ANAHEIM — There was this theory going around Thursday morning, and it went something like this: if the Calgary Flames were going to sneak a win out of the Honda Center early in this series, Thursday night was the night.
The Ducks had been off for eight days, might be a tad rusty, and with Calgary’s quick feet and feisty attitude, Anaheim might be ripe for a Game 1 upset.
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Alas, like all theories, testing time arrives eventually. By the time they pulled the petri dish out of the kiln on this one, the score was 6-1 for Anaheim. Back to the ol’ drawing board.
“They were a lot more ready for tonight than we were,” said Flames centre Matt Stajan. “It wasn’t pretty.”
This was the ugliest, most lopsided loss of the Flames’ entire season. They were down 6-0 — two Ducks goals in each period — before a late Sam Bennett goal ruined Frederik Andersen’s shutout. Calgary’s goaltenders allowed three goals apiece, the starter Hiller on 14 shots and reliever Karri Ramo on 21, and Georges Vezina himself wouldn’t have a hot clue who starts Game 2 for Calgary.
On the injury front, neither Jiri Hudler nor Michael Ferland made it to the halfway point of the game. Both are listed now as day to day.
“In the first round we were always the team that outworked Vancouver, and that’s what gave us a chance to win every night,” Hiller mused. “Tonight, we got outworked.”
On the Ducks side, the top line of Ryan Getzlaf between Corey Perry and Patrick Maroon flexed their muscles with a four-goal, nine-point night. Four-point games for each of Getzlaf and Perry tied Ducks franchise playoff records, and at times the pair looked like two Bantams in an Atom game.
“They put on a show,” said Flames coach Bob Hartley, whose team struggled with the Getzlaf line’s size, strength and skill in equal measures.
Which element is the most difficult?
“They scored six goals on us. You can say whatever you want,” Stajan said. “They’ve got a lot of skill over there, and they’ve got a lot of size. They played a lot better than us, give ‘em credit.”
Now, we have reached point like this in the Flames season before, when you thought, “Finally, the magic has run out.” When the term “unsustainable” was trotted out, as it was again by fancy stats folks on Thursday who were quite ready to pass off 88 games this season as pure fluke, while declaring this one debacle the real goods.
And thus far, the boys from Calgary always find more.
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But they’ve never been up against a team like Anaheim in a seven-game series before. Vancouver, comparatively speaking, didn’t have close to the size and physicality that the Ducks have, and as much respect as we have for the Sedins, Getzlaf and Perry have just as much skill but play you 10 times harder.
The Sedins roll off of you. Getzlaf, Perry and Maroon all run right over you.
“They’re unstoppable,” Maroon said of his linemates. “When they’re on their ‘A’ game I don’t think anyone can stop those two. You know, I just feel I’m out there sometimes. Those two are so good, defensively and offensively.”
This one may have left a mark on the Flames. Ferland appeared to have a possible concussion, leaving woozily and never returning. And Hudler? Who knows what ails him, but he just disappeared from the game early in Period 2 and was not seen again.
Johnny Gaudreau, meanwhile, took a brutal crosscheck in the back from Nate Thompson, and was spared from playing the final 25 minutes by Hartley. “I just rested Johnny. I felt like they were taking way too many liberties on him. The score, I just kept him on the bench,” he said.
This one was so lopsided, the Flames roster so challenged, Hartley didn’t even play his old card of gooning it up late in a hopeless loss. There was simply no point, and no chance that a fight or two would have any lasting effect as the clubs venture into an extra day off before Game 2 Sunday evening in Anaheim.
“Tonight they gave us a real good idea of the price we will have to pay to come out of this building with a win. We’ve faced adversity all year, and we’ve always found a way to be better. We have two days to find some answers,” Hartley said.
Across the way, Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau couldn’t be happier with a team that is now 5-0 in the post season, and a top line that appears simply unstoppable. Calgary will have to hire a forensic team to find anything positive out of Game 1, and the matchup of the top lines looks like “Big and Great” versus “Small and Pretty Good.”
“When Getzlaf is moving his legs like that he makes a lot of things happen, and Perry’s a great finisher,” Boudreau said. “They’ve been disappointed the last couple of years. It’s a more serious group this year. “
Serious, all right. Serious trouble for the Flames.
