Johnny Gaudreau realizes there's no time to waste.
His Calgary Flames have dropped four in a row and find themselves out of the Western Conference playoff picture heading into Wednesday's game in Ottawa.
"We've got to find a way to get out of this hole really quickly," Gaudreau told reporters Thursday. "There's not many games left in the season and we know how important the remainder of our schedule is."
Personally, Gaudreau has chipped in only one goal and three assists across 12 games this month, and is on pace to fall well short of his career highs set least season.
As such, he's preaching the basics to help himself and his teammates get back on track.
"Every player needs to step up, look at ourselves in the mirror," Gadreau said. "It's a little cliche to say that, but that's what we need to do right now. We've got to play our roles, play simple, come together as a team here and try to get out of this little funk and go on from there."
The Flames sit tied for the most games played to date with 51, making it even more difficult to catch other teams looking to keep Calgary on the outside looking in.
A nice run for Gaudreau - Calgary's top forward - would go a long way toward ensuring the Flames indeed climb out of that hole.
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