On Thursday, the Calgary Flames officially began training camp, with over 60 players hitting the ice to begin preparations for the 2024-25 NHL season.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2109" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="328"></div>
Three groups skated at Winsport and conducted their first official media obligations. Courtesy our valued colleagues at the rink, here&#8217;s how things looked and sounded on day one of camp.
<h1>Optimism on opening day</h1>
Fans, we&#8217;re going to level with you: the Flames are a much different team than they were two years ago. Heck, speaking with the assembled media at Winsport, captain Mikael Backlund admitted the recent changes the club&#8217;s undergone were something that needed to be done – in 2021-22, they were among the league&#8217;s oldest teams.
But on opening day of training camp, no players were waving the white flag or making plans to go on a cruise or to a beach in mid-April. Asked about his message to the group, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1FlqxZzY9w">Backlund (via Flames TV)</a> was pretty straight-forward about his expectations for the season.
&#8220;The message is going to be we’re here to make the playoffs,&#8221; said Backlund. &#8220;We want to show people, prove people wrong.&#8221;
Answer a subsequent question about the team&#8217;s recent past, Backlund referenced the 2014-15 season and how the Flames managed to make the post-season during a campaign where much of the hockey establishment had written them off prior to the season.
&#8220;Especially that &#8217;14-&#8217;15 year, we got off to a great start on a really tough road trip,&#8221; said Backlund. &#8220;We went in head-first and were like ‘we’re going to play some really good hockey and make it really hard on teams.’ That’s our mindset this year again.&#8221;
The pre-season odds-makers have the Flames with the sixth or seventh-worst odds in the league of qualifying for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
<h1>Lines and pairings on opening day</h1>
Via our pal Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 The Fan, here&#8217;s how the two main groups looked on Thursday morning.
Team Crisp
<blockquote>Zary-Backlund-Coleman 
Sharangovich-Kadri-Kuzmenko 
Hunt-Bishop-Coronato 
Honzek-Schwindt-Klapka 
Basha 
Weegar-Miromanov 
Hanley-Barrie 
Tinordi-Brzustewicz 
Grushnikov-Kuznetsov 
Wolf 
Ignatjew</blockquote>
Folks, this is the final year of Connor Zary&#8217;s entry level contract. If he spends a decent amount of time with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, there&#8217;s a good chance that he&#8217;ll (a) have the puck a lot given Backlund&#8217;s history and (b) potentially have a strong offensive season. Per Steinberg, the bottom seven forwards were in a rotation. On paper, it feels like Team Crisp had two NHL lines and two AHL lines.
On the blueline, it&#8217;s two NHL pairings and two AHL pairings. On paper Hanley and Barrie feels like a decent fit, with a defensive-minded guy and an offensive-minded guy.
Team MacNeil
<blockquote>Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha 
Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr 
Stromgren-Morton-Gridin 
Pelletier-Kirkland-Frk 
Ciona 
Bean-Andersson 
Poirier-Pachal 
Solovyov-Parekh 
Aspirot 
Vladar 
Cooley</blockquote>
The only noteworthy absence was newcomer Kevin Bahl, who didn&#8217;t skate due to what the club called a lower body injury.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flames?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flames</a> Camp Update: Defenceman Kevin Bahl will not skate today (lower body, day-to-day).
&mdash; Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLFlames/status/1836810254203646031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As with the other group, Steinberg noted on his socials that the bottom seven forwards were rotating. On paper, it feels like Team MacNeil also had two NHL lines and two AHL lines. It seems reasonable to assume that, at some point, we&#8217;ll see Jakob Pelletier tried out on the projected fourth line centred by Kevin Rooney.
On the blueline, Bahl&#8217;s absence led to Brayden Pachal being paired with prospect Jeremie Poirier. We&#8217;ll see how things look when Bahl&#8217;s back in action.
Which of the lines or pairings on opening day of practices look most interesting to you? Which do you really want to see in the pre-season? Let us know in the comments!

On Thursday, the Calgary Flames officially began training camp, with over 60 players hitting the ice to begin preparations for the 2024-25 NHL season.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2109" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="328"></div>
Three groups skated at Winsport and conducted their first official media obligations. Courtesy our valued colleagues at the rink, here's how things looked and sounded on day one of camp.
<h1>Optimism on opening day</h1>
Fans, we're going to level with you: the Flames are a much different team than they were two years ago. Heck, speaking with the assembled media at Winsport, captain Mikael Backlund admitted the recent changes the club's undergone were something that needed to be done – in 2021-22, they were among the league's oldest teams.

But on opening day of training camp, no players were waving the white flag or making plans to go on a cruise or to a beach in mid-April. Asked about his message to the group, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1FlqxZzY9w">Backlund (via Flames TV)</a> was pretty straight-forward about his expectations for the season.

"The message is going to be we’re here to make the playoffs," said Backlund. "We want to show people, prove people wrong."

Answer a subsequent question about the team's recent past, Backlund referenced the 2014-15 season and how the Flames managed to make the post-season during a campaign where much of the hockey establishment had written them off prior to the season.

"Especially that '14-'15 year, we got off to a great start on a really tough road trip," said Backlund. "We went in head-first and were like ‘we’re going to play some really good hockey and make it really hard on teams.’ That’s our mindset this year again."

The pre-season odds-makers have the Flames with the sixth or seventh-worst odds in the league of qualifying for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
<h1>Lines and pairings on opening day</h1>
Via our pal Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 The Fan, here's how the two main groups looked on Thursday morning.

Team Crisp
<blockquote>Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Sharangovich-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Hunt-Bishop-Coronato
Honzek-Schwindt-Klapka
Basha 

Weegar-Miromanov
Hanley-Barrie
Tinordi-Brzustewicz
Grushnikov-Kuznetsov 

Wolf
Ignatjew</blockquote>
Folks, this is the final year of Connor Zary's entry level contract. If he spends a decent amount of time with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, there's a good chance that he'll (a) have the puck a lot given Backlund's history and (b) potentially have a strong offensive season. Per Steinberg, the bottom seven forwards were in a rotation. On paper, it feels like Team Crisp had two NHL lines and two AHL lines.

On the blueline, it's two NHL pairings and two AHL pairings. On paper Hanley and Barrie feels like a decent fit, with a defensive-minded guy and an offensive-minded guy.

Team MacNeil
<blockquote>Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr
Stromgren-Morton-Gridin
Pelletier-Kirkland-Frk
Ciona 

Bean-Andersson
Poirier-Pachal
Solovyov-Parekh
Aspirot 

Vladar
Cooley</blockquote>
The only noteworthy absence was newcomer Kevin Bahl, who didn't skate due to what the club called a lower body injury.

https://twitter.com/NHLFlames/status/1836810254203646031

As with the other group, Steinberg noted on his socials that the bottom seven forwards were rotating. On paper, it feels like Team MacNeil also had two NHL lines and two AHL lines. It seems reasonable to assume that, at some point, we'll see Jakob Pelletier tried out on the projected fourth line centred by Kevin Rooney.

On the blueline, Bahl's absence led to Brayden Pachal being paired with prospect Jeremie Poirier. We'll see how things look when Bahl's back in action.

Which of the lines or pairings on opening day of practices look most interesting to you? Which do you really want to see in the pre-season? Let us know in the comments!

Optimism and interesting line combinations abound on opening day of Calgary Flames training camp

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