"We're in a pit of doom right now": Mikael Backlund makes his thoughts on Calgary Flames' 5-1 loss to Utah HC extremely clear

After the Calgary Flames began their season red-hot with five straight wins, they've since fallen onto hard times. Wednesday night's 5-1 setback at the hands of the Utah Hockey Club was their fourth straight defeat, dropping their record to 5-4-1.

For Flames captain Mikael Backlund, who appeared in his 1,000th career game, the team is in dire straits. He even went as far as to say that he and his teammates are "in a pit of doom" that they must climb their way out of.

“We’re in a pit of doom right now, but we’ve got to climb ourselves out of it,” Backlund said on Wednesday, via Sportsnet. “We’ve got to turn this around. That’s two tough games from us.”

Flames coach Ryan Huska commended Backlund for his career milestone while also noting that he'll remember how it ended.

“It’s a great night for Mikael," Huska said. "He’s always going to remember it, but he’s also going to kind of remember the way it ended up too.”

In addition to losing their fourth straight, they were outscored by a 10-1 margin during their two-game road trip.

The onus is now on the Flames to get back to the kind of hockey that had them on top of the NHL to start the season.

The Flames started hot, but have cooled off considerably

The Flames were guilty of inconsistent play against Utah, allowing multiple chances and looking unprepared right from the opening faceoff.

"Right from the start they were the better team," Backlund said to reporters after the game against Utah, via Calgary Herald. "They had a little more jump, they had more urgency than us, I felt, throughout the game. It’s a tough one."

It's been a case of what has gone wrong for the Flames in recent weeks after they began the regular season undefeated.

Their special teams' play has been lacking thanks to their power play failing to convert on its last 10 chances. In terms of their penalty killing, they've allowed five power-play goals in the last 13 times they've been shorthanded.

There's still plenty of time in the season to turn things around, but the Flames would be wise to break their bad habits before they become too much of an issue.

The Flames will have the chance to get back into the win column on Friday night when they take on the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Saddledome. It will feature the return of goaltender Jacob Markstrom to Calgary for the first time since the offseason deal that sent him to New Jersey.