5 Things - Flames vs. Ducks

1. Playing With Pride

The reality, as Blake Coleman illustrates, “is what it is.”

With 18 points on the table and 14 between them and a ticket to the spring dance, the Flames are mathematically afloat – but need plenty of help to make a push between now and April 18.

Playoffs or not, the Flames – led by Coleman, Mikael Backlund and the rest of the team’s leadership group – have a standard to keep.

And with nine games left, it’s about building the right habits and teaching the up-and-comers how things are done around here.

“We want to instill the right culture, the right attitude,” Coleman said following Monday’s practice. “We've got some guys that have won here and guys that have been in the league for a long time that I think they can learn from.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, it's about them – the more games you play, the more time you spend in this league, the more comfortable you get. I know for myself, it took me time to really understand and learn the game, and I'm still learning, I'm still trying to grow while I'm playing. It's one of those things that the more experience you can get under your belt, the more confident you are and the better the team ends up becoming.

“It's a new challenge. I haven't been in this position in a while. It can challenge you when you're in this spot to be a better person, leader, teammate.

“You've still got to show up and leave it out there and on me and the rest of the guys that have been around for a bit, it's more just about showing the culture that we expect from ourselves and the young guys.

“At the end of the day, you don't want to have a losing attitude and guys have done a good job of trying to keep that out of our room.”

Exhibit A: This past Saturday. 

The Flames put the brakes on a five-game slide with an impressive 4-2 win over the very team they’re chasing – the LA Kings. Head Coach Ryan Huska said it was probably the team’s most complete game of the year, featuring key contributions from Nazem Kadri (1G, 1A) and others wearing a letter, along with the youngsters learning on the fly.

By the midway point of the game, the Flames were outshooting the Kings 24-5, before finishing with a 35-18 edge in that department against a team, typically, known to suppress volume.

The powerplay finished 3-for-5 – a season high. 

Jacob Markstrom wasn’t overly busy, but still had time for some game-saving Grade-A stops, including one off the ageless Anze Kopitar late in the proceedings. 

Truly, the game had everything the Flames were hoping to achieve, including the part where they have to stave off a late comeback try and play right to the buzzer. 

“Just shows it's not going to come easy,” said Coleman, who scored his 29th goal of the season in the victory. “Probably not going to roll teams out of the building 6, 7-0. It's going to be hard-fought games and it's going to be everybody chipping in. Special teams, goaltending, whatever it may be, it's got to all be there. But ultimately, that's how you get the most growth out of everybody. If you're counting on 20 guys and they understand their importance to our team and the value right away, it can lead to a lot of confidence and ultimately make them better players for us moving forward.”

2. Know Your Enemy

Canadian singer Sam Roberts may have said it best in his grossly underrated alt-rock classic:

“There’s no road

“That ain’t a hard road.”

For this maligned crew from SoCal, the 2023-24 season has been just that – a steady climb of unkept washboard between prairie hamlets.

The Ducks enter the final month of the season on a four-game slide, and with only one win in their last 10 games (1-8-1), they currently have the third-best odds of landing the consensus top pick, Macklin Celebrini, at the NHL Draft in June.

But for now, the focus lies solely in righting the ship after a 6-1 loss in Edmonton on Saturday, followed by a 3-2 setback the very next day in Vancouver.

And for Ducks head coach Greg Cronin, there’s been no shortage of teachable moments for his young squad.

“You don't leave the front of the net when the puck is behind your net,” Cronin told reporters, after his team surrendered the game-winner with only 2:13 left on the clock.

He described the play – with Cam Fowler and rookie Olen Zellweger chasing one Canuck behind the net – as a “cardinal sin.”

“They're not scoring from behind the net. Just stay there,” he added. “We've talked about it repeatedly this year, and I don't know what the big – it's just foolishness – what the big urge is to go behind the net when somebody has got a puck and they're not going to score from there.”

It was an unfortunate end to what should have been an unforgettable night for Zellweger, who scored his first-career goal in the loss. Mason McTavish tallied the other for Anaheim, while Lukas Dostal made 27 saves.

The Ducks have been out-scored 17-5 on their four-game skid, which began with back-to-back road losses to the Seattle Kraken last week.

Frank Vatrano leads the team with 53 points (30G, 23A), followed by Troy Terry with 49 (19G, 30A) and McTavish at 41 (18G, 23A).

The Human Highlight Reel, Trevor Zegras, has been limited to only 24 games this year, largely due to a broken ankle he suffered in early January. The 23-year-old had an assist against the Canucks and now has eight points (4G, 4A) this season.

3. Players To Watch

Flames - Nazem Kadri

Kadri was an absolute force on Saturday, willing his team into the fight and finishing with a goal, an assist, and one booming hit along the benches in the first period alone.

Tone, set.

“When you have guys that winning is something that drives them or they hate losing more than they like to win, it’s infectious,” said Head Coach Ryan Huska. “I think with Naz continuing to play the way he has played for the majority of the year, I think it sends a real strong message to everybody. He’s played on Stanley Cup champion teams. Blake (Coleman) has played on them. So, they have a really good handle on what it takes to win.”

Saturday marked Kadri's 13th multi-point game with the Flames. Only one other player, Elias Lindholm, has more (14) since Kadri signed with the club in the summer of 2022.

Ducks - Olen Zellweger

You can bet this photo will hang on the Zellweger family fridge for a long time to come:

With his parents on hand at Rogers Arena, the Calgary native scored his first NHL goal on Sunday, sniping a shot from the bottom of the far circle top shelf – kissing the crossbar on the way by.

He won’t have to dress that one up for his future grandkids.

It was a beauty, through and through.

“It's a dream for everyone to score their first NHL goal, so I'm pretty happy to be able to do it,” the former Canadian World Junior star, who was playing in his 19th-career game, told NHL.com. “I came off the bench and I kind of jumped in the play, and (Isac Lundestrom) made a good drop pass to me and I kind of just got some room there, maybe they had a miscommunication, and seen a little spot there and it went in.”

4. Fast Facts

The Kuzmenkshow

With his two assists on Saturday, Andrei Kuzmenko has now registered four points over his last two games (2G, 2A), giving him eight multi-point efforts this season. The 28-year-old logged 19:05 of ice time against the Kings, too, which is the most he's recorded since being acquired by the Flames in late January.

Elite Company

MacKenzie Weegar scored his 18th goal of the season in Saturday's win over the Kings, giving him the third-most goals in the league among defencemen behind Roman Josi (19) and Cale Makar (19). Additionally, his 16 even-strength tallies leads rearguards, league-wide. Weegar is now two goals away from becoming the first Flames defenceman to post a 20-goal season since Mark Giordano in 2015-16.

Weegar, by the way, has been burning the candle at both ends lately, finishing the night Saturday with a game-high seven blocked shots.

“That’s what it takes to win in this league," he said afterward. "Sometimes it hurts.”

Did You Know?

The Flames have a 9-0-1 record this season when Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman score in the same game.

5. Quotable

Coleman on the mood around the locker-room these days:

“The culture's great. We've gotten great coaching, we've got a really good group of guys. It's fun to come to the rink still. I've been on teams where it's not fun. You lose five in a row and – not that anybody's happy about losing but - I think we're understanding it's more about how we play right now and the results will follow. I thought the St. Louis game was really good, but the bounces didn't go our way. And we carried that over into another strong game against LA. I think a lot of that is on the staff. They've done a good job of keeping it light and keeping it more about teaching and developing and growing our game, versus just getting beat up on mistakes and results.”