A penalty filled affair against the Chicago Blackhawks proved to be too much for the Calgary Flames to overcome as they dropped their fourth straight game on the road by a 4-2 margin on Sunday night. The schedule will only get tougher for the Flames as they now get set to face off against three of the western conference’s top rated teams.

PHOTO CREDIT - CalgaryFlames.com

Calgary - December 19, 2011 - A penalty filled affair against the Chicago Blackhawks proved to be too much for the Calgary Flames to overcome as they dropped their fourth straight game on the road by a 4-2 margin on Sunday night. The schedule will only get tougher for the Flames as they now get set to face off against three of the western conference’s top rated teams in Minnesota, Detroit and Vancouver.

An absolutely embarrassing first period of play saw a disinterested group of individuals skate around the ice in a lackadaisical manner. As a result for the 26th time on the season Calgary allowed the first goal of the game as former Flame Steve Montador stepped into a slap shot that beat Miikka Kiprusoff over his right shoulder. Things were not made any easier for the team when Rene Bourque received a five minute major and a game misconduct for his hit on Blackhawks defensemen Brent Seabrook. I do not solely blame Bourque however as I feel the hit was unintentional due to the fact that Seabrook changed his body position after getting caught up with the linesmen in the corner boards. Rene Bourque will no doubt be hearing from the dean of discipline Brendan Shanahan, and I would not at all be surprised to see him get a one or two game suspension for this unfortunate incident.

The second period was not much of an improvement for the club as they found themselves under siege of the potent Chicago offense for the majority of the frame. Chicago was again able to strike early in the 2nd as Niklas Hjalmarsson took a shot from the point that bounced around off a few bodies before finding its way past a clueless Kiprusoff. The trips to the penalty box continued for the Flames when Chris Butler was called for tripping at the 14:16 mark, and on the ensuing man advantage the slippery Patrick Kane maneuvered into the slot to score his 9th goal of the season to put the Hawks up by three.

The third period was started with a bang when Cory Sarich steam rolled hawks forward Bryan Bickell. No penalty was called on the play, but Bickell was none too happy about being run over and ended up with an instigator penalty as he proceeded to fight the crafty vet. This just so happened to spark the Flames as Olli Jokinen continued his impressive play by ripping a slapper from the tops of the circle that rang off of the crossbar and past Ray Emery. The power play opportunities continued to grow for Chicago as TJ Brodie was called for high sticking, while shortly after Jarome Iginla was given a bench minor for the supposed “Abuse of officials”. Marian Hossa proceeded to score his 15th goal of the season while on the two man advantage and essentially put the game out of reach. Curtis Glencorss did however score a late goal to bring the Flames within two, but as the saying goes “it was too little too late”. After their modest three game winning streak a week ago, the flames have now dropped a game below .500 and five points out of a playoff spot.

My largest concern for this club lies in the fact that they have only managed to open the scoring in seven of the thirty three games they have played this season. We sit second last in the league in that regard, trailing only the struggling Carolina Hurricanes. With so many coaching changes happening around the league you have to wonder if Jay Feaster is considering the possibility of firing Brent Sutter, I can’t imagine a coach as successful as Randy Carlyle sitting around unemployed for too much longer. With Feaster constantly preaching about “Intellectual Honesty” I can only hope he sticks to his promises and comes to a decision about the direction this organization is heading in the very near future. If he does not make that decision in a timely matter we might just find our beloved Calgary Flames toiling in mediocrity for years to come.