Flashes of brilliance are not enough. Some modicum of consistency is needed.
On Saturday night, the Calgary Flames put together a flash game and defeated the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 5-0.
Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves to get the shut out.
Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano picked up a goal apiece and two points on the night.
It was Gaudreau’s first goal in eight games.
“Obviously a little different,” Gaudreau said. “Me and ‘Mony’ played together for pretty much every game since I’ve been here. A little different, but the team won a game tonight. We got to take it game by game, and whatever the lines are, we’ve got to focus on winning the next game here and moving on.”
The win snapped a four-game-skid.
“We’re not in a spot we want to be, but tonight’s a start and it gives us a chance to build,” Monahan said. “We needed to win a game. Now we have a chance to build on that. We have to get ready here for our next one.”
The Oilers dropped to 25-15-2.
“I think we’ve definitely been on a … I don’t even think you can call it a run at this point,” the Oilers’ Connor McDavid said. “I think we’ve had a good stretch of games over an extended period of time. I think obviously you never like to lose the way you do tonight, especially against a team like Calgary, a team that we don’t really like very much. It’s obviously bitter, but it’s some days it’s a little bit more than hockey with everything that’s going on.”
Sean Monahan scored for the first time in 13 games.
“You always want to start with a lead and play with a lead,” Monahan said. “That’s not always the case. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a go-to guy and somebody who’s going to obviously provide offense. When you’re not doing that, it’s frustrating. You have to stick with it and keep working at it.”
Elias Lindholm also scored, and Brett Ritchie closed out the scoring on backhand in the third period.
Mike Smith made 27 save in the loss.
“You can never use excuses, but there are times that you can tell your team just doesn’t have it and there’s not enough energy in the group, and tonight was one of those times,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said.
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