For the first time since June 12, there was somewhat meaningful hockey to watch today. Of course, World Cup of Hockey pre-tournament games are a far cry from the Stanley Cup Finals, but you gotta take what you can get. For the first time since mid-April, Calgary Flames players played high-level organized hockey.

How did they do in the first day of exhibition World Cup of Hockey play?

The Finns beat Sweden in overtime in Helinski. We’re not saying it’s because Mikael Backlund was a healthy scratch, but the results speak for themselves. He’s played zero pre-tournament games and Sweden has lost all of their games (so far). That said, it was a back-and-forth game and pretty fun to watch.

Jokipakka played on Finland’s second pairing, primarily with Sami Vatanen. He played 17:18, had two hits, a shot on goal, and was -1.

Russia looks good. They led for the majority of the game and once they got their confidence, they seemed to toy with the Czechs – though the Czechs battled back late and tried to make a game of it.

Nakladal played 23:49, with a nice mix of power-play and penalty-kill time. The coach seems to love him. He was even with a shot on goal. Frolik played 16:24, also mixing power-play and penalty-kill work in there, and had four shots and was even.

Nakladal was effective, as he usually is. Sign him, Brad.

Everyone’s been excited about the concept of Team North America, the rag-tag bunch of speedy, talented millennials. They trounced Europe. Granted, Europe is full of decent-ish players from non-hockey power countries.

Gaudreau? He had a good game. He played 16:45, primarily at even-strength, and had a goal, an assist, three shots and was +1. All-told, his line with Jack Eichel and Brandon Saad was pretty good and consistently dangerous. As you’d expect given the players involved, they got a lot of offensive zone starts, but they made the most of it.

Gaudreau looked in mid-season form. In September. Sign him, Brad.

All three Flames-related teams play again on the weekend.

On Saturday: the Czechs rematch with Russia at 8:30am MT (Sportsnet 360) and Finland faces Sweden again at 10am MT (Sportsnet One). Maybe Backlund will play.

On Sunday: North America rematches with Europe at 4pm MT (Sportsnet).