On Saturday night, Andrei Kuzmenko dressed in place of Walker Duehr on the Calgary Flames’ fourth line against the Nashville Predators. The game was just his second on-ice appearance in the past month.

Kuzmenko ended up serving as the main character of the Flames’ 4-1 loss to the Predators.

The first period was the better side of the ledger. Kuzmenko played 5:24 of the opening 20 minutes across six shifts, including 1:54 of power play time on the second unit. He was credited with two shots that were blocked by Nashville players, and another that rang off the post behind Nashville goaltender Justus Annunen.

His first period was, all things considered, pretty promising. Not quite a dream return to the lineup, but not too far off.

His second period was much closer to a nightmare.

2:46 into the second, on his first shift of the period, he was called for an offensive zone penalty for slashing Fedor Svechkov. On the resulting power play, Ryan O’Reilly scored to give Nashville a 1-0 lead.

After another even strength shift with the fourth line, Kuzmenko returned to the Flames’ power play with Nashville’s Luke Schenn in the box for cross-checking. 1:01 into the Flames’ advantage, Kuzmenko played the puck at the point and his stick shattered on an attempted shot. The blade and lower part of the stick sailed into the neutral zone, but Kuzmenko held onto the shaft with his left glove and pursued the puck into further into the zone to continue the Flames’ offensive pressure. The play was whistled down and Kuzmenko received a minor penalty for playing with a broken stick in violation of NHL rule 10.3.

The NHL’s rulebook is pretty clear about not being allowed to play with a broken stick:

After 59 seconds of four-on-four play, Nashville scored on their truncated power play, giving them a 2-0 lead. O’Reilly’s second power play goal of the period stood as the eventually game-winner.

Kuzmenko played just 3:04 across four shifts over the remainder of the game – one shift in the second period and then three in the third period, two of them as a stand-in for Matt Coronato as he served a fighting major and one lasting just the final 19 seconds of the game.

Following the game, Kuzmenko addressed the media regarding what happened on the broken stick sequence.

“Oh, this emotional moment because when I broke the stick I see the puck a couple of meters from me,” said Kuzmenko. “And my right hand, the stick go out. But this is an emotional moment. Left hand, says to save stick, pass to Backs. Hmm, stupid moment, right. I have a mistake about penalty, right. Okay, next time I understand these rules. Because I think before I don’t, can’t play broken sticks. But I think I stick out.”

Asked if he knew the broken stick rule beforehand or learned it on Saturday, Kuzmenko admitted that he learned the rule on Saturday. Asked about his emotions following the game, Kuzmenko was fairly blunt.

“Very bad, because we lose and I want to always win,” said Kuzmenko. “I want to help the team. Ah, but today, two penalty, two power play goals, not good. My mistake, I understand, we lose this game. Today I think about a couple mistakes and go to the future.”

Kuzmenko ended the game credited with 10:50 of ice time, with one shot on goal, five shots that were blocked and two shots that missed the net. He was in the penalty box for Nashville’s first and second goals. Natural Stat Trick’s advanced stats had him credited with three scoring chances across all game situations.

Following the game, Flames head coach Ryan Huska was asked to assess Kuzmenko’s return to the lineup.

“Two offensive zone penalties,” said Huska. And then the one thing I would say is a positive thing for him. He had a lot of shot attempts tonight and that’s something we’ve been asking him.”

Asked if Kuzmenko knew the rule – for disclosure, prior to the media speaking with Kuzmenko – Huska replied, “Oh, I’m sure he knows the rule. He’s played in the NHL for a few years now.” (As Kuzmenko mentioned subsequently to the media, he did not know the rule.)

Kuzmenko is in the final year of his contract. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent on July 1. But after a pair of campaigns that saw him score 39 and 22 goals, respectively, he’s struggled mightily this season. He has scored one goal in 2024-25, a power play deflection in the fourth game of the season.

Simply put, Kuzmenko needs to be better to remain in the Flames lineup going forward. Or perhaps to even remain in the NHL past his current contract. And with the margins in the Western Conference’s playoff race already looking razor-thin, Kuzmenko’s mistakes against Nashville could end up proving very costly.

The Flames are now hitting the road for a two game trip, featuring back-to-back games Tuesday in Anaheim and Wednesday in Los Angeles.