CALGARY — He dropped the gloves to get his team back into the game, he scored the Calgary Flames' opening goal and he was involved in a pair of defensive lapses that led to their undoing.
No one was better positioned to assess the Flames’ third-period collapse than Nikita Zadorov.
“We’re not a young group of players,” said the hulking defenceman following his club’s second consecutive third-period letdown on Tuesday.
“We’re definitely one of the oldest and experienced teams in the league, and it’s definitely unacceptable for us. It can happen to young teams, but it cannot happen to us. It’s definitely on all of us. We made individual mental mistakes in crucial minutes and it cost us the game.”
It’s one thing to blow a one-goal lead in the final 10 minutes against Connor McDavid, like his team did Saturday.
It’s quite another to do it against a Seattle club that trailed 4-2 with 11 minutes left, only to surrender three goals in a five-minute spree that gave the Kraken their franchise’s first winning record.
That’s not at all how a Darryl Sutter-coached team generally ends evenings.
“Just a couple tough breaks that were kind of self-inflicted,” summed up Nazem Kadri, whose fifth goal gave the Flames a 2-1 lead midway through the game.
“At the end of the day having a two-goal lead in the third period, you should be able to close it out. But give them credit, they pushed back.”
Well, no, this one was on the Flames.
Tyler Toffoli and Trevor Lewis opened the third period with goals 17 seconds apart, giving the hosts a 4-2 lead few expected could be overcome by a rag-tag bunch from Seattle that lost all four games to Calgary a year earlier.
Cue the cough-ups.
A bad Brett Ritchie penalty set the table for a Kraken power-play goal midway through the third when Zadorov overcommitted in his own zone.
Following a suspect drop pass by Rasmus Andersson, Kadri coughed up a doozy at centre ice on an ensuing power play, that saw Yanni Gourde scamper in alone for his first of the year.
Tie game.
Seconds after Chris Tanev rang a point shot off the post that could have changed everything, a Milan Lucic turnover at the opposing blueline allowed Matty Beniers to complete a two-on-one with Jordan Eberle that still gave the Flames six-and-a-half minutes to respond.
Crickets.
Despite facing 40 shots on the night, fourth-string starter Joey Daccord wasn’t tested the rest of the way, as Sutter continued to tweak his revamped lines throughout the evening.
“Our power play and penalty kill didn’t hold up very well in the third period,” said Sutter.
“We took a couple bad penalties and they scored on one and the power play turned it over on another. When guys break and turn pucks over, that’s what happened in the third.”
Then came the blunt assessment of the new lines, with pointed criticism of Jonathan Huberdeau.
“I think Lindy’s line (Elias Lindholm) was alright, other than Looch turning the puck over for the winning goal,” said Sutter.
“Jonathan has gotta speed his game up, that’s for sure.
“I thought Mikael (Backlund’s) line was solid.
“Fourth line was on for two and took a penalty for another one. (Trevor) Lewis scored — they didn’t hold up their end of the deal either.”
More on Huberdeau, who also took a bad penalty in the offensive zone.
“It’s not just who turned the puck over, it’s all of them together,” Sutter said of the Kadri giveaway. “Before that, on entry on the left side, No. 10 (Huberdeau) had the puck there and you gotta go past the killers. We pre-scout that pretty good. We make that play, you gotta go past ’em.”
One of the most engaged players all night was Zadorov, whose late first-period fight with Jamie Oleksiak was aimed entirely at spurring on a listless bunch.
“He tried to get us going, give him credit,” said Sutter, impressed by Zadorov’s decision to join the rush where he converted the Flames’ first goal.
“I know he made a play in the second period on the turnover (leading to the goal tying it 2-2) — he’s got to eliminate those. That’s part of Z.
“But he’s played good for us.”
So has Toffoli, whose goal and assist gave him 400 career points.
“Obviously, we’re not happy,” he said of the collapse.
“We’re an older group. We know that good teams don’t do that. We’re trying to find ourselves as a group right now. Turning pucks over, it’s eventually going to bite us in the ass and that’s what happened.”
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