Calgary Flames stumble in home opener, lost to Vancouver Canucks 5-1

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames ended the Vancouver Cancucks’ season in the first round of the playoffs last April.

Vancouver got a measure of revenge on Wednesday as the Canucks dumped the Flames 5-1 in the season opener for both teams, taking it to Calgary on home ice.

“Our first 10 was alright, I thought we dictated the play and we came out and had some energy but after that, they turned it around and dictated the play,” said Flames alternate captain Kris Russell. “They embarrassed us in our home opener.”

Russell rattled off the bad parts of Calgary’s game as if he was reading from a checklist.

“We were poor in our own zone, our transition game wasn’t there, I thought our neutral zone wasn’t good at all, we had a lot of turnovers, our forechecking never really got going, we never really made it hard for (Ryan) Miller and we gave them too much room,” said Russell. “They got goals on our mistakes and they’re a good team and they’re going to do that. “

Calgary got off to a decent start on Wednesday, taking the play to the Canucks in the early going. Mark Giordano had a chance to give the Flames a 1-0 lead only to be robbed on a glove save by Ryan Miller. Dougie Hamilton also had a dangerous chance bursting down the wing but sent his shot high and wide.

“I wish I executed a little better,” said Hamilton. “It would have been nice to start the game off with a goal there and maybe change the game. “

After those first 10 minutes, it was all down hill. The Canucks outshot Calgary 15-9 in the first period and 44-30 on the game, although the Flames were sitting at less than 20 shots midway through the third period.

“We played a game that is totally out of character for us and we got what we deserved, they kicked our butt,” said Calgary coach Bob Hartley.

When the Flames made the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, they did so defying the odds. They were frequently outshot in games and were one of the worst puck possession teams in the league.

In an attempt to address that, Calgary traded for Hamilton and signed veteran Michael Frolik as a free agent. But those moves did not pay dividends on this night.

“We were really guilty tonight of turning the puck over a lot and not playing our system at all,” said Giordano. “We were making poor decisions and they made us play.”

One of the storylines in the summer was Calgary having three goaltenders on one-way deals. With training camp having solved nothing, the Flames opened the season with Karri Ramo, Jonas Hiller and rookie Joni Ortio on the roster.

Ramo got the start Wednesday and while he had some shining moments — sliding across on a 2-on-1 against the Sedins to make a highlight reel save on Daniel Sedin, there were other goals that he probably wanted back.

With the crowd still buzzing about the save on the Sedins, the Canucks went back on the attack and made it 1-0 when Jannik Hansen beat on a long shot to the glove side.

Asked to assess Ramo’s overall play, Hartley was blunt. “As good as the rest of the team.”

Hiller dressed as the back-up and when the two sides meet again on Saturday in Vancouver could start.