First, Forsberg retires. Then, about ten seconds into the game Calgary scores from the point. Matt Duchene goes down with a hand injury at the end of the 2nd, then in the 3rd, rookie defenseman Cameron Gaunce takes a puck off the foot (depleting an already depleted defense corps). And, oh yeah, while all this is going on, Craig Anderson replaces Budaj, who replaces Craig Anderson, who replaces Budaj and the Flames just keep scoring.
9-1. For their 8th straight loss. And while Iginla helps my fantasy team, he could have picked another game to be his usual awesome self.
There are a lot of perks to having such a young and inexperienced team. That 'why not us?' attitude that they had earlier in the year was one of them. But somewhere over the last couple of months, they went from a pretty cohesive unit with a why not us mentality to a group of 20 individual guys who are so damn afraid to make mistakes that mistakes are all they make.
I will say this, though (and I can't believe I'm going to). Watching the post-game tonight, and seeing Paul Stastny interviewed (which I gotta give him and JM Liles props for; I can't imagine they actually wanted to talk to anyone, let alone a guy with a mic and a camera in their face), I was shocked at just how honest he was. These were exact phrases he used: Unacceptable, embarrasing, every guy who put on that jersey ...
This from the guy who never sounds as though someone ran over his dog in interviews following losses (that is usually JM Liles and Matt Duchene). That doesn't mean I like the guy now, he has to be better, and if he wants to be the cornerstone of this team like he's been made to be, he has to start putting the team on his shoulders, saying screw it, and getting things done on his own. He doesn't do that on the ice. But for him to step up and call each and every one of those guys out, himself included, earned him some kudos.
Hopefully, though, tomorrow comes with a 'reset' button. For everyone.
1 comment:
U to the fucking GH.
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