It got a lot more heated than you’d expect from a meaningless pre-season game.
But with guys trying to earn their spots in the lineup before the end of training camp, Saturday night’s tilt between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks suggested that these two teams won’t be liking each other much this season.
At the final buzzer, the Flames had won the game 4-2 and improved their pre-season record to 4-0-1. It won’t count for much, but there are signs that this Flames team could be more exciting in 2024-25 than most were expecting.
And on Saturday night, there was a bit of an edge to the group, too.
They certainly didn’t hesitate to mix-it-up with the Canucks, at least, and there seemed to be real bad-blood brewing between the two teams by game’s end. There were multiple after-whistle scrums where every player on the ice seemed to be getting involved.
The Flames didn’t mind that one bit.
“That’s something we want to do, for sure,” said Flames winger Ryan Lomberg. “There’s five guys on the ice and we expect every guy to be in there, doesn’t matter. We’re not asking guys to fight and fight guys that are tough and they shouldn’t fight, but as long as you’re in there, grabbing a guy, cross-checking and slashing, that’s the team, family mentality we want to carry this year.”
Here’s three takeaways from the game:
STICKING AROUND
Sam Honzek has been arguably the biggest story throughout Flames training camp.
And another strong showing on Saturday night strengthened his case for sticking in the NHL when the regular season gets underway.
Huska confirmed as much post-game.
“I really liked him again,” Huska said. “He was another one of our players who was impactful. The speed he played with, he’s not shying away from anything. I feel like he continues getting better and better. He’s going to make it really hard on us.”
The 19-year-old struggled to find his footing in his first training camp last year after the Flames selected him with the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
Injuries derailed his last season in the WHL with the Vancouver Giants in 2023-24, too. If that led to any concerns about his upside, this year’s showing in camp is making those look silly.
He’s got six points in pre-season and while he didn’t register one on Saturday night, he set up Martin Frk with a heads-up pass midway through the second that the veteran probably should have finished. He was impactful in other areas of the ice, too, attacking the corners and playing with speed and physicality.
If Honzek does make the team coming out of camp, it’s going to be a big story.
But right now, you might not bet against it with the way he’s playing.
MAKING HIS CASE
Brayden Pachal played 33 games for the Flames towards the end of last season, but it’s not totally clear whether he’ll be starting the season playing regularly this year.
The Flames would seem to have a pretty clear top-five defencemen, with Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar, Daniil Miromanov, Kevin Bahl and Jake Bean all expected to play every night when they’re healthy.
The other job on the third-pairing, though, is still very much up for grabs, though.
Pachal is certainly in the mix, as are Joel Hanley, potentially Tyson Barrie and even maybe Jarred Tinordi all capable of playing in that role.
On Saturday night, Pachal stood up and made sure everyone took notice with a physical showing and a few points, too.
“We don’t have really that big, physical presence on the back-end. It’s just not what we have, but he tries every night to finish hits with purpose, to be a hard guy to play against,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “That’s typically what you see from him game-in and game-out. Another guy that’s come in and with the games he’s played with us, he’s not just here because he was here at the end of the year last year, he’s coming to make an impression again and say ‘I’m for sure going to stay on this team’. “
He scored the Flames’ opener, added an assist on Blake Coleman’s goal in the second period, took a penalty, played on the penalty-kill and seemed eager to get in the mix whenever there was a scrum after the whistle. He also got a 10-minute misconduct for having a go at Mark Friedman late in the game, too.
The offence isn’t necessarily what the Flames are going to be counting on when Pachal’s in the lineup. He’s got two goals and seven assists in 62 regular season games.
But you want to see players taking advantage of playing time and proving they deserve more in pre-season. The 25-year-old did that and more against the Canucks.
“When I can contribute offensively it’s obviously nice, but my game is to shut guys down and play physical and hard every night,” Pachal said.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
The Flames’ fourth-line trio succeeded at a lot of things on Saturday night.
We’ve seen a couple different combinations throughout pre-season, with Walker Duehr getting time alongside Kevin Rooney and Ryan Lomberg early. It was Adam Klapka’s turn on Saturday night, and he made his mark on the game in a big way.
“He’s impressed me, for sure,” Lomberg said about Klapka. “I don’t even know how tall he is. However tall the ceiling is, just about. He can move, he can make plays, he can shoot, he’s physical.
“He’s going to make my job real easy this year if he keeps hitting guys like that. It’s a lot of fun.”
Early in the game, he threw a massive hit on Nils Aman. Later, he landed a big one along the boards on Akito Hirose. He also scored a goal with a really nice shot from just inside the blue-line and just generally seemed to get under the Canucks’ skin.
That seemed to bring out the best in Lomberg, who had a goal and an assist, while Rooney got a helper of his own.
They were energetic, effective and a thorn in the Canucks’ side. The trio has a meanness to them that the Flames might lack elsewhere in the lineup.
It’s exactly what the Flames want out of their fourth-line.
“I thought they were our best line tonight,” Huska said. “They played a simple game, they put pucks in and the first two goals we scored were based off of their work off the forecheck. I thought all three of those guys had impact tonight.”
If it’s audition time for the Flames who are on the bubble and trying to earn a spot, Klapka nailed his on Saturday night.
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