5 Things - Flames @ Maple Leafs

1. Last Time Out

R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...

In Flames head coach Ryan Huska's mind, his charges gave too much of that early on to the visiting Colorado Avalanche Friday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in a 4-2 loss.

Calgary sat in a 2-0 hole after 40 minutes off a first-period marker by Ryan Lindgren and a second-period tally by Parker Kelly, before Blake Coleman and Jonathan Huberdeau would bookend another Kelly tally in the third and push hard in the final frame. But Valeri Nichushkin would salt it away with an empty-netter with 1:39 to play.

"That’s the frustrating thing for me, more than anything, because I felt like they were ready to go today," said Huska after. "I felt at times, they respected them way too much early in the game. That was pretty evident to me, because the detail - the structural side of it - was fine. But it was like people were waiting for something to happen … and in the third period, they just played.

"Trust your game, trust your instincts, and go play. And that’s what we did in the third, but too little, too late."

That deviated from the gameplan the Flames have to execute in order to be successful.

"You have to play 60 minutes," said Huska. "If our team doesn’t, it’s hard for us to win. If we put that third period tonight for the first two, we’re a hard team to play against, and that’s the way we have to be. You don’t come to work, and work for a third of it, it just doesn’t work that way.

"We have to get better, for sure, at that area quickly. We have another tough road trip coming up, where we have to make sure our starts are good, we have to make sure the middle frame is good, and we have to most definitely make sure the finish is good."

Coleman pointed out when he addressed media, "We didn’t quit. I liked the response in the third."

Now the trick is to, as the old cliche goes and Huska stated, do it from puck drop to the final whistle.

"If we play like we did in the third, we’ll be fine," said Rasmus Andersson. "We’ve just got to find that desperation in the first two periods. It’s almost like a complete opposite from the last two games … We’ve got to figure out how to play 60 minutes, it starts with us in the leadership group. You gotta look yourself in the mirror before you can look somewhere else. We’ve got to start getting better and lead by example."

The Flames were without captain Michael Backlund in the game, out week-to-week with an upper body injury, and young forward Connor Zary, who was serving the first of a two-game suspension. Dustin Wolf got the start for the Flames, making 24 saves on the night.

2. Know Your Enemy

The Leafs have dropped two straight and are 5-4-1 in their last 10 skates, including 1-4-1 in their last six.

After a scoreless first period Saturday night in their most recent tilt, the goals came quick in the second period as Toronto jumped out to a 1-0 lead against their provincial rivals, the Ottawa Senators, at home in Scotiabank Arena.

William Nylander continued to have a hot hand this season when he notched his 37^th goal at 6:59 of the middle stanza but the visitors didn’t waste much time answering back, Jake Sanderson beating Anthony Stolarz just over a minute later.

Leafs captain Auston Matthews would restore the lead for his side 58 seconds later with his 24^th of the campaign, but David Perron and Claude Giroux would make it a 3-2 game after 40 minutes.

Michael Amadio would ice the game with an emptry-netter with seven seconds to go in the game, Stolarz finishing the night with 21 saves.

“I think the margins have been really small the last couple games but just details, details in our game I think haven’t quite been there and it’s on us to figure that out and we’ve got to get it through our heads that all these games, especially some of the teams we are playing, are going to be playoff-like games,” Matthews told NHL.com's Dave McCarthy. “There are teams fighting for their lives, trying to make a push. They are desperate teams like the one we played tonight so we have to wrap our heads around that and just be better all-around as a team.”

Leafs head coach Craig Berube wasn't pleased with the three tallies his team gave up in the second.

“I thought their three goals were all about losing battles inside the blue line," he said. "We didn’t win enough battles there and that’s an area of the game, it’s urgency for me and details in the first two periods that weren’t there but when we decide to have urgency and do things the right way, we’re a way better team in the third but we’re behind and sometimes you don’t come back. We had chances but that’s what happens.”

3. Wild Card Update

It was a busy night in the Western Conference Wild Card postseason race.

The Vancouver Canucks (35-25-11) fell 3-1 to the Utah Hockey Club Sunday night and remain at 73 points and in the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

The St. Louis Blues (33-28-7) beat the Anaheim Ducks and moved ahead of the Flames with 73 points but have played three additional games.

Utah (30-26-11) now has 71 points, along with the Flames (30-24-11), but sit one spot behind Calgary having played two additional games.

4. Fast Facts

Killer Confidence

Since the NHL’s return from the 4 Nations Face Off break, the Flames have posted a penalty-kill percentage of 90.3%, which is tops in the league. The Flames have only surrendered three powerplay goals against, which is tied for the fewest in the NHL dating back to Feb. 20.

400 For Farabee

Joel Farabee is slated to play in his 400th NHL game tonight against Toronto. The 24-year-old left winger was a first-round pick (14th overall) by Philadelphia in the 2018 NHL Draft. He would make his NHL debut during the 2019-20 season and has gone on to score 93 goals along with 112 assists for 205 points in his 399 NHL outings.

Hey, Did You Know?

Flames forward Dryden Hunt was acquired by Calgary from Toronto during the 2023 trade deadline.

Stick tap to Flames PR's Jordan Bay for these tidbits

5. Players To Watch

Flames - Nazem Kadri

Kadri returns to his old haunt tonight with 23 goals and 48 points on the season. With two more points, he can become the third Flames skater in the past 30 years to record 50 points in his first three seasons with the franchise, joining Alex Tanguay (3 from 2006-07 to 2010-11) and Daymond Langkow (3 from 2005-06 to 2007-08). He scored an absolute gem last Wednesday against the Canucks. Have another gander below.

Maple Leafs - William Nylander

The winger is second in team points behind Mitch Marner (80), but his 37 tallies are10 clear of John Tavares for tops in that department among Toronto skaters. He has four goals and 10 points during a current eight-game point streak.