Even now, in early-January, the playoff implications of every game start mattering.
They’re what made the Calgary Flames’ New Year’s Eve win over the Vancouver Canucks feel that much sweeter.
And those same implications made Thursday night’s loss to the Utah Hockey Club (17-15-6) sting just a little bit more.
Two games against teams that are right in the playoff mix. Two results that felt very different.
The Flames (18-13-7) had managed their emotions well in a highly-physical contest with the Canucks, sticking to their game and grinding out a win.
They got away from their style of play on Thursday, with frustration bubbling over at times against Utah. And it cost them.
Two goals in just over two minutes early in the third period gave Utah a lead they’d never relinquish, and their 5-3 win pulled them to within three points of the Flames in the standings. With the Canucks beating the Seattle Kraken in a shootout late Thursday night, they leapfrogged the Flames and are back in the Western Conference’s second Wild Card spot.
“For me, it’s after the deadline that you really start looking at that stuff but for now if you don’t win games and don’t beat teams, this was a four-point night and so was the New Year’s Eve game,” said Flames winger Blake Coleman, who scored the team’s opener against Utah.
“You’ve got to be aware of those things but at this point in the season you’re still trying to improve and get your team better for that time down the stretch when you start seeing separation in the league.”
There were things to like from the Flames against Utah, especially in the second period when they surged to a 3-2 lead and seemed to settle into the relentless rhythm that served them so well two nights earlier against the Canucks.
But they quickly lost any momentum they’d gained in the second when Clayon Keller and Lawson Crouse scored two minutes apart early in the third period. It might be a mild exaggeration to say that was the entire difference in the game, but it definitely turned the tides in Utah’s favour.
“Start of the third period,” said Flames centre Nazem Kadri when he was asked about what cost his team the game. “They came out, scored a couple goals and got us on our heels and we couldn’t really recover from that. Those are typically areas we’re pretty sharp in and that’s a little out of character for us, so we’ll re-set and get a big win on Saturday.”
Here’s three takeaways from Thursday’s game:
1. MISCONDUCT
Kadri had a strange second period.
He was assessed a two-minute penalty for interference after a hit on Logan Cooley and then a 10-minute misconduct a little while later. Utah’s Liam O’Brien was also given 10 minutes, but the Flames rely on Kadri a lot more than Utah counts on O’Brien. It’s not a trade-off they’d have liked to make.
“I got a 10-minute misconduct for talking, a two-minute penalty for hitting,” Kadri said post-game. “I’m not quite sure what was going on out there but I guess you’ve just got to fight through it.”
The Flames seemed completely unconcerned with Kadri’s supposed lack of discipline. While the veteran centre arrived in Calgary in 2022 with a reputation for getting under opponents’ skin, he’s rarely crossed the line during his tenure with the Flames.
“I don’t like that trade-off, for sure, Naz is a guy we lean on in all those situations and we lose him for 10 minutes,” Huska said. “I’ll take that Naz any day of the week. It doesn’t happen often, I think this is my first time I remember during his time here that he’s been given a ten-minute misconduct, so it doesn’t happen often and Naz is a passionate player and I would take that any day of the week from him.”
2. MORE THAN TWO MINUTES
As noted earlier, Utah scoring two goals in two minutes was the turning point in Thursday’s game.
But Huska wasn’t happy with the way the third period played out in general.
“The first two goals were execution, for sure, and after they went in I don’t think we had a lot of pushback from there,” Huska said.
Third period pushback hasn’t generally been an issue for the Flames this season. They’ve managed to win four games in which they’ve trailed in the third period, and only five teams around the NHL have managed to do that more often.
But it’s true that they never seemed to fully recover and come up with a sustained push.
They were out-shot 11-6 in the final frame and Dan Vladar – who stopped 21-of-25 shots – even had to stop a penalty shot.
“I think it takes the air out of your game when you give up that goal quick in the third, at that point we’re still in a tie game,” Coleman said. “We kind of just had that lull and they made us pay and we couldn’t get it back.”
3. STILL SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
The Flames’ penalty-kill continues to struggle.
For the fifth-straight game, the Flames allowed a power-play goal, this time when Cooley scored early in the second period.
They’ve killed off only 73.5% of the man-advantage they’ve given their opponents this season, which is the fourth-worst mark in the league. Their power-play has shown substantial improvement over the past month and scored again on Coleman’s opener, but they need to find a way to keep the puck out of the net when they’ve got someone in the penalty box.