a rebuilding club the Flames appeared to take lightly after winning against three juggernauts.
Asked how he felt Connor Mackey’s season debut went alongside Michael Stone on the third pairing, Sutter bristled.
“You get an opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of it,” said Sutter, who kept the second tandem together, with MacKenzie Weegar alongside Chris Tanev.
“Everybody talked about our (blue line) depth this summer and it got quite a bit disrupted with Oliver’s (Kylington) situation, and nobody stepping up in training camp other than Stoney.
“So these young guys like that get an opportunity like that should seize the opportunity.
“He’s not a young player, he’s older than Noah and Ras.”
Tough to pin too much on the fill-in who played almost 11 minutes alongside Stone, who had a team high eight shots on goal.
Fact is, the team’s defensive play on the whole was devoid of the structure and accountability Sutter’s systems demands.
And Zadorov was quick to point that out, amongst other things, with a post-game rant that matched his ferocity on the ice.
“Well, we had another s#*% start to the game,” began Zadorov.
“Too many turnovers.
“Too many odd-man rushes.
“We weren’t winning any battles down low.
“We knew what Buffalo was going to bring and that’s what they did, but we weren’t ready for it. Totally on us, and unacceptable.”
He’s right, but after winning their first three games with efforts they all admitted could be better, the Flames were outmatched by a speedy yet sizable Sabres squad that had beaten the Edmonton Oilers two days earlier.
Asked what he thought was missing from their effort, Andrew Mangiapane was frank.
“Probably everything,” said Mangiapane, who opened the scoring four minutes in.
“I don’t think we played our game at all.
“You can’t take any team lightly in this league for sure, because they’ll sting ya.
“They’re a fast team and they were on us quick.
“We were kind of slow out there and made them look even faster.”
Yet, thanks to a fortuitous bounce off the skate of referee Trevor Hanson that led to a hope-inducing goal by Trevor Lewis with 2.5 seconds left in the second period, Zadorov opened the third with a goal that had the hosts within one.
Four minutes later, their hopes of completing a third comeback win were dashed by Tuch.
Those who thought these Flames would thrive on low-scoring games haven’t seen any yet, as the team spent the first three games outscoring their defensive deficiencies.
Not Thursday.
“We’ve got to prepare better for Saturday night because I think it’s going to be a better, harder opponent as well,” said Zadorov of a matchup with Carolina.
“They were more hungry than us. We weren’t ready.”
Not something Sutter’s teams can generally say.
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