OTTAWA – Hours before puck drop, there was MacKenzie Weegar, chuckling over the good fortune that saw a roadside run-in with an Ottawa police officer turn into a cautionary tale about keeping glove box paperwork in order.
“That was a bit of a mix-up — I need to get my insurance figured out and updated,” chuckled the Ottawa native on a Wednesday afternoon of errands interrupted by police sirens behind him.
“Got to meet a nice police officer, he gave me a warning. Great guy. I don’t even think he knew who I was. I got a good bounce yesterday.”
It might have been his only one so far this season.
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Fast forward to the Flames’ 4-3 shootout loss to the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre Thursday night, when the increasingly desperate Flames had the lead on three separate occasions, only to surrender each one.
The hosts' last regulation goal came with just three minutes remaining when a Jake Sanderson point shot came just as Weegar fell during a battle at the top of the crease, right next to Flames netminder Devin Cooley.
Somehow, someway, the puck bounced off Weegar’s back, caromed up to the underside of the crossbar and bounced just over the goal line to knot things at 3-3.
“I don't know if I toe-picked or hit a stick, I honestly haven't looked at it,” said Weegar, shaking his head following the team’s 10th loss in their last 11 outings.
“I didn't even feel the puck hit me. It was a flukey play. It's a bad bounce, and that's just how it was going for me for this month.
“That month sort of tested me mentally.”
Two nights earlier, Weegar was victimized in Toronto by his team’s poor clearing attempt in the dying minutes, leading to Max Domi’s back-breaking winner.
In a month in which the reeling Flames will finish dead last in the league at 2-8-2, Weegar had no goals, just three assists and sits amongst league leaders at minus-11.
No, this is not on him.
This first-month faceplant is a team effort that has seen the Flames come up with different ways to lose games nightly.
But for a guy who entered the season with high hopes of making Canada’s Olympic squad, what’s unraveled in Calgary over the first dirty dozen games is as disheartening as it is damaging.
Yet, as a veteran who proudly wears an A on his jersey, he’s done well to maintain an air of positivity that can’t come easy, given the nightmare he and his team have endured.
“Cooley played great for us tonight, looked really solid,” said Weegar of the backup, who made six stellar saves in overtime and was the game’s first star until he was beaten clean on the first two shootout attempts.
“Special teams looked great tonight for us as well, got us into a shootout, gave us another chance there. There are some good things to take away from that game.
“But I think most importantly now, it's a new month here. You know, we can get rid of October for a long time. I don't need to see that month for a long time here.
“Get into November, make it a positive month and a successful one. I’ll come out the other side a better man and a better player.”
The bounce off his back that proved to be the team’s undoing was as horrifically unlucky as it was unlikely.
But even the Flames are past bemoaning their misfortune so far this season, as their body of work has been wholly unworthy of luck acting as their saviour.
“It happens,” shrugged Ryan Huska, whose club failed to clear the puck deep enough on the play, leading to a bad line change and a scramble that finished in the net.
“I don’t look at it as a bad break because you’re in a situation because of something we did prior.
“You earn your breaks along the way, you’ve just got to make sure you soldier on.”
They’ll get that chance Saturday in Nashville, where they can at least feel good about going two-for-four on the power play and killing all four penalties, including one in overtime.
Matt Coronato and Yegor Sharangovich gained some confidence by scoring on the man advantage, Cooley stepped up to make 35 saves and Nazem Kadri scored midway through the third with what would likely have stood as a game-winner a year earlier.
Alas, the Flames are now 1-3 when entering the third period with a lead, and are having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to avoid needless penalties and allowing gaping holes to open up defensively.
When Justin Kirkland’s wildly successful signature move finished with his shot beating Linus Ullmark, but bouncing off the post and out, there was a sense the ol’ “here we go again” refrain was uttered under the breath of at least a few Flames. And it’s tough to blame them for that.
