Resilient Flames finding ways to win close games
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Veteran Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman stood in front of reporters on Wednesday after practice, jokingly saying sorry to fans of the team.
“I guess I can apologize to the fans at home," he said. "It’s not the most exciting hockey, but we’re piecing together wins. It’s the way we’re going to win, is to play tight-checking. Maybe that limits a little bit of the offensive upside, but we’ve been strong defensively and gotten some really good goaltending. It might change as the season goes, but right now that’s our recipe for success.”
Through 19 games, Calgary is one point out of first place in the Pacific Division with a 10-6-3 record.
They’ve done it with stellar goaltending (Dan Vladar and rookie Dustin Wolf have combined for the league’s best five-on-five save percentage) and resiliency. The Flames are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers for the most third-period comebacks this season (four), and often get better as games progress.
Calgary’s goal differential in the final frame is third best in the league (plus nine), and they’re winning games despite an offence that hasn’t scored more than three goals in a game in more than a month. Blueliner Rasmus Andersson leads the team in scoring with 12 points.
“Third periods have been really big for us all year,” Coleman said. “We’ve just stuck with it. Games just seem to be close with the way we’re playing right now…we’re getting big, timely saves at one end, and opportunistic scoring at the other.”
This Flames group is energetic and loose, often joking and chirping during practices and with media.
There’s a clearly defined leadership group of six players Coleman, Andersson, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, and MacKenzie Weegar) that, since training camp, has constantly imparted the message that the Flames are better than what outsiders think.
“It’s just keeping the faith,” fourth-line forward Ryan Lomberg said. “It’s been great to see the resiliency in the group and see us coming back. It’s a sign of a good team, when you don’t play your best for the full game, but you still win.”
No team has trailed more this season than the Flames, but those situations don’t phase the club.
“If the game’s within reach, there’s no reason to break faith,” Lomberg said.
He also noted that the energy on the bench has also been a factor.
“You can feel it,” Lomberg said. “It’s nice that we have that confidence in ourselves already, that we know that if we play the right way, we’re most likely going to score and come back.”
The Flames faced adversity in the opening night of the season, when they allowed two quick goals to the Vancouver Canucks and trailed 4-1 after the first period. Calgary fought back and won it on an overtime goal by Connor Zary. That victory gave the club a jolt of confidence against a team many think will challenge for the division title.
“To do something like that early is important because it then builds that internal belief that we’re capable of coming back, no matter what the score is,” Lomberg said.
The Flames aren’t resting on their laurels and know that, eventually, they need to score more goals. The players, however, have bought into the identity that the Flames will win more games 2-1 than 6-5.
“That’s our game,” Jonathan Huberdeau said. “I think we’re a hard team to play against and playing defensively. Obviously, there’s going to be some stretches [where] we don’t score a lot of goals, but we still manage to come up on the right side.
“When you’re losing, obviously there’s more urgency in that, but you think a little differently when you’re winning.”
CALGARY FLAMES PROJECTED LINEUP VS. NEW YORK RANGERS
Huberdeau-Zary-Coleman
Pospisil-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Sharangovich-Backlund-Coronato
Lomberg-Kirkland-Rooney
Bahl-Andersson
Weegar-Miromanov
Bean-Pachal
Wolf
Vladar