After suffering back-to-back shutout losses, the Calgary Flames will try to get their offense back on track when they visit the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night.
The Flames will carry some frustration into this game after losing to the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 at home Friday night and falling to the Minnesota Wild 2-0 on the road Sunday.
“We got some looks, didn’t bury (them), and it’s hard to win when we don’t score goals,” Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund said after the Minnesota loss.
After 17 games, the Flames rank last in the NHL in scoring with 2.06 goals per game.
“I think we can do a better job of getting some people to the net, so the goalie can’t see the original shot,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought the guys made some adjustments as the game went on, but we were able to gain a fair bit of zone time (Sunday), which is something that’s important for us.”
The Flames lost the earlier game between these teams 4-2 in Calgary on Oct. 11. Matt Coronato scored the Flames’ goals in that game and Dustin Wolf stopped 24 of 28 shots.
Coronato has just one goal in his other 15 games and he is carrying a minus-13 rating overall. Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar has no goals, four assists and a minus-16 rating.
Goaltender Joel Hofer earned the victory for the Blues in the earlier game vs. Calgary, but the Blues are likely to start Jordan Binnington in this matchup after giving Hofer their previous two starts in goal.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery was disappointed that his team didn’t get a last-second goaltender interference ruling that would have clinched a victory over the Seattle Kraken Saturday.
Instead, the game went into overtime, and the Blues lost 4-3. That left St. Louis 2-6-3 in its last 11 games.
What disappointed Montgomery more than the late non-call on Saturday was his team’s overall effort, which fell short for much of the game as the Kraken controlled play.
“The whole second period it just seemed like we were going uphill, they were going downhill,” Montgomery said. “We’ve got to break the momentum. We only had two shifts where I thought we broke the momentum for a little bit, then it came right back at us.
“We got pucks to wingers, and I thought wingers stood still trying to make plays, and they were over top of us, and that’s when you’ve got to take your ice and you’ve just got to gain lines and be happy with gaining a momentum shift through a forecheck.”
In response to that loss, Montgomery put his team through a grueling practice Sunday capped by a “bag skate” that left players exhausted.
“We just need to continue to get better,” Montgomery said. “We haven’t been playing complete, 60-minute games. That practice was a hard push and players pushing each other to get better.”
Jake Neighbours scored twice for the Blues in the earlier game against the Flames, but he remains sidelined by a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
