Flames open season with win against Avalanche in Kadri, Huberdeau debut

CALGARY -- Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri each had an assist in their Calgary Flames debut, a 5-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

Huberdeau was acquired with MacKenzie Weegar in a trade with the Florida Panthers in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk on July 22. Kadri, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado last season, signed a seven-year, $49 million contract ($7 million average annual value) with Calgary on Aug. 18.
"We're going to try to contribute as much as possible," Kadri said. "I don't know if that's going to result on the scoreboard every single time, but we find different ways to contribute and, you know, we play as a team, and that's the most important thing."
Rasmus Andersson had a goal and an assist, and Weegar had two assists for the Flames, who won a season opener for the first time since defeating the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 on Oct. 1, 2009. Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves.
"All three are really good players, as we knew," Andersson said. "I think, obviously, it's nice for them to get that, the points, so they don't have to think about it too much."

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Francouz made 22 saves for the Avalanche (1-1-0), who defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Wednesday.
"I think there's a lot to learn," Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. "I feel like, obviously, defending champs come into a building like this, completely new team, everybody's excited. We knew it was going to be a challenge. I feel like overall at certain points in the game we rose to the occasion, but we let it get away from us. That's a learning experience for us."
The win was Darryl Sutter's 700th, tying him with Mike Babcock for 10th in NHL history. He is the reigning Jack Adams Award winner as NHL coach of the year.
"It means a lot," Sutter said. "Means I've coached four good teams."
Bowen Byram scored on the Avalanche's first shot to take a 1-0 lead 1:39 into the first period.
Brett Ritchie tied it 1-1 at 11:23, and Dillon Dube put Calgary up 2-1 when he shot by Francouz's blocker on a short-handed, odd-man rush at 2:31 of the second period.

Andersson scored five-hole on a deke on a breakaway to extend the lead to 3-1 at 14:52. He had just exited the penalty box moments before taking a pass from Weegar. Andersson was given a coincidental minor alongside MacKinnon, with Mikael Backlund also serving a minor for holding.
"We talked about it in the box, too, that I was going to go out and get a breakaway," Andersson said. "We did. I said I was going to fake a shot and go backhand, so he was a little mad at me [when] I went forehand. He told me if I didn't score he was going to give it to me because we talked about it for two minutes. I was kind of laughing when I got the puck, too. It was nice to see it go in."
Tyler Toffoli deflected Kadri's pass on the power play to make it 4-1 at 1:12 of the third period, and Elias Lindholm put Calgary up 5-1 after Huberdeau's setup on the power play at 2:47.
"Five-on-five, there's definitely some things to work on," Weegar said. "I think when it was 5-1 we kind of thought we were going to take it over and that was going to be the game, but we've got to never get satisfied, play hard the whole 60 minutes."

MacKinnon trimmed the lead to 5-2 at 3:08 when he chipped a shot over Markstrom's glove on a breakaway, and Valeri Nichushkin finished a give-and-go with Mikko Rantanen for a power-play goal to make it 5-3 at 11:01.
"It's their home opener so you know they're going to come out with a lot of juice, and they brought it to us," Colorado forward Evan Rodrigues said. "I think once we simplified the game and not try to be too cute with it, that's when we started to have success in the third. But it was just too little, too late."
NOTES: Dube has nine goals in his past 10 regular-season games dating to last season. ... Rantanen has five assists in two games to start the season. ... Weegar played 20:43, Huberdeau played 17:11 and Kadri had 17:43 of ice time. Each did not have a shot on goal. … Weegar is the fifth defenseman to have multiple points in his Flames debut, following Phil Housley (three points, Jan. 20, 1995), Mark Cundari (two, April 21, 2013), Steve Chiasson (two, Jan. 20, 1995) and Mark Ramage (two, March 9, 1988). … Backlund played his 827th game to move past Robyn Regehr for third in Flames history behind Jarome Iginla (1,219) and Mark Giordano (949). … Sutter is 700-503-94 with 101 ties in 1,398 games in 20 seasons with the Flames, Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings.