The Calgary Flames are not a perfect hockey team.

They don’t score a lot of goals. They low on what’s termed “elite” offensive skill. Their blueline group features two experienced, reliable veterans, leading a group that’s otherwise full of interesting projects. Their primary netminder is a fresh-faced rookie from California who’s considered small for the position.

The Flames are not a perfect hockey team.

But they haven’t needed to be a perfect hockey team to be successful so far in the 2o24-25 season. With 14 games remaining on the calendar, they are firmly in the Western Conference’s playoff picture – somewhat improbably, if you believe the off-season betting markets and pre-season media previews.

There’s no better encapsulation of the fascinating, often contradictory nature of the current Flames than Thursday evening’s 5-3 comeback win over the New Jersey Devils.

Through two periods, the Flames had played just poorly enough to be down 3-1. A wrap-around rattled off Adam Klapka’s stick, Dustin Wolf’s pads and was jammed into the net by Timo Meier. Another shot went in off Kevin Bahl after an initial disruption of a Devils scoring chance. The Devils got a third goal with less than 30 seconds left in the period. The Flames had played pretty well, but bounces and a couple miscues came back to haunt them.

“Our second period probably wasn’t our best, but the message in here was we have to find a way,” said Wolf, post-game. “These points are critical and we’re kind of in do or die range right now. So a heck of an effort from the boys in the third period there and I had a real nice seat for it.”

The Flames won the third period. Thoroughly. They registered three shots in the first minute of the period. A minor reshuffling of the defensive pairings – Bahl paired with Daniil Miromanov, Rasmus Andersson paired with Jake Bean – gave the team a jolt, and they just rolled their lines and played their game and chipped away at the Devils.

A fortuitous bounce off a Connor Zary shot cut the Devils’ lead to 3-2 at 6:50.

A superb shot from a pinching Daniil Miromanov tied the game at 3-3 at 15:40.

A Matt Coronato rush chance was broken up by Johnathan Kovacevic, but he poked the puck away from Coronato… and right to the trailing player on the rush, Jonathan Huberdeau, who went top corner on Jacob Markstrom to give the Flames a 4-3 lead at 16:40.

Nazem Kadri added an empty-netter to make it 5-3 at 19:48.

What was different for the Flames in the third period?

“Just the pressure,” said Huberdeau, post-game. “I think we were getting under defencemen. I think they were turning the puck over. So I think that was just us. I thought we had more legs. You know, we were skating a little faster. And I think we were creating more chances. I felt like, you know, we kind of knew that was going to come. I feel with the pressure we were giving them.”

The Flames did an strong job in the final period of translating zone time into chances. Wolf made several big saves. Four different players scored. Yeah, they got some bounces and nice breaks, but they also worked to create those situations – Zary did what players are told to do and put the puck on net, while Coronato battled his way into the net-front area and induced the Devils to make sub-optimal decisions. And so the team that usually can’t score a lot popped off for four goals in one period.

“Third period was a really good period for us,” said head coach Ryan Huska after the game. “There was a lot of the game that we did like. I thought we gave up some goals at tough times in a game, but a lot of resilience in the third period. It was a good period where I felt like we stayed on the gas as it went along.”

The Flames are not a perfect hockey team. But they seem to have made peace with their imperfections this season, and have done a pretty savvy job of working around them. It would be great if they could play complete 60 minute games and control a game from the opening puck drop until the final buzzer. But this season, that hasn’t been a frequent occurrence.

This edition of the Flames are a fascinating jumble of contradictions. And despite those contradictions – heck, maybe even because of them – they’re a group that simply will not go away quietly, both in games and in the Western Conference playoff race. Thursday’s win over the Devils saw the Flames’ strengths and flaws on full display.

The Flames are not a perfect hockey team. But they still might be good enough to make the playoffs.

The Flames complete their road trip on Saturday when they face the New York Islanders.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.