The losses are piling up.
Four in a row now. Nineteen goals against—six goals for during that streak. The last two games have been particularly ugly: 5-0 and 5-1 to the Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club, respectively.
Ryan Huska is citing a lack of work ethic. The team was “easy to play” against the Hockey Club last night. He’s not wrong. Much like in Vegas two night’s prior, it looked like the team had given up midway through the second.
With that said, this level of misfortune is temporary and necessary for a decent draft pick. It’s also needed to keep Kent Hughes’ grubby hands off of a franchise altering pick. After all, if Calgary and Florida both finish outside of the top ten, Montreal gets the lowest of the two selections.
All it would take is finishing tenth and getting bumped down a spot for disaster to strike on the conditions former General Managers Kent Hughes and Brad Treliving worked out.
So, let's just push that streak to eight, maybe nine, to be safe.
A few thoughts around the NHL on an off-day.
1.) Last night was a rough showing for Oliver Kylington. The Avs were missing six of their top nine forwards and the smooth-skating defenceman got moved to left wing. His first two shifts featured goals against; both arguably due to him not picking up a player.
Anyone who's played defence for a long time and then moved to forward can relate. Oliver dropped way too low in his own end (because that’s what
defencemen are supposed to do) several times before getting some time on the bench. He started getting the odd shift again and essentially shadowed the play.
Certainly, it was a tough night for the 27-year-old playing only his third game this season. The other two games weren’t pretty.
The Flames blueline is now a full house. As is the Wranglers blue line. If several trades were to go down by the deadline involving left-side defencemen, it would be nice to see Oliver come back to somewhere that he’s familiar with.
He’s better than what he’s shown this season.
2.) Speaking of reclamation projects, a large contingent of Penguins fans are in open revolt about Jesse Puljujarvi being scratched despite some encouraging results this season.
It’s understandable. The Penguins are in 31st place with a 3-7-1 roster. Their forward lineup could probably all get into a movie for under 150 bucks. Puljujarvi is 26 and a fourth overall pick in 2016 and has a goal and four assists for five points in ten games this season. It’s fairly well agreed upon that Jesse has the talent to find his way into a top-six with the right conditions.
Another trade deadline theory, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Flames take a flyer if he hits waivers after the roster is thinned out a bit. They’ve swung big on reclamation projects recently, and Ryan Huska might be the guy to turn his career around.
3.) Professional hockey is chaos, and the Hockey Gods love to laugh at our expectations, but tomorrow looks like another rough one.
The New Jersey Devils just rolled the Vancouver Canucks 6-0. Jacob Markstrom authoured the shutout and stomped the Ducks three nights prior.
The Flames have New Jersey’s first round pick this season. It’s going to take a hell of a nosedive to make that pick a spicy one. The Devils are currently in second place league-wide with a 7-4-2 record. A lot of that is due to them playing a few more games than much of the league. Their points percentage, .615, has them in 11th.
The Devils are known for injury issues as the season goes on, and Jacob Markstrom fits well in that regard. It’s entirely possible the roster implodes by January.
4.) The Oilers face off against the Predators tonight without Connor McDavid on the roster. That will likely help the rest of the team wake up a bit.
Their 6-1 loss to the Blue Jackets was a loss at all levels. Columbus hammered them with hits right until the last shift. Columbus played well, but not great. With or without McDavid, they were going to lose that game on bad defensive coverage.
The bottom half of that roster is getting caved in at even strength. Darnell Nurse leads the way at –6, but seven bottom-six/bottom-pairing players are –3 or worse. There are a lot of holes in that boat, and a head coach is in his second season in the NHL.
For reference, Jay Woodcroft made it to November 12 last season before being shown the door. Knoblauch isn’t on the hot seat, but if the season keeps going sour, you have to wonder.
5.) From Elliotte Friedman’s Oct. 30,
32 Thoughts column:
This serves General Manager Craig Conroy and the Flames well. The roster is full, and the AHL roster is overperforming. Moving players out when the team isn’t winning is less of a gut punch.
You have to wonder what Conroy has defined as the asking price for Andrei Kuzmenko to other interested GMs. Surely, he has one by now.
Tough to nail down precedent, but Reilly Smith went to New York for a second and a fifth during the offseason. Tanner Jeannot brought back a second and a third. Kuzmenko is a better player than those two wingers.
Anthony Mantha scoring a goal against Utah may have been the only positive to draw out of the last two games. Last year he was acquired by Vegas for a second and a fourth round pick. He’ll need to heat up for a while to fetch that kind of return again, but size is always a premium at the deadline.
6.) A bit of Flames news to finish it off.
Honzek, 19, looked a step behind on Wednesday night and turned the puck over at some bad times.
Coronato, 21, is coming off a two-goal night against the San Diego Gulls on Tuesday in his second AHL game of the season.
Stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick, Puckpedia, and the National Hockey League.
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