CALGARY – The fear, understandably, is that the Calgary Flames just set the tone for what a tear-it-down rebuild can look like.
It’s a fair concern.
Sure, plenty were prepared for multi-goal blowouts, rookie mistakes and losses in bunches.
But the failure to rise to an occasion marked by a stirring pre-game celebration of the Dome they’ll depart in six months is a troubling sign.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Zach Whitecloud, in as plain a term as needed following a 6-1 opening-night humiliation at home against a pedestrian Seattle Kraken club Thursday.
“It's going to test the group's character, and we'll see how we react coming in tomorrow.
“That one, in front of our home crowd, opening night of the last year of the Dome… unacceptable. We have to hold each other accountable for that, and what the result was. And we will, and we'll move forward from it. We'll learn from it, and make sure something like that doesn't happen again. If things start to get out of hand like that, we have to dig ourselves out of that and come together as a group.”
Sure, this young, growing squad will be outskilled and outscored on many nights this season.
That’s part of starting from scratch.
But to be outworked goes against everything this club has built over the last three years under Ryan Huska.
And for a team that wore T-shirts in camp with the mantra, “get in the fight,” the lack of pushback was perhaps the most disturbing development.
Shocking, given how much emotion was in the building following pre-game tributes to owner Alvin Libin and broadcast legend Peter Maher, followed up by a masterful video commemorating 43 years of Dome lore that had the crowd on its feet for a stirring start to the organization’s 42-game goodbye to this old barn.
There will be no 43rd game. That much was clear long before the beatdown.
“I had some goosebumps in there, with the national anthem, the C of Red… I was pretty fired up to start the game,” said Ryan Strome, whose club saw a solid start erased midway through the first when the Kraken scored three goals on Dustin Wolf before period's end.
“We’ve got people that pay hardworking money to come watch us and support us in this barn for the last year, and I'm disappointed for the fans and for us because I know that's not the product we want to put on the ice, especially in such a memorable season. You're not going to win every night. We're going to have some tough ones. We're going to have some ups and downs, but I think the work ethic and the compete, and the non-negotiable has slipped away, and that's unacceptable.”
Truth is, the best performances of the night came from the lad who made the pre-game Saddledome video, and the two Flames who spoke so eloquently afterwards.
“Super disappointing,” continued Strome, who wore an A on his jersey alongside Whitecloud.
“We had a good start, and then kind of just unravelled. We’re a team that can't really make any mistakes. We’ve got to play hard. We’ve got to play simple. And obviously the end result of getting away from that was what you saw tonight. That one stings. I mean, if you're a professional athlete and you go home feeling good about this one, something's wrong with you. The good thing is we’ve got a lot of proud guys, and I know a lot of guys are pretty pissed off.”
Goal scoring will be a massive problem all season long, putting a premium on tight defence and disciplined play.
All were absent Thursday.
The reality is, there are going to be many people around the league that will see the score and shrug, knowing just how painful the early stages of a rebuild like Calgary's can be.
Whitecloud was asked what he’d say to those people.
“There's a lot of things I'd say,” he said, choosing his words carefully as he navigated the frustrations of such a humbling showing in which his team played shorthanded five times.
“I think the rest of the world is doubting the Calgary Flames and what's in this room. I see it every day. I see the way the guys treat each other. I see the way the guys work for each other in practice, in games, pre-season games, and we have each other's backs. And there's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be some really high ups. There's going to be some really low lows. And we're going to have to pull one another out of that. And nobody else is going to figure it out from the outside world. Those opinions don't matter. People can say what they want. They're not the ones pulling each other out of the mud in here.”
