Flames reflect on 'disappointing' end to surprising season after missing playoffs

Heart-and-soul leader Nazem Kadri looked like he’d just cried his eyes out. Ditto for captain Mikael Backlund.

After their playoff hopes were extinguished in game 81, neither was in the mood to talk to media in their locker room about moral victories for a club few pegged to be relevant in mid-April. Calgary won 5-4 in a shootout over Vegas, but failed to get help on the out-of-town scoreboard. St. Louis and Minnesota each took care of their own business and will play beyond this week.

“It’s cool,” Kadri replied when asked if he was proud they exceeded expectations so profoundly.

“But you know how I feel about that.”

He then gave a rueful chuckle.

“At the end of the day, it’s a privilege to play playoff hockey,” Kadri continued. 

“We want to play playoff hockey and that’s the goal.”

Backlund summed it up with three words.

“Disappointing. Sad. Upset."

Kadri felt like they could have made noise and surprised even more people had they pulled it off.

“If we could have squeaked in, there might have been something there because we’ve had a lot of momentum and we’ve played some great hockey against some great hockey teams,” he said. 

“It stings, obviously. The Minnesota game ends…stuff like that sucks.”

Head coach Ryan Huska said his team had earned a better fate. They were one of the league’s best teams down the stretch. They played playoff-style hockey in February. The Flames sacrificed their bodies night after night. The city rallied around them. 

“I’m disappointed,” he said.

“I’m a little bit sad for the players. They worked hard over the course of the year to get themselves to this spot. I felt like they probably deserved better than where they’re gonna end up being.”

MacKenzie Weegar was the third player to speak to reporters and had a decidedly different tone. He immediately pointed out how far the group had come and the pride he felt that they’d authored such a season.

“I’m sure everybody was saying [that] it’s sad, disappointing, whatnot, but for me it was, ‘What a hell of a fight,’” he said.

That fight was surely what resonated with the thousands of fans who saluted them for not one but two standing ovations.

“With all the ups and downs this year, you look back,” Weegar reflected. 

“It’s such a grind all year long. It’s a hard league to win in. This group came together at the beginning of the year right away. I’m proud of this group. The perseverance. The leadership from everybody. The belief.”

Kadri has been one of the most-vocal Flames about that belief. Never one to mince confidence, it was the 2022 Stanley Cup champion who told reporters back in September to, “Let us go play and we’re going to try to rally around each other and surprise some people.”

Few times in recent hockey history have training camp comments been so prophetic.

"We could've been out of this thing a month ago,” he said on Tuesday night. 

“It shows the pesky attitude.”

The Flames’ entire season was a crash course in the saying that sports is the best reality television. 

Theirs encompassed seemingly every emotion possible, from the heartache of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau’s death to a months-long lesson on the power of self belief. It also showcased the idea that chemistry trumps talent. Previous versions of the Flames had more on paper, but amounted to less. They were far less than the sum of their parts. 

This Flames squad played for one another as opposed to with one another, a key driver in nearly pulling off one of the more improbable playoff appearances in recent memory. 

While the loss certainly stings, the impact of these past few months will transcend a couple of home playoff games. During one of the toughest moments of his career, Backlund–beloved both in the room and greater Calgary community–spoke about how the foundation lay by himself, Kadri, Weegar, Blake Coleman, Jonathan Huberdeau, Rasmus Andersson, and Ryan Lomberg will pay dividends well beyond the lifespan of the Saddledome. 

Unfortunately for the 2024-25 Calgary Flames, building that culture requires some tears to be shed along the way.

"At the beginning of the year no one believed in us,” he said.

“We believed in ourselves from Day 1 starting in training camp. Right away we got the sense everyone was buying in and was believing and when everyone buys in and believes you can achieve some big things."