For the second time in a week, both the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers played on the same night. The Flames were once again facing the, surging Ottawa Senators? The Oilers were facing the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs not only sit in first place in the Scotia North Division, but also first place in the NHL. Let’s recap!
Calgary Flames vs. Ottawa Senators
I have to be honest here, I didn’t watch the Flames game last night. One, because I don’t get off work until the game started. Two, because I was co-hosting the Belly Up Fantasy Hockey live stream last night. From what I heard and saw on highlights, I didn’t miss much. I did manage to catch half the first period on the radio, and the Flames started out great! Shots after the first period were 12-7 in favour of the Flames. As a huge bonus, they weren’t losing yet either!
The second period however… much different story. The Sens netted two goals in the first eight and a half minutes, and once again, the Flames were playing from behind. Milan Lucic coughed the puck up on one of the Sens goals. But not long after, Looch would make up for that by popping in a rebound off his own shot, and the Flames were within one. But a little over a minute later, Flames Goaltender David Rittich got flustered playing a puck very close to the trapezoid, and passed it tape to tape, right onto the stick of Drake Batherson. Giving the puck away is bad enough already. But giving it to Batherson is worse. Batherson is riding a six-game scoring streak now.
Things pretty much snowballed from there. The Flames gave up two more goals in the third period to make the final 5-1 for the Ottawa Senators. Milan Lucic had this to say after the game:
Milan Lucic on our postgame show following tonight’s 5-1 loss in Ottawa:
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) March 2, 2021
“It’s unacceptable. You can’t have everyone show up on Saturday and then expect it to be easy tonight. I think that’s our problem right now…sometimes we want it to be too easy.” #Flames
Things could have been worse though. Johnny Gaudreau hit Sean Monahan in the forehead with a shot in warm-ups, Goalie David Rittich had a fall in warm-ups and a few other guys took falls in warm-ups. Yes folks, the circus is in town!
The circus… I mean Flames face the Sens AGAIN, Thursday in Calgary.
Edmonton Oilers vs Toronto Maple Leafs
Once my live stream co-hosting duties were done, I did get to watch the Edmonton Oilers take on the league leading Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes, you read that right. The Leafs are still on top of the NHL standings.
Mikko Koskinen got the start last night for the Oilers, giving Mike Smith a bit of a rest. Smith has been on fire this season. Well, Smitty got at least one period off as he watched his team fall into a 3-0 hole after the first period. The Leafs got goals from the usual suspects, Zach Hyman and William Nylander. But Morgan Reilly even added his third goal of the season.
But let’s not count the Oilers out just yet. After all, they were down 3-0 to the Vancouver Canucks last week, and rallied back to win 4-3. Enter Mike Smith to start the second period for the Oilers. The Oilers came out better defensively in the second frame, only allowing five shots against Smith. But the offense just couldn’t get anything going, only mustering eight shots on goal in the period. None of which eluded Leafs Goaltender Michael Hutchinson.
The Oilers picked up their socks in the third period. Well, on the shot clock they did anyway, directing 14 shots towards the Leafs net. But Connor McDavid and the Oilers just could not solve Hutchinson for a second game in a row. For the first time in 54 years, a Leafs goaltender recorded back to back shut-outs against the same team. Make the final 3-0 for the Leafs. Here’s what Oilers’ Coach Dave Tippett had to say:
"There are parts of our game that are not where they need to be right now & we need to start building them up again."
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 2, 2021
Coach Tipp on the #Oilers dropping two after a five-game winning streak. pic.twitter.com/BsrdbbWDub
The Oilers will once again host the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
I’m Jason Beisick and I’ll be covering the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers for the Belly Up Hockey team. You can follow me on Twitter as well for general sports talk and likely some trash talk as well.
