TORONTO – Jays fans who stayed up to watch all 18 innings Monday night were painfully aware the team’s depleted lineup was a long shot to finish the night triumphantly.
Calgary Flames fans can relate.
Problem is, the Flames' lineup isn’t depleted.
It’s just, well, defeated.
“We’re putting the puck in the back of the net a little bit more, but it’s kind of down to wins and losses right now,” said Morgan Frost, following the Flames’ 4-3 loss to the Toronton Maple Leafs in a Scotiabank Arena appetizer before the baseball game.
“We’ve got to get something going here.”
Despite building a tiny bit of confidence with a Sam Honzek goal that tied the game 3-3 in the final five minutes, a defensive zone turnover led to Max Domi’s heartbreaker with two minutes left.
As incrementally better as the Flames have been the last handful of games, it still all adds up to nine losses in their last ten games, keeping them in the NHL’s basement for yet another few sleeps, at the very least.
Sleep might be hard to come by for the lads, and not just because west coast baseball marathons have the country walking around like zombies.
The frustration level has to be higher than World Series ticket prices.
The good news is that few people saw their latest third-period letdown, as Game 4 of the Fall Classic started roughly 20 minutes before MacKenzie Weegar and the Flames were pressured into a late cough-up that Domi collected to beat Dustin Wolf on the blocker side with his second of the game.
“I think we struggled to move the puck from our zone tonight and out tonight,” said Ryan Huska, while a mighty roar emanated in support of a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. home run from the thousands of people who stayed after the game for a Scotiabank Arena watch party.
“I think that’s where we got ourselves into most problems.”
Then there were the penalties, giving the high-powered Leafs three-man advantages in the first frame, which helped the hosts gain momentum at a time in the season when the Leafs still aren’t sure who, or what, they are.
The most costly infraction came in the third when a Joel Hanley high stick off a draw led to a power-play goal by Matthew Knies that had the Flames chasing 3-2 early in the third.
Yes, Honzek’s first as an NHLer provided a glimmer of hope for the kid, and the team.
Goals by Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee – arguably the team’s two most snakebit players so far this year – were also encouraging for the league's lowest-scoring team that now moves to confounding 1-6 when scoring first.
But at a time when the season nudges ever closer to being on the brink with every loss, the end result was, well, gutting,
These are the games, as Huska said, you need to find a way to come out with at least a point.
Instead, they are a franchise-worst 2-8-1.
“It’s just kind of been the story of the whole year,” said Farabee, whose first of the season came courtesy of a gritty drive to the net he shovelled and willed under the pads of Anthony Stolarz.
“I think we take too many penalties and they start to let their top players start to feel the puck. They’ve got some really good players over there so when they start to feel it it’s tough to stop.”
On this night, they managed to stymie Austin Matthews, shut out William Nylander and prevent John Tavares from tying Lanny McDonald with his 500th goal.
However, two each from Knies and Domi accounted for four of the 37 shots Wolf faced, in an outing witnessed by a boatload of family and friends who turned out to watch a handful of local-area lads that included Zayne Parekh, Nazem Kadri and Morgan Frost.
The most encouraging takeaway came in the form of a tape-wrapped puck symbolizing Honzek’s maiden snipe.
“I’m really, really happy for me to finally (score) after hitting a couple posts and being kind of unlucky,” said the 20-year-old winger, who is starting to feel like he belongs in the NHL full-time.
“But maybe if the result of the game would be different, the game would be way better.”
A familiar feeling for a team still reeling from a start they almost certainly won’t be able to bounce back from.
