In the midst of a disappointing road trip — and an ugly season overall, to this point — the Calgary Flames are desperate for a win Sunday when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers.
Calgary is 0-2-1 on its current road trip as part of a 2-9-2 start to the season.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating with our record,” said Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson. “The effort is there, but the execution just isn’t.”
Most recently, Calgary fell to Nashville 4-2 despite third-period goals from Joel Farabee and Jonathan Huberdeau. The host Predators scored three goals in the first period and led comfortably until the Flames’ late push.
“For most of the game, we were the better team out there,” Huberdeau said. “We had a lot of chances. Again, we can’t be down 3-0 right away. I still thought we were going to come back, but I mean, three goals is a lot. We have to be more ready at the get-go. It’s not fun losing.”
Calgary coach Ryan Huska just wants to see more consistency, particularly as it applies to the nightly game plan.
“We’re good with it for 90% of the time, but we’ll go off-script for 10% and that’s what’s hurting us right now,” he said.
Farabee and Morgan Frost, both of whom were traded from Philadelphia to Calgary last season, are among the top scorers on the Flames. Frost has two goals and five assists, while Farabee has two goals and four assists.
The Flyers had a three-game winning streak snapped Saturday when they fell to the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2. Christian Dvorak and Tyson Foerster were the goal scorers for Philadelphia, while netminder Dan Vladar was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 shots.
“I thought we had a good first period, thought we were the better team,” Dvorak said. “Then they came hard out there in the second and they threw some pucks on net and found ways to score.”
Philadelphia had won five of its previous six games. In order to get back on track, coach Rick Tocchet would love to see his team refocus on the basics — getting traffic in front of the net and putting the puck in harm’s way.
“We’re passing up opportunities to shoot the puck and we don’t have people going to the net,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest struggle for me this year, getting the guys to understand that.”
While Matvei Michkov (one goal) and Sean Couturier (two) are still hoping to find their footing offensively, the Flyers could also use more offensive support from their defensemen. The team only has two goals from blue-liners — one from Travis Sanheim and one from Jamie Drysdale.
“As D-men, we probably need to get a few more pucks through,” Sanheim said. “We obviously need to get more shots to the net. Start crashing the net and start looking for some ugly ones.”
This is the first meeting of the season between the Flyers and Flames, who will also meet Dec. 31 in Calgary. Last season, the Flames won both matchups with the Flyers by an identical 6-3 score.
