It’s a Team Game – You know, It really seems like it’s the Calgary Flames thing ever, to finally lean into a rebuild only to have the team go 6/6 in terms of getting points on a 6 game home stand afterwards. The players, they just want to win games – that I do get – but as it propels them away from a guaranteed top 5 draft pick it’s only going to make the noise around this subject louder. Myself? I’m in the “How could you be mad the Flames are winning due to tremendous play from 20-year-olds?” camp. If Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh keep this up, this early in their careers, there’s already a lot to be excited about. Sure, they certainly don’t need to load the 3rd line up with veterans every night right now, they could be playing some more inexperienced guys, but it will be what it will be. If they get Jonathan Castagna signed the choice shouldn’t just be between Beecher/Pospisil/Lomberg/Gross for him to play, Sharangovich/Strome/Olofsson should take their turn in the cycle as well. Still lots of hockey left to go, nine games, and none of those teams will be as incompetent at hockey as the Vancouver team Calgary just played – they were truly bad. Calgary already has 16 forwards on the roster (not counting Huberdeau or Honzek) and with Castagna and 2 recalls likely coming they’ll have to increase their rotation pool to have the 19 (really guys? seriously?) forwards they’re going to carry play regularly.

Corsi King – Yegor Sharangovich (74.64 CF%) has been pretty darned good of late. It was a successful homestand in terms of play, one that had its production cut short by offside reviews. He was flying in this one. A little too late in the season to have this kind of surge, they really need him and his $5.75 million salary to be able to play like this in October. Olli Määttä (61.47%) making every person that analyzed his gameplay upon arrival in Calgary look silly, myself included. I don’t think he’s going to keep up a 68 points over 82 game season pace – especially with a previous career high of 29 points last achieved in 2018 – but all this “he’s not coming to produce points” talk? He sure is making that part look silly. After being the 7th man in Utah he’s more than shown already that he can still be a piece to help a contending team – Calgary will get calls on him as soon as the off-season based on this performance.

Under Pressure –

Taken By Chance – Someone who is really benefiting from playing with a guy on fire like Olli Määttä (84.84 SCF% // 86.32 HDCF%) has been Hunter Brzustewicz (73.79 per cent // 86.32 per cent). He has not had the same defensive misadventures as our younger defenceman, but he’s not without his own mistakes. They are harder to see and happen less frequently, typically covered up with a good self-recovery or by his partner being a steady pro. They helped in creating over 6 high danger chances against the lowly Canucks, leading the team. Ryan Strome’s (64.94 per cent // 63.60 per cent) line dominated up front to the tune of 5 high danger chances in just 12 5v5 minutes.

xG Breakdown –

xGF% – There were two other younger guys I wanted to highlight. No better position for showcasing success than playing the lowly 2026 Canucks. Tyson Gross (32.85 per cent) was much better than his first outing. He was still a little too quick with getting rid of the puck at times and struggled in transition, but it was a much better outing than his first game. I want to see some progression with him over the last batch of games, mainly to get comfortable at the NHL pace while also being a bigger aid in the transition through the neutral zone. If your centre can aid in that they can be effective in a bottom 6 role in the future. Brennan Othmann (28.52 per cent) also was playing in this one, his Flames debut. It took me a while to notice him, but he ended up with an apple in the end. I think a full off-season of prep with a real shot to make it work here will help him a lot. He’s going to have to beat out Stromgren – those two will be in heavy competition for the LW jobs next year – so he needs to make these reps he’s going to get productive.

Game Flow –

Shot Heatmap –

In The Crease – I thought Wolf was excellent. I poke fun at the lowly Canucks, but that is because their own defensive coverage is weak. They still found plenty of high danger scoring chances themselves, Wolf was just the better goaltender by a significant margin. Tolopilo was not good early and when Lankinen shifted in he let a weak one in right away. It wasn’t much of a competition in the blue paint on Saturday night. Wolf won the game and Cooley won After Hours with Canadian legend Scott Oake (and Eric Francis). A good night in the crease all around.

The Goals –