00:00Alright, so the Calgary Flames pick up a 6-5 win in overtime over the Vancouver Canucks
00:13in their season opener.
00:15And there's a lot to cover from this game.
00:18But I think the main one is this is the exact type of effort you want to see from this Flames
00:25team.
00:26And I understand there's a segment of the fanbase that would like to see this kind of
00:28effort in a 6-5 loss, but I think that this is obviously incredibly positive from a Flames
00:35standpoint.
00:36And, you don't want to read too much into it, I don't think when the Flames eventually
00:41are parading down 17th Avenue, hoisting the Stanley Cup at the end of a successful rebuild,
00:47we will not be looking back to October the 9th, 2024, as like, well, this is the day
00:51it really started.
00:52Like, I don't want to overexaggerate what this game means.
00:57It's 1 of 82 for a team that is likely not going to be competitive, and this game doesn't
01:02change any of that.
01:03But when you look at what the Flames are looking to accomplish this season, and what I am at
01:08least looking for this team to accomplish, very little of it comes in the way of results.
01:15What I am looking for are players developing, and breaking through, and positive habits
01:23that are forming.
01:24That last part really steps up in this game, because Calgary, early on, was outplayed by
01:32the Vancouver Canucks.
01:33But then, once they fell behind 4-1, but once that second period started, they got rolling.
01:40And the really fun part of it, is that it was not with what they, it was not a, well,
01:46we're going to out-skill you or anything like that, because they're not.
01:49There are about 3 teams in the league that this team is going to out-skill.
01:52It was effort, it was work, it was battling, it was all of those gritty, dumb things that
01:58people focus on in hockey, but are important foundational pieces when you're looking to
02:03establish a winning culture.
02:05And that's what this was.
02:06It was showing, and this was something that came up last year, it is the understanding
02:10that if this team is going to be successful, which again, probably not, but if this team
02:14is going to be successful, or when they get to being a successful hockey team, it is going
02:20to be by out-working people.
02:22And that is what they did for about 45 minutes in this game, uh, 41 and a half minutes in
02:27this game, is they out-worked the Vancouver Canucks.
02:31And they just, they won every puck battle, they won every race, they did all of those
02:37little things that you need to do to win hockey games, and they did it perfectly.
02:42And it is those sorts of things that you want to establish with the young kids like Zari,
02:47and Pospisil, and Honzyk, and all of those guys, is that this is the way you need to
02:51play to win hockey games.
02:53And so for the Flames, to set that foundation this year is very, very important.
02:57And that is the type of thing that I love seeing from this group, and the stuff that
03:01I want to see more.
03:02It's that battle, it is that compete on a nightly basis to be able to go out and get
03:06that job done.
03:07Offensively, I mean, they scored 6, so that's sweet.
03:12I do, I really liked Backlund's game early, I thought that he was kind of one of the only
03:18guys who was bringing it in that first period, and then to be able to set up a couple of
03:23really good opportunities, and help create some scoring chances that way, with some good
03:27work down low.
03:29And his vision out there, like his playmaking, I actually feel like it's getting better.
03:33And they mentioned a couple times on the broadcast last night that he has now played in more
03:38seasons as a Flame than Jerome McGinley did, which is insanity.
03:42That he is, he is really, obviously, a very good hockey player, and has been for a while,
03:48but he's kind of grown into this other offensive role that has been really fun to see.
03:53And his vision out there was great, and I thought he did a good job of setting Calgary
03:59up and getting them kind of going, when there wasn't a whole lot there.
04:03And I thought Pospisil did a great job in this game of kind of setting the tone as well
04:08for Calgary.
04:09I thought it was one, that it leads to the power play goal for Wieger that ties the game,
04:14but it was Mantha just slides it in, and it's like one-on-four, and Pospisil goes in, puts
04:20the pressure on Myers, forces him to swing it around to the far side, where it kind of
04:24gets bobbled a little bit because there's more of a 4-checking presence going on there.
04:28It swings back to the Myers side, and again, now that Pospisil has done his job, it allows
04:34the rest of the team to come up and get in on this 4-check, which creates a turnover
04:39at the blue line, leads to a penalty, leads to a goal.
04:41He was doing stuff like that all game.
04:43And he also shows the great shot that he has, putting that one top shelf.
04:47And so, I... some of the old Huberto stuff comes back again, right?
04:51He had two very good looks to shoot the puck, and he didn't.
04:54He tried to pass every time, and so that's just going to be part of life with Jonathan
04:58Huberto.
04:59But I thought that that line kind of worked all right together.
05:02Not a perfect game for Pospisil or anything like that, but I thought they were good.
05:06I thought the Kuzmenko-Cadre group was a little quiet in this game, and I don't think you
05:13really noticed any of them a whole lot.
05:15Kuzmenko, I believe, had an assist at some point here, but it was a bit of a quiet one
05:21for them.
05:22And then defensively, you see some of the flaws in this team.
05:24They had a real difficult time of defending the front of the net, and that kind of home
05:32plate high danger area, the Flames were not fantastic in that spot, and it led to a lot
05:37of great opportunities.
05:39And the penalty kill had some struggles.
05:40But then overall, Calgary, again, they do not give up, they battle back, and they scored
05:45some goals from distance, which is nice, but you also score those goals right in tight
05:50that you are going to have to score all season long.
05:52And then Conor Zari, someone who we talked about as needing to be an x-factor for this
05:57Flames group, goes in, makes a couple really nice moves, and puts the puck in the back
06:02of the net.
06:03So overall, I thought a good showing from the Flames here.
06:05There's obviously concern now about Rooney, he goes into the boards hard, a lot of discussion
06:09about this hit, um, I don't think it needs to be, it's not a suspendable hit or anything
06:14like that.
06:15The one thing you don't like about it is that Rooney doesn't have the puck when he gets
06:18drilled like that, so he's just not in a spot where he's expecting to get hammered.
06:22And I understand, years gone by, that guys would have been prepared for that.
06:27But this is not then.
06:29And so that was the one part of it that I thought was a little off.
06:32And then the fans chanting JT Miller was a little… probably could have done without
06:35that.
06:36But overall, I would say, you saw the positives you wanted to, for the Calgary Flames, coming
06:40out of that game, and you feel very good about it.
06:43Now moving forward into a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, uh, coming up, that one
06:47will be on Saturday night.
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