[browna]

I know the result and overall team and fan mood gets tossed in here in a PGT, but the Flames had more chances than the Blues and played as well or better overall. But they lack overall team confidence, especially offensively, including not having a game breaker. Flames should’ve been up 2-1 or 3-1 before the Blues were up 2-1 and the game takes on a totally different tone.

And point to Mangipane for making the wrong read to take the forward along the boards on the 3-1 goal. And, watching again, point to him on the one everyone is blaming Mackey on; Mackey threw it into the middle of the ice because he thought Mangipane was going to do the (sometimes dangerous) set play where the center comes down low in the middle-ish of the ice as an outlet. Mangipane not on the same page and turned up ice.

In a vacuum if you take it game by game the Flames are playing decent hockey but are missing a offensive game breaker which Kadri was early in the year and should be Huberdeau as well. And because they are missing thst, the confidence levels aren’t the greatest, and, all these tight games (Flames have had 18 one goal games), without that extra goal at critical points in the game, the confidence remains low and mistakes are amplified.

But as a whole, the situation is troubling because it’s clear this team is putting in the work but not got that x factor to break a game open, and it’s not just individual slumps.