From beginning to end, it was a special night.
Mikael Backlund’s evening began with his family out on the ice and a silver stick presentation to celebrate his 1,000th NHL game.
It ended with a group of his close friends mobbing him outside of the Calgary Flames’ dressing room following a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils.
His friends sang a song in Swedish, they hugged his teammate and just generally caused a delightful ruckus.
Nobody seemed to know exactly what they were singing, and nobody seemed to mind that one bit.
“I don’t know what they were saying but seems like a fun group of guys and whatever they were having, it must have been pretty good stuff tonight,” said Blake Coleman, who scored twice in the third period in Friday’s win.
Win or lose, Friday night would have been a memorable one for Backlund. Winning just made it that much sweeter.
The Flames captain had his wife Frida, daughter Tillie and son Oliver — both of whom received little silver sticks of their own — with him on the ice as the team celebrated the forward becoming only the second player in franchise history to play 1,000 games in a Calgary jersey
That’s a big accomplishment, and the Saddledome crowd was appropriately appreciative as current and former teammates spoke in a video about the impact the centre had on their careers.
And then, the Flames went out and played their best game in a while, grinding out the Devils and scoring three late goals to secure the victory.
“It was a special moment to share with my family and yeah, to see some current teammates and old teammates up on the screen and seeing (Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy) on the ice, and then to get that silver stick from (Flames owner Allan Markin), it was awesome.
“It’s hard to put a word on it, but I was really proud to hold that stick and even better when the kids got it.”
Backlund’s 1,000th game was actually Wednesday night against the Utah Hockey Club, but that contest took place in Salt Lake City. Friday was the big celebration, and wouldn’t have felt quite the same without a win.
The Flames lost 5-1 in Utah and felt like they’d owed him a better performance.
On Friday, they gave him one, snapping a four-game losing streak with a solid 60-minute performance.
“He’s an emotional guy, too, so I think it means more to him than people might realize,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “We didn’t play well our last game in Utah and I think we got a little bit closer to the way our team needs to play to have success and it was even nicer to see it happen on a special night for Mikael.”
Here are three takeaways from the night:
VLADAR ON POINT
Dan Vladar recorded his first shutout since Nov. 21, 2021, and made a couple big saves of Jack Hughes breakaways that kept the game tied in the second period.
He was excellent throughout the night and while it wasn’t his busiest game in the crease, Vladar stopped all 22 shots that came his way and, again, made the big saves when the Flames needed them.
And recording a shutout to beat the Devils and Jacob Markstrom, in particular, was extra sweet.
Vladar was Markstrom’s backup with the Flames for three seasons, after all, and they remain close.
“He’s such a great person and we’re still really good friends,” Vladar said. “For me, going into the game I wasn’t nervous, I guess I didn’t feel comfortable to be honest, playing against Marky because he’s a really good friend of mine. (Flames goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera) got me ready.”
Vladar has been rotating with Dustin Wolf in the Flames’ net, and while their platoon has served the team well it’s possible that a shutout could see Vladar get two starts in a row for the first time this season.
“It may,” Huska said. “It may.”
POWER OUTAGE
The Flames’ power-play has gone cold. Really cold.
They haven’t scored on the man-advantage since Coleman potted one in the first period against the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 19. They’ve gone six games without scoring and are 0-for-20 on the power-play since Coleman’s goal.
On Friday, they were 0-for-4 and didn’t generate many chances.
It’s clearly an area that needs work, although Huska did say there was some improvement against the Devils.
“There was one power-play tonight where I thought we were much more competitive as a group of five guys,” Huska explained. “I think that’s one of the big reasons why it hasn’t scored in six games. You have to treat it like it’s a five-on-five situation.
“If you want to be soft or make plays that are unnecessary instead of the simple play that’s right in front of you, it’s going to struggle. I saw them tonight get harder in the battle and if they continue to have that approach it will change for them.”
KUZMENKO BENCHED
There are a lot of other takeaways we could touch on here.
We could easily talk about the impact of Ryan Lomberg laying a beating on Nathan Bastian in their first-period fight and the spark that seemed to provide.
We could talk about Matt Coronato looking sharp in his return to the lineup after being sent down for an AHL stint with the Calgary Wranglers a week ago.
But it’s worth mentioning that Andrei Kuzmenko had his night cut short by Huska and didn’t touch the ice for the final 28:45 of the game.
Kuzmenko didn’t seem to have one bad play that caused him to get benched.
“He wasn’t moving his feet all that much tonight and I thought (Anthony) Mantha was doing a better job of that,” Huska said.
The Flames’ head coach has shown he’s more than willing to glue a guy to the bench if he isn’t playing up to the team’s standard. Huska also sat Martin Pospisil for an extended stretch in a game earlier this season.
