The result won’t cause any sleepless nights in Calgary.
On Wednesday night in Winnipeg, the Jets trotted out a veteran-heavy lineup while the Calgary Flames left most of their NHL regulars back home.
And for 40 minutes, the guys with Flaming Cs on their chest gave as good as they got.
But after going into second intermission tied, the Flames were overwhelmed by the more experienced Jets and wound up on the losing end of a 5-2 scoreline.
The end result mattered a lot less than the opportunity to get a last long look at a group of Flames players who are fighting for roster spots or starting jobs.
The next couple of days will see the Flames send a number of players down to the AHL for some time with the Calgary Wranglers, so Wednesday marked an important opportunity for guys on the bubble to try to stake their claims to some NHL ice-time.
Did anyone stand out? Here’s three takeaways from Wednesday’s game:
BAHL-ING OUT
Kevin Bahl played his first game of the pre-season for the Flames on Wednesday, and by-and-large put in a good shift.
Bahl, who was acquired in the trade that sent Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils, missed the first week-and-a-half of training camp with a lower-body injury and has been slowly working his way up towards full fitness while also getting to know his new teammates.
There’s rightfully a lot of intrigue surrounding him though. At 6-foot-6 and weighing in at 230 lbs., he’s definitely got the size to make an impact on the Flames blueline and head coach Ryan Huska referred to him as a top-four defenceman earlier in camp. He played all 82 games for the Devils last year, so he’s already proven that he can handle regular NHL minutes, too.
It’s generally expected that he’ll be paired-up with Rasmus Andersson once the season gets going, but Andersson didn’t make the trip to Winnipeg and Bahl instead played with Tyson Barrie.
“Ideally he would have played a game or two already, but unfortunately his health wasn’t at the level where we wanted to push him,” Huska said earlier in the day. “The size is a really big thing, we aren’t the biggest back-end so having him out there is important for us. Not to say he’s a bruiser or anything like that, but he is a strong man, so helping keep away from the front of our net, making sure he’s reliable defensively and at the end of the day a really good partner for whoever he’s playing with.”
Bahl finished Wednesday’s game having played 21:08 and his plus-minus was even. He was solid, and it’s what you’d want to see from a guy playing his first game of pre-season.
A SOLID 60
The season-long battle for the Flames’ starting goalie job has mostly resulted in a series of solid performances from Dan Vladar and Dustin Wolf – and Devin Cooley, too.
After Vladar played the full 60 minutes on Monday against the Seattle Kraken, it was Wolf’s turn to get a full game in on Wednesday against the Jets.
While the 23-year-old did allow five goals, there can’t be any complaints about his performance. He stopped 22-of-27 shots and did nicely to turn away some golden Jets opportunities.
There was nothing he could do on either of the Jets’ first two goals, with Nikolaj Ehlers firing the puck in from close range on the opener and Nino Niederreiter being left with way too much time alone in front of the net on the second.
And on the Jets’ third, Wolf found himself tangled up with teammate Connor Zary and literally couldn’t move across the crease. It didn’t get any easier for Wolf later in the game, and the Flames will be more worried about the defensive play that led to Jets players finding themselves wide open than Wolf not stopping their shots.
He was otherwise solid, especially in the second period when he turned away a couple dangerous Jets opportunities.
At this point in camp, both Wolf and Vladar have played well enough to give Flames brass confidence if either of them is in the crease.
A betting man would probably put his money on Vladar being the Game 1 starter, but Wolf is going to get lots of playing time this season and the debate about who should be the de facto No. 1 option might continue all year.
STANDING OUT?
The Flames will want to be focusing-in on their every night NHL roster pretty soon, which means there could be cuts coming relatively imminently.
That meant that Wednesday night’s game was a last big chance for some on-the-bubble players to make an impact and really give coaches something to think about.
Nobody was bad, really, but there weren’t necessarily any standout performances that made you think ‘That player must have changed the coaches’ opinions’, either.
Justin Kirkland and Martin Frk both scored for the Flames, but both of them cleared waivers earlier this week and will be starting the year for the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL.
Hunter Brzustewicz has had a great first training camp with the Flames and did a nice job putting the puck in a dangerous position on Kirkland’s goal. His future is bright, clearly, although it is increasingly obvious that he, too, will spend the beginning of the year with the Wranglers. He’s 19-years-old, so there’s nothing wrong with that.
Neither Matthew Coronato or Jakob Pelletier had especially head-turning games. Pelletier will have to clear waivers if the Flames opt to send him to the AHL, so that’s going to be something to keep a close eye on over the next couple of days. Sam Morton was solid, if not spectacular, and the same can probably be said about Walker Duehr.
The Jets had at least 14 NHL regulars in their lineup on Wednesday, while the Flames only had only six guys you’d feel comfortable saying are sure things to be playing regular minutes to start the year in the NHL.