Flames fall to Blackhawks as losing streak hits four games

This may get worse before it gets better.

The Calgary Flames (33-33-5) are limping to the finish line right now, out of playoff contention and losing a lot more games than they’re winning.

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They’ll never say it publicly and probably won’t admit it to themselves, but that’s probably the best thing for the organization in the long term. Lose as many of these final games of the 2023-24 regular season as possible and get a better draft position.

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They just need to look at the Chicago Blackhawks (21-26-5), who beat them 3-1 on Tuesday night, if they want a reminder of what that strategy can get you. Bottoming out earned the Blackhawks the right to draft Connor Bedard last season, and while they’re still losing a tonne this year, they’re presumably on the rise.

Getting a player in the draft who could put the Flames on the same track would make a bunch of end-of-season losses this year go down a lot easier.

For now, though, the guys in the Flames locker-room can’t think that way. That’s not how professional hockey players are wired and the team is working at finding chemistry and hopefully ways to win hockey games going forward.

They know they’re not going to be in the playoffs. There’s got to be other motivation.

Maybe a week ago, that dream was still alive.

But the Flames have now lost four straight games and seven of their last nine.

They are 15 points back of the Vegas Golden Knights, who are in the Western Conference’s second wildcard position. That means that even if the Golden Knights lost every single one of their remaining games, the Flames would need to win eight of 11 to pass them – they’d also have to hope the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues also collapsed completely, but let’s not overcomplicate things here.

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The reality for the Flames is that there are probably going to be more losses like Tuesday night’s defeat at the hands of the host Blackhawks between now and the end of the season. General manager Craig Conroy had no choice but to deal away Elias Lindholm and three of the team’s top-six defencemen this season, but it’s left the team shorthanded.

Losing to the Blackhawks doesn’t really tell us much. First of all, the Flames always seem to lose to the Blackhawks — they’ve somehow lost five of their last six against a Chicago team that really isn’t very good — and secondly, these are two lottery-bound teams. There’s no real reason to treat the Flames as favourites in this sort of game. Not right now.

MacKenzie Weegar scored for the Flames, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 24 shots. The Blackhawks got two goals Jason Dicknson, another from Seth Jones, and 40 saves from Petr Mrazek.

For the Flames, the effort’s still there. They worked hard on Tuesday, nobody can take that from them.

It’s the execution that’s missing.

Can they find a way to fix that before the end of the season? They’ll try, but games like Tuesday do suggest they’re a long way off.

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