'No sugar coating it': Flames dig deeper hole with third straight loss

Rasmus Andersson has never been one to hide his emotions, as was evident following the team’s latest loss on Tuesday.

“We’re in a tough situation, there’s no sugar coating it,” said Andersson following a 3-2 loss in St. Louis.

“It sucks where we’re at.

“We dig ourselves down in a hole, and it’s going to take a lot for us to get out of it. We’ve got to do it sooner rather than later.”

To many fans, the playoff ship has already sailed, and the Flames won’t be on it.

However, players can’t talk like that, even if the Flames sit dead last in the standings and in goals, goal differential and power-play efficiency.

The hole he’s talking about includes a four-point spread between his Flames and the NHL’s second-last team, not to mention the chasm between them and a playoff spot.

Tuesday’s loss included digging another hole as the Flames went down 3-0 before a rare two-goal scoring binge made things interesting down the stretch.

Alas, the team lost its third in a row, and now returns home for a Thursday date with the San Jose Sharks and the most exciting young player in the league today, Macklin Celebrini.

“I don’t even know our record anymore,” said Andersson of his 4-12-2 squad.

“It’s frustrating, and I don’t want to stand in here and give the same old cliches as we’ve done in the past, but now it’s time to dig in.

“We should have (dug) in a few weeks ago here because this is just not acceptable.

“We’re not playing well enough at the moment — we haven’t since the start of the year. It sucks.”

For those who remember how the back-to-back losses in St. Louis played a big role in Calgary's inability to make the playoffs last season, the Flames have now lost eight straight to the Blues.

After going 154:51 without a goal, the Flames finally found the net 14 minutes into the second period when Matt Coronato's fourth of the season was followed up 25 seconds later with an Andersson goal that gave the bench a little jump.

The snakebit Flames came close to tying it on a couple of occasions, but despite throwing 16 shots at Jordan Binnington in the third period — and 40 in total — the Flames were not able to finish the comeback.

“In the final moments we had some good chances, but were not able to finish and get the goal we needed at that point,” said head coach Ryan Huska.  

The man who came closest was Coronato, whose attempts to shake a scoring slump saw him fire 16 shots on goal in the team’s previous two shutout losses.

He added a team-high six more Tuesday, finally finding the twine with a deadly snipe inside the far post, and was the most noticeable Flames player all night long.  

“When you go a couple games without scoring, it wears on them for sure,” said Huska.

“But I think the key thing is to make sure you stay true to how you have to play the game.

“Matt is a great example of that. Over the last three games he’s shooting the puck a ton, and he got rewarded tonight. He’ll continue to get rewarded if he continues to do what he’s done the last few games.

“He’s been a threat. He’s doing the right things to put himself in positions to get pucks back, and he’s more competitive on and at the puck right now, and that’s why he’s had some success.”

Coronato took little solace in the team’s two-goal spurt. 

“It was nice to see how we battled back in the second, but it sucks to not be able to claw all the way,” said Coronato, whose team got 28 saves from goalie Dustin Wolf.

“Everyone in here cares, and everyone in here is not liking this. We need to turn it around. We’re going to keep playing hard, and we’re going to find a way to get one and hopefully go on a roll from there.”