The Calgary Flames fell behind early but battled back against the Vancouver Canucks. Peter Klein explains why he loved how the Calgary Flames played as he analyzes the full game from Opening Night in the NHL.
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SportsTranscript
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.