CALGARY – And so, Brad Treliving has his answer.
Another good effort by the Calgary Flames simply isn’t good enough, making it patently clear his team isn’t worthy of costly deadline adds of any sort.
A 2-1 loss to the Maple Leafs Thursday gives the club four losses in a row heading into Friday’s trade deadline, leaving them five back of the last wild card spot.
If the Flames’ playoff hopes aren’t officially over, the mood in the dressing room and the city is a reminder it’s pretty damn close.
“Just another gut-wrenching loss,” said Blake Coleman, in hushed, frustrated tones.
“Another game we honestly played pretty well.
“Right now, we’re a really good team that doesn’t know how to win.”
It’s the most accurate summation of the season to date.
On this night, unlike so many others of late, the Flames goaltending was good enough to win.
How painfully ironic then, that it was one of last year’s deadline additions that inflicted another devastating blow to the Flames’ slow march to summer.
Calle Järnkrok, who scored the only goal in his 29-game cameo with the Flames the night they were eliminated, managed to sneak a rebound just over the goal line to break hearts, and a 1-1 tie, two minutes into the final period.
Staying on brand, the Flames couldn’t come up with an answer, testing backup Joseph Woll just five times in the frame.
The players felt bad they weren’t able to better support their embattled netminder, who did his part to keep things close with a handful of world-class saves on Mitch Marner alone.
“Tough loss,” said Markstrom, who made 32 saves.
“Close again, but it’s been this way too many times.
“It’s frustrating to get away without any points.”
As they have throughout the last week, the Flames once again lost ground, as every other western team with a playoff chance won Thursday.
Nashville’s win gave them a better-winning percentage than Calgary’s, while the closest division rivals are seven points up.
“You can look now, and it really comes down to you don’t need to win out, but it’s pretty close now, with how this west side is,” said Markstrom.
“There’s a lot of teams involved.
“We’ve got to start with one (win).”
As their 57-shot loss to Boston made clear, the Flames are snakebit of late.
It was just over a minute after Marner tied the game in the second period that Nazem Kadri appeared to have offered up the perfect response with a power play goal midway through.
Alas, a Leafs challenge proved the play was offside.
“It seems like that’s kind of been the story all year – we go score a goal that would have been a big goal to put us up 2-1: No goal,” said Kadri.
“They catch a break and get that break on their goal. It just sucks not getting those bounces.”
As Sutter reiterated for the umpteenth time, “somebody’s got to make a big play.”
They couldn’t, prompting several frustrated reactions as time wound down and a sea of Leaf fans dominated the buzz.
“We need to mature as a group and not show frustration like that,” said Coleman, who converted a shorthanded breakaway to open the scoring two minutes in.
“But at the end of the day, I’d rather have 20 guys that care than 20 guys that are looking forward to golf season.”
No one will say it – they can’t – but it sure feels like, well, you know.
“It’s pretty incredible how many one-goal games we’ve lost this year,” said Coleman of the one stat his team leads this season.
“The best way to sum it up is we’re a great team that just doesn’t know how to win.
“We all feel like we could be a team in a much better position right now, but at the end of the day it’s points and it’s structured the way it is for a reason – you’ve got to win hockey games.
“We’ve just found way too many ways to lose.
“Look at our overtime losses (13) and look at our one-goal games, we just, for whatever reasons, haven’t matured as a group yet.”
And no addition short of Connor McDavid can possibly help them over the hump with a trade deadline boost.
“It’s not unheard of to win six or seven games in a row,” offered up Coleman, whose club hasn’t won more than three in a row this year.
“It happens all the time in this league.
“You’ve got to have guys who believe in themselves and each other.
“Like we’ve talked about, guys are really pissed off and guys are frustrated. It can be a really good, useful tool, or it can be the end of it.
“If guys channel it the right way, and we get on a little roll, then put the league on notice.”
Notice, quite clearly, has already been served.
