Game over points in their last five, a three game winning streak. Coming into this game, I and all I can say is all good things must come to an end, apparently. Welcome to game over Calgary. My name is Audie James. On the heels of a Calgary Flames five to three loss at the hands of the LA Kings tonight@crypto.com.

Arena in Los Angeles. Now you can see I'm getting in the festive spirit. It's the last time I'm going to see you guys or talk to you guys, if you're listening back on playback before the Christmas break or the holiday break. So we're trying to get a little festive. We're going to try to keep things nice and positive.

It's hard to be positive after a game like that, though, don't you think? Not the greatest of games tonight for the Calgary Flames in California. Now, they had a pretty solid road trip the month of December. I keep forgetting I paused there because December already. It's crazy.

We're at the end of the year. We're at the end of 2023. You could say 2023 as a whole wasn't great to the Calgary Flames. But the month of December, not stellar. Seven, six and two, I believe is the final record that they will hold in the month of December heading into the Christmas break.

They will play before New Year's, however, so there will be some time for them to add or subtract to that total. But yeah, not the best of games. We're going to try to keep things jolly. We're going to try to keep things light. But things were not stellar.

Yeah, time flies. As KQ says in the chat. By the way, speaking of the chat, if you are watching live, save your questions for the end. We're going to circle back at the end and answer those. Have a little bit of fun because that's all we can do at this point.

That's all we can do. As people who talk about and cover this team or fans of this team. That's all we can do. Just hope for a little fun. Just have some fun.

You and I, we can chat about it here on game over Calgary, but save your questions for the end. While you're here, though, hit like hit, subscribe, share the stream on social media. Let's get more people in here. We'll have some fun with this as we go along. Okay, like I mentioned, the Calgary Flames, we're looking for four in a row.

I think three is going to be where they stop, obviously, tonight, but three is the longest streak of the season for them in terms of consecutive wins, and they had points in their last five coming into it. So things were not all doom and gloom per se coming into this game.

Obviously the last game that they played, they looked really well. Jacob Markstrom picks up his 200th career win against the Anaheim Ducks in shutout fashion. They looked really good. I was expecting them to maybe come into this one. I know the LA Kings are good, but I was expecting them to come into this one with a little bit more oomph, a little bit more pizzazz, if you will, but they obviously don't do that.

We'll break things down shortly here. One note about the LA Kings that I want to kind of get off my chest is you look at the standings and you look at people who talk about other teams, but if you don't watch other teams on a nightly basis, you don't really have a great gage of how good or how bad a team is until you lay your own two eyes on them. Honestly, I haven't watched a whole lot of LA Kings games aside from games that they've played against Calgary. Obviously I've seen those ones. But aside from that, I don't go out of my way to watch LA Kings games, but you hear about how good they've been and things that they're doing well.

And watch out for the LA Kings in the west. All of a sudden they're at the top of the west and the standings in the Western Conference and obviously within the Pacific division. You see all that stuff, but you don't really get a good gage, really, until you watch them. And now after seeing this game, I understand where all that was coming from, from people who talk about this team on Twitter, on broadcasts and stuff like that because golly, man, that's a darn good hockey team right there riding on the coattails of right now, a Goaltending tandem that used to exist here in Calgary in Cam Talbot and David Riddick. Big save, Dave.

Once upon a time here in Calgary, but that's a damn good hockey team. That's a team with a lot of tools in the tool belt, obviously. PL Dubois, he scores tonight. He snaps that goal, a streak, but he was on a bit of a skid. But aside from that, that's a damn good team.

We're going to break things down here period by period, and then we will have a fun little exercise at the end of the show just to kind of kick things off into the holiday season as Christmas Eve is tomorrow. Okay, so the first period, obviously Jacob Markstrom had to have his come to earth moment. He had that fantastic game, the 200th win of his career. I think that puts him in third place amongst all swedish born goaltenders in the National Hockey League, in the history of the National Hockey League. So he sits third now and it's a shutout.

Just a big, big win, a great game from him. And he lets the first shot of the game go in a squeaker at that. That thing squeaked between his pads. That was Quinton Byfield, who opens the scoring there early on. I think that was a minute and ten into this hockey game.

And that set the table, let's be honest, that set the table there for how this game was going to go for the Calgary Flames. I mean, as Dib says in the chat. Welcome, by the way, kings fan here, GG, very close. Yeah, close in the score for sure. And I think that maybe if you're Cam Talbot, you maybe want a couple of those back and maybe it's not so close then.

But this game, in terms of a litmus test for the Calgary Flames, it is very clear what they are lacking. It is very clear against a good team like the LA Kings, what they are missing. I was watching this game the entire time just thinking to myself, this is exactly what I want for the Calgary Flames. This is how I want them to be playing night in and night out. This was a fun game to watch if you were an a very.

We're going to get into it more and more, but they were very fast. They moved the puck very well. Things that the Calgary Flames don't do. And that was evident in the sloppy play early on there. In the first period there were two or three shifts.

I think it started with the backlin line where they just could not, for the life of them. And how many times have you heard me say this on this show? Could not, for the life of them, clear the puck out of their own end. And these dzone turnovers and the inability to not only take control of the puck, but then once you do have the puck in your own end, the inability to start going the other way, and the inability to move the puck as a cohesive unit, and all these cliches and things that you look for on a hockey team that makes them successful. The transition game was weak.

Getting out of their own ends, it sucked the turnovers. The amount of time that the LA Kings spent playing offense in that first period was not good. If you were wearing a white jersey with a red c in the middle of it. It was tough sledding there early on for the and, you know, sloppy play off the tails of a goal that your goalie probably should have had. Just early struggles and like I said, it really set the table for how this game, I thought at least, was going to go for the Calgary Flames.

And I was proven correct in the end. Later on in the period, though, it was Rasmus Anderson who actually scored his first or scored on the flames first shot of the game. So both goaltenders exchanging goals allowed on first shot faced Rasmus Anderson. That one was off of. It goes off a leg, it squeaks over the shoulder of Cam Talbot and all of a sudden we have a tie game.

I'm thinking, God damn, man, I should have put some money on the over because I could see this one going for a lot of goals here tonight based on how that first period went. My note for the first period, that is going to be something that we come back to a lot as we kind of break this thing down is speed. And I think a lot of you who are watching this and a lot of you who watch the game tonight can probably say that it's not much of an exaggeration when I say that speed was pretty much the kryptonite here for the Calgary Flames tonight. A lot of things weren't great. But among those things that really stuck out and was really the thorn in the side for the entirety of this game for Calgary, was not only that they didn't play with any speed, but the pace in which the LA Kings played is one that you should probably try to replicate, one that you should probably try to mirror.

But when it's being thrown out against you, one that you should probably try and counter. But I understand that you can't counter speed with no speed. So it was tough. The flames struggled there mightily, mightily tonight in terms of being able to keep pace with just how fast LA was throughout the entire 60 minutes of this game. And that was really clear early on in the first period just how fast the Kings were able to break out of their own end.

How fast? When I say fast, it can go two ways. It's foot speed. It's something the flames struggle with, but it's also something that the Kings were great at tonight was the foot speed. And when I say speed, they also move the puck well with speed.

And not in the sense of carrying the puck, but moving the puck from stick to stick. The amount of times I saw tonight, the LA Kings make a pass in the offensive zone or make an outlet pass out of their own end trying to break through and transition. The amount of times I was like wow, that was on and off the stick in the blink of an was the way they moved the puck was so fast, the way they skated, it was great. That's a lot to take in. If this were game over LA, however, it's game over Calgary, so we're going to focus on the other side of that, which is just how bad they were at countering that.

It's hard to get sticks and lanes when the puck's moving that quick. But at the same time, the Flames just didn't do themselves any favors in trying to counter. In the dying seconds of the penalty in the first period, I believe they actually awarded it as an even strength goal PL Dubois. He obviously breaks that goalless streak. First goal I think they said since November 18 on a tip in it's two one.

That concludes it for matters in the first period. And that doesn't mean the woes and struggles for Calgary didn't go from the first to the second, because they very much did. As my first note for the second period is a couple of really bad turnovers early in this one. And again, if you had a penny for every time I said that for the Calgary Flames, you would be probably sitting on at least $3. If I said that 300 times, that wouldn't be too far outside of the realm of possibility.

Sorry. As I take a drink, my throat's getting. I'm still getting over this cold, I'm still getting over this sickness. You could probably still hear it in my voice and it's really messing with my throat here. So apologies for having to take the occasional drink break again.

The Flames lack of speed really noticed in transition, but then in the second period, Blake Coleman, which we're going to talk about a little bit after I tell you what he just did on a ridiculous two on one killing a penalty, as Derek Wills likes to call it on, the Flames broadcast a power kill goal as he scores his fourth short handed goal of the season. A little bit of a scare there with Camtel, but he looked to be okay. He was shaken up, had a bit of a gash on his forehead, but he looks to be okay. And we're happy that he stays in the game because we don't like to see people get hurt on this show. But Blake Coleman, he's going to score later on in the game.

We're going to get there when we talk about the third period, but Pat Steinberg put out a tweet saying that Blake Coleman is now the Calgary Flames goal leader with twelve on the season, and that's not what I'm about to say isn't a discredit to Blake Coleman because I think he's been incredible this season. I think you and I, a lot of people watching and listening, can probably agree that he's been one of the better flames, just complete wise. He hasn't really been horrible. He hasn't really stole a game. He's just kind of always, he's Mr.

Reliable, all reliable, you know, that guy that you can always rely on. That's what Blake Coleman has been to the Calgary Flames, but he scores two tonight. And now Blake Coleman is your goal leader for the Flames this season. Let me know what you guys think about that in the chat as we go along with this, because like I said, it's not to discredit how he's playing. And I'm not trying to make it seem like, oh God, when Blake Coleman is your goal leader, that must mean there's some problems on this team.

And obviously there's some problems. But when a team employs a $10.5 million, Jonathan Huberto, Anasam Kadri, Michael backlin to an extent, elias Lindholm, who I just kind of forgot about, he had three points last game, though, and Blake Coleman is your leader with twelve. Probably a bit of an indicator that you're not finding your finishers, and that's something that the Flames have struggled with, as I mentioned probably 100 times in other shows, is the inability to finish. They do have a lot of guys who have been able to know. I know that as of late, it's been Sharon Govich, who's been kind of all reliable, too, but they're doing it.

What I'm trying to get at as I butcher my delivery here is they're kind of doing it by committee. There's a lot of guys who are contributing throughout the lineup, but yeah, not ideal when that's your goal leader in Calgary is Blake Coleman. And again, it's not to discredit him. He's been playing fantastic and it's good to see him get rewarded for good play. But then shortly after that, can somebody put the pronunciation guide in the chat, please?

I know we have some kings fans in here right now. He scores on a double deflection, just a stupid, stupid one, and that's no fault of Markstrom's. That makes it three two, and that'll actually serve as the game winner as we go along here. And then once again, just another really good play by another good play later on by Trevor Moore, who just burns past everybody carrying the puck. Wicked shot, too.

He scores. Makes it for two. At the end of the second period, a double minor is assessed. The Calgary Flames go into the third period with a four minute, just short of four minute power play. And if you didn't even watch this game and I told you that the Calgary Flames were given a they had four minutes consecutively of power play time, you would probably just tell me know.

There's no chance in how they scored. Which is true, they didn't because the power play has struggled mightily. They put up a graphic on the broadcast on Hockey Night Canada tonight. I think the Flames, in their last 22 games coming into this one, they do score a power play goal. Spoiler alert.

A little bit later here in this period. But they are five for 65, which is good for 7.7% on the power play in their last 22 games. We loved to dunk on Kirk Mueller last year for the deployment of the power play. Sure, maybe they look a little bit better, a little bit better this year under Savard, but we scrutinized this guy and his power play. Get this coach out of here.

Get this staff out of here. And I was one of those guys. I was a big proponent of letting him run out to pasture and run whatever power play he wanted to run. Wherever he is. I think he's in Washington now, if I'm not mistaken.

But the power play, the Mueller play, was not working. And here we are the next season, bringing know, promoting Ryan Huska, bringing in Mark Savard to run the power play. And here we are with the same shit. It's the same thing over and over and over. And this team, guys, when I tell you the fortunes of this team, would be drastically different if even they were shooting at 30% on the power play, which is pretty damn good.

Maybe that's a little bit egregious. That actually is ridiculously egregious. If they were scoring at 15% on the power play, this team probably looks way different and they're not in 24th place in the NHL after this game. What I'm trying to get at is the lack of finish is evident. The power play struggles are probably a direct result of the fact that they have no finishers.

And it's still frustrating. It's still frustrating. Some things were good tonight. One of those things that was not good was the power play.

As Dib mentioned in the chat, King spent the whole game killing. It was a very undisciplined game. Say what you want about the officiating maybe there are a couple calls each side that probably you wouldn't call any other time. I don't know why they were called tonight. You could take a couple of those penalties out, but it was a pretty undisciplined game.

There was a lot of opportunity for both sides to be able to capitalize on the power play, and the Calgary Flames especially, they had a lot of power play time tonight and they just couldn't do it as they haven't been able to do all season. And that's going to be something that I think when we look back at the end of this year and the Flames inevitably missed the playoffs. I can't wait to get clipped for that, by the way, and somebody post that later if and when the Flames do. But when the Flames inevitably miss the playoffs and you look back at some of these two goal games, one goal games where you were over four on the power play, over three on the power play, even over two on the power play, you just needed one. You just needed two.

You just needed one. You're going to look back and say, damn, there's, I don't know, a possible like 1520 points that you missed out on just because you couldn't score on the power play. It's tough. It's tough, it's less than ideal. But then, like I said, finally, a power play goal later on in the third period as Blake Coleman on the rebound of a Bruzichka shot makes it four to three.

But then later on, obviously, Quinton Byfield scores on the empty net and we finish with a five three hockey game@crypto.com. Arena and it was, like I said, off the top, man, it was a tough one to watch. Less than ideal, just the same results that we've been seeing in pretty much every aspect. No speed, no finish, no taking advantage of special teams. It is what it is.

It is what it is. Hopefully everybody in Calgary and on the flames gets a nice little Christmas break and they come back and maybe things get a little bit better. But what does that look like? What does better look like for the Calgary Flames? I don't think they've had horrible, like the goaltending, I don't think has been as much of a problem as it was last season when Jacob Markstrom was Mr.

Unreliable. And that's where the infamous, oh, they scored on the first shot. Oh, Markstrom's back. That's where that whole thing kind of started. What does it look like?

What does it look like to you? They have a bit of a break. I say a bit of a break. They don't play till the 27th. Day after Boxing Day, coming back rejuvenated, hopefully the power play, that's what I keep coming back to is just the power play.

Just how bad it's been. Five for 65 is not good. Coming into this. Not good at all. I don't know what it looks like.

Let me know what you think in the chat. By the way, thank you guys for sticking this out. I know it's a late one tonight and everybody's probably spending time with family. We're getting into the holiday season. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so I appreciate you guys sticking it out with me and hanging out.

Let me know what you thought about this game and we will quickly plug a little bit here and then get into something a little bit more fun in this show. So like I mentioned before, we're going to be calling for press conference questions shortly as we're about to put a bow on this show here. But if you haven't done so already, please be sure to like the stream, share it, get some more people here and we can kind of have some fun in this next segment. Subscribe to SDPN wherever you're listening to on playback. Subscribe to the podcast there.

Game over, NHL. We do appreciate all of the support and the love there on all of your preferred podcasters. Spotify, Apple, Amazon, whatever else, wherever else anybody gets their podcasts. But yeah, in the spirit of the holidays, in the spirit of the holidays, not only am I wearing, I'm wearing this beautiful pride hat, I'm wearing my Canada ugly sweater. I was indulging in some very nice Christmas cocktails this evening prior to the game when I was having dinner with my wife.

But we're going to get even more into the holiday spirit here with a little exercise called what would each Calgary flame be asking for for Christmas this season? What is Santa going to be bringing to your favorite Calgary Flames players? So we'll go through a couple and I'm looking forward to some feedback. So before I start giving you what I think I would like you guys to in the chat, let me know. Name a player and what they want for Christmas.

This could be fun. Be respectful, be kind. Jonathan Huberdo is the first one that I'd like to talk about and the first person that comes to mind when I think of someone who desperately needs something that will help them for Christmas. And I was going to say like somebody to help him kind of get excel a little bit further. And I know the Flames won't be likely won't be in the market to be acquiring talent at the trade deadline.

But if I'm Jonathan Huberto, I'm asking for like Anthony Duclaire for Christmas. Get me somebody that can help and the Sharks stink, so maybe they'd be in the market to try to dish someone out. I think Anthony Duclaire could be one of those people, but I'd be like, yeah, get me somebody like Anthony Duclaire who I know I've played with before and has done me pretty.

Jacob Markstrom Dustin Wolf wants Dustin Wolf. This is one that I just kind of thought of on the spot. Dustin Wolf wants a Dan Villadar trade for Christmas.

He wants to see Dan Vladar traded so that he can come back up and keep making that NHL money and obviously keep playing in the NHL. Dustin Wolf is. I can't wait till he's a full timer on this squad. He's a lot of fun to watch. I've seen him a few times for the wranglers and he's, he's good.

But yeah, he's probably asking for a Dan Vidar trade. Let's see, what do the comments say? Dib says Huberto needs a better line for Christmas. Yeah, that is pretty much bang on. Dib needs a better line.

And maybe that starts with acquiring a guy like Anthony Duclaire to kind of light the fire under his ass and maybe give him that taste of Florida that he's missing in the first little bit of his tenure here in Calgary because it has not been stellar for him. Andremon Giopani probably wants a few more goals. Dylan Dubay probably wants people to stop ragging on him so much, but it's self inflicted. So that's something that he's likely going to just have to deal with for the foreseeable future. Dylan Dubay man is Dylan Dubay.

Sam Bennett 2.0 is Dylan Dubay. Sam Bennett 2.0. What do you do with a guy like Dylan Dube? I know a lot of people in the chat previously have said it's time for him to have the popcorn diet, and I've kind of been on that too. What does this guy provide?

What does anybody really provide? This Flames team is struggling. I'm getting to the point where it was so fun to be able to cover that win the other night and it was a good win. It was jacob marks from his 200th career win. It was a shutout.

There were a lot of good things to talk about, but when there's nothing good to talk about or things aren't great. It's hard to continue to break down these games the same way we have time and time again. It's the same old rinse and repeat stuff. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. And the Calgary Flames, they keep redoing their same old shit with their power play, which if they even scored two more power play goals tonight, I bet you we're talking about a different outcome tonight.

It's been less than ideal for Calgary. It's been way less than ideal for the Calgary Flames, and it's starting to wear thin. I'm getting into my own head when I come on this show and I have to talk to you guys for the amount of time that we talk and I'm like, damn, what's something new I'm going to bring to the table? Oh, the flames lost. Oh, the power Play stunk.

Oh, Dubai's still trash. Oh, Huberto still hasn't hit his stride. Hasn't found his game yet. It's getting tiresome. What are some good things that happened in this game for the Calgary Flames?

What's something good? Tell me something good. Blake Coleman was good. We talked about him already. Jacob Markstrom, I think was pretty good for the most part, and that's something that's frustrating.

Me too. Now we're just airing our grievances. It's festivus, after all. We're airing our. It's last season, Jacob Markstrom went through the wringer and we know that and didn't have the best year.

And fans wrote him a lot. They wrote him hard for just how bad he was. And now he's finally kind of getting back to himself and the rest of the team sucks again. They are not very good. Markstrom played great.

He's been playing great. Battle, a bit of injury trouble. It is what it is, folks. It's tough. It's tough.

Let's just hope that going into this Christmas break, coming out of it and heading into the new year that we see a new look Calgary crew and maybe some positivity, maybe some good stuff comes out of this. But that also means we're getting closer to trade deadline and I'm excited to see what they do with some of their pending ufas. That'll be it, folks, I've taken up a lot of your time. I appreciate you guys coming out and sticking it out. I know it's a late one.

It's a night where probably you guys are spending time with family heading into the Christmas season and the holiday season. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. I know I'm going to be hanging out with my family and it's going to be a good time. It's always fun, the holiday season. So I hope you guys have a great holiday season.

I hope you have a safe holiday season. Enjoy everything responsibly, take good care of yourselves. Spend some good time with your family and your friends and everybody that you love. Tell them that you love them and I hope that Santa's good to everybody. I genuinely hope that you guys have a good holiday season and when we come out of the break, it's going to hopefully be something more fun to talk about here in Flamesland.

But talking about the next game over, the next time we see you will be on December 27. It is going to be against the Seattle Kraken. Peter Klein will have your game over show until then. Thanks friends, and like I said, have a great holiday season. We will see you.

Actually, I won't see you guys until the new year. I'm not back on the mic until January 2, so have a great Christmas. Happy new year to all of you and thanks for sticking around. This has been game over Calgary on the heels of a five to three Calgary flames loss against the LA Kings. Stay safe friends and I will talk to you in the new year.

Adios. Game over. Close.