It’s mid-October and we’re officially cracking the 2022-23 NHL season wide open. As they get ready to play the Carolina Hurricanes in their fifth game, the Calgary Flames have one of the toughest schedules amongst teams this month; they started the season with a game against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche followed by a Battle of Alberta showdown in hostile Edmonton Oilers territory, and the Vegas Golden Knights back at home. The Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Oilers visit the Scotiabank Saddledome to round out the month. The team is of course getting used to a massive roster overhaul, seeing superstars Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk leave town with Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and Mackenzie Weegar, among others, suiting up in Flames red, white, and yellow for the first time.
The Avalanche as mentioned won the last Cup and house some big-name players such as Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen. The Oilers of course employ arguably the best two players in the NHL; Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, meaning the team cannot be taken lightly by any means. Vegas has stars such as Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, and Alex Pietrangelo and started the season with three straight wins. The first game against Colorado ended with a 5-3 Flames win which happened to be the team’s first season-opening victory since 2009, and they then proceeded to beat arch-rivals Edmonton by a score of 4-3 two nights later. Finally, the Flames got the better of the Golden Knights 3-2 before falling to the Sabres 6-3. The team demonstrated some very positive facets of play in these games and standing out amongst them is their very balanced attack and some early developing chemistry in their special teams’ play.
Flames’ Offence is Clicking So Far
During the first few tough tests, it seemed at many times as if any Flames forward line could score and create chances. Head coach Darryl Sutter deployed new star Huberdeau on the top line with Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli, with fellow big-name acquisition Nazem Kadri playing between Andrew Mangiapane and Dillon Dube. These along with the third line of Mikael Backlund centering Blake Coleman and Trevor Lewis, and the intimidating fourth line of 1,100-game veteran Milan Lucic, Kevin Rooney, and Brett Ritchie gave the team four unique lines that could drive play and maintain puck possession. Each line had its chances, and the offence generated in the three games was spread relatively equally throughout the lineup.
The first two games interestingly saw nine different goal scorers and 14 of 18 skaters recording at least one point. Game three against the Golden Knights saw the goal streak end with Lindholm scoring his second goal of the year, but even that match had eight different players reach the scoresheet. Against the Sabres, nine different players had a point on the team’s three goals. So despite deploying the Huberdeaus and Kadris of the world, the team isn’t heavily leaning on them to produce thus far. To their credit, Huberdeau and Kadri have accumulated four and five points respectively.
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The offence isn’t even solely coming from the forwards, as the Flames’ defence core has chipped in an impressive total of 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in the four games. Both skater groups have combined to outshoot the four opponents by a total of 152-107 with the shots spread nicely between all four forward lines and the three ‘D’ pairings.
Flames’ Positive Special Teams Play
The power play has also been a strong focal point of the team’s story so far: there have been goals on five of 16 total opportunities, which amounts to a 31 percent rate that is good for sixth place league-wide. Its counterpart, the penalty kill, has authored an 82 percent success rate that ranks them 13th. In essence, the special teams are demonstrating sufficient poise after a few games despite the roster shakeup in the offseason.
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The top power play unit of Huberdeau, Kadri, Toffoli, Lindholm and Rasmus Andersson scored twice against the Avalanche, once against the Oilers, and twice against the Golden Knights before finally getting nothing on one attempt versus the Sabres. One has to believe that if they were afforded more opportunities, the final score would have very likely been different. The second unit of Weegar, Backlund, Mangiapane, Dube, and Michael Stone has yet to break through but has shown decent puck movement and shot generation for the most part in their limited ice time.
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The penalty kill limited the Avalanche and Oilers’ star-studded power plays to one goal apiece, an impressive feat given the aforementioned names that occupy the ice for those teams. The Golden Knights were shut out on four opportunities and the Sabres broke through once out of five tries. Dube also had a short-handed goal against the Avalanche. While the Flames can certainly do better, they could also be significantly worse.
For an early comparison, the Flames’ power play and penalty kill percentages last season were 23 percent and 83 percent respectively. The best league penalty kills usually hover around the mid-to-high 80s, so even if the Flames just maintain their current pace they’ll be just fine. That is, especially if the team continues capitalizing on the man advantage as often as they have been. Huberdeau has been perfect either on the point with Andersson or cycling down low with men like Toffoli playing net front or a “bumper” role and Kadri and Lindholm setting up at the circles. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say.
The second unit will get themselves on the board, as they have all of the tools to do so. The big, booming shot of Michael Stone from the point combined with snipers Mangiapane and Dube should eventually lead to goals. Backlund has historically been adept at winning face-offs and is already at a 63 percent clip so far with two even-strength goals in four games. Weegar should blossom now that he isn’t in the shadow of Aaron Ekblad and actually getting power play minutes as he averaged a minuscule 45 seconds of it per game during his time in the Sunshine State. Shorthanded, Lindholm, Backlund, Andersson, and Chris Tanev lead the way in terms of penalty killing ice time with Weegar not far behind. The two units have done a fine job so far and would have had a perfect night against the Sabres if it weren’t for a lovely Alex Tuch play.
There is Room for Growth in the Flames’ Game
The Flames have started the season off very well. Sure, the fans would have loved to see them go a perfect 4-0 against the seemingly lowly Sabres but hockey is made beautiful due to its unpredictability. Rather, we should illuminate the positives and focus on the aspects of the game that are going the team’s way. All of the offseason additions are gelling thus far, the special teams are clicking and the offense is surely firing on all cylinders. There are 78 games left to see if the team can maintain this pace, perhaps grow even stronger, or at the very least, do better than the Oilers.