After being embarrassed by McDavid, Flames must face Matthews next – Calgary Sun

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They probably pleaded with the pilot to fly them directly to Ottawa.

The Calgary Flames, after losing three straight and being outscored by a combined count of 14-3 during that free-fall, after questions about their competitive fire and their locker-room culture, after a complimentary clinic from arch-rival superstar Connor McDavid, really need a pick-me-up.

They need … anything but this.

Their visit to Ottawa, home to the cellar-dwelling Senators, will wait until later in the week.

First, they hit Toronto for a pair of meetings with North Division-leading Maple Leafs. Gulp.

The Flames, it seems, can’t keep the puck out of their own net.

Auston Matthews, it seems, can’t be stopped.

For a struggling squad, now south of the even-steven line at 8-9-1, it feels like a match made in hockey hell. Somewhere, you can hear Harvey the Hound whimpering.

“Well, we’re playing arguably the best team in the league these next two games and they’re going to be intense games because they came into our rink and took it to us for two games (in January),” said Flames alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk after Saturday’s Blowout of Alberta — a 7-1 landslide for the host Oilers — at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

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“And it’s our turn to give a little payback. They’ve got the guy who is playing the best in the league right now on their team (Matthews), similar to what we’ve seen the past two games against McDavid. So it’s a big test. A big test.

“We’re going to really see what we have in these next two games.”

Tkachuk had, earlier in the day, referred to this six-game getaway as a “make-or-break road-trip” for he and his frustrated friends. Saturday’s embarrassment — their most lopsided loss of the season — wasn’t an ideal way to start.

The Flames have now dropped four of their past five and been blown out in two of the past three. Stalwart netminder Jacob Markstrom, their most consistent bright spot in the early stages of this shortened sprint, has suddenly been mercy-hooked in consecutive appearances.

McDavid put up five points to lead Saturday’s shellacking. One of the post-game storylines was whether he and Matthews, a training partner this past off-season, are suddenly locked in a game of one-upmanship, the sort of back-and-forth that could convince a generation of kids that they’d be crazy to become goalies.

The Flames better hope not.

Matthews, coming off a pair of four-point outbursts, is threatening to run away with the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy.

The Maple Leafs’ centre has so far suited up for 18 games. He has scored 18 goals. You shouldn’t need the calculator app on your iPhone to crunch the average.

Matthews was held without a point back on Jan. 15 so that’s … Wait, that was five weeks ago?!? Whoa.

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And the 23-year-old sharpshooter will likely be licking his chops when he watches video of his upcoming opponent.

“The gaffes that we give up are big ones,” groaned Flames coach Geoff Ward after the gut-punch in Edmonton. “And they’re coming at inopportune times.

“We can’t continue to give up the type of chances that we’re giving up, and earlier we were not. So you ask yourself why? We have a good handle on why it is, but now we have to stop it. We have to fix it. It bit us again (Saturday).”

McDavid is the kind of guy who is going to capitalize on defensive brain-cramps.

Matthews is too. (The Maple Leafs also employ Mitch Marner, currently sitting second in the NHL with 21 assists, so this is hardly a one-man band.)

That whupping from the arch-enemy Oilers had a rock-bottom feel for the Flames, who learned the hard way over the past week that Markstrom had been masking a whole lot of ugly with his superb play. He’s now been shelled for 10 goals in his past 76 minutes of crease-time, although he is the last guy anyone should be worried about.

There’s certainly, for both Flames fans and the Saddledome brass, no shortage of stuff to fret over.

Worry about whether Tkachuk, who hasn’t looked enough like himself, can make good on his pledge to be more of an offensive engine and emotional sparkplug. He topped his troupe Saturday with seven shots and six hits, an encouraging sign.

Worry about what happens if Johnny Gaudreau, with a sky-high shooting percentage, starts hitting more pads or posts. Who scores then for a team that ranks in the bottom-third in the league with an average of 2.56 snipes per night, that fired 44 pellets on net in Edmonton and had just one tally to show for it?

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Worry about how long Gaudreau’s centre sidekick Sean Monahan might be missing with a mysterious lower-body injury.

Worry about the struggles of their third defence pairing, especially since they won’t have the luxury of last change in Monday’s showdown with the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena (5 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West) or in Wednesday’s rematch.

Worry, when it seems like things can’t get any worse for the Flames, if Matthews will prove otherwise.

Heck, the last-place Senators are probably excited for their crack at this fragile bunch.

“We have to take out of this game what we need to, but we really need to apply what we take out of it,” Ward stressed after the humbling on Hockey Night in Canada. “The mental framework of our team right now, moving forward, is important. It’s not always what you eat, it’s how you chew it. Our perspective coming out of this, how we take it and what we take out of it, is critical for us in terms of moving forward to make it better.”

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @WesGilbertson