Justin Kirkland has fresh video clips to review.
Finally.
Kirkland has had way too much time to dissect every detail of his breakthrough last fall, when the journeyman forward was carving out a regular role with Calgary Flames before his fairytale chapter ended abruptly when he tore his ACL in late November.
During the southern half of Sunday’s split-squad affair against the Edmonton Oilers, Kirkland suited up for his first game in close to 10 months.
“Even though it’s pre-season, I had a lot of nerves and excitement. I struggled with my pre-game nap today,” he told Postmedia after a 3-0 exhibition loss at the Saddledome. “It’s another good milestone for me and I’m happy with how it felt throughout the game, so a lot of positive feelings.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time and there’s a lot of thought that’s gone into it. I think now you move on and you go, ‘OK, everything has felt good. Practices have felt good. Game felt good.’ Now, I can move on from that, put all that thought behind me. So it’s nice to get that over with and get back into game action.”
While nobody is discounting or downplaying the challenge of returning from reconstructive knee surgery, Kirkland realizes there is some urgency to immediately crank up to full speed.
Although he was rewarded in the summer with his first one-way contract and is considered a frontrunner to open the season as Calgary’s fourth-line centre, this 29-year-old still has only 30 nights of NHL experience on his resume.
He never has had the luxury of shoo-in status at training camp. In fact, he was among the Flames’ final cuts a year ago before being recalled after an injury in the opener.
“There are personal goals that I’m chasing after,” Kirkland said matter-of-factly. “I know I have to come out here and earn everything that I’m going to get.”
Welcome back, ‘Costco’
Sunday was a solid start.
Kirkland won 52.6% of his faceoffs, which will be an important consideration as the Flames pick their checking-line pivot. Among the other contenders, Sam Morton successfully swiped 62.5% of his draws Sunday at the Saddledome, while Martin Pospisil struggled to a 6-for-16 mark in Edmonton.
Now wearing No. 23, Kirkland also generated one of Calgary’s better offensive opportunities in the home half, rattling a rising shot off Samuel Jonsson’s goalie mask.
If a tiebreaker had been required, he undoubtedly would have been tapped for the breakaway contest.
“One thing, and it’s not something we overlook, is he’s unreal in the shootout,” Flames bench boss Ryan Huska said of Kirkland, who was three-for-four in the skills competition in 2024-25, always using a variation of the same silky move. “As coaches, we put together videos and when we’re marking them after the game, you always write ’Training camp’ on a clip if you really like it.
“When you pull all those best clips that your team had during the year, it’s crazy how many clips Justin Kirkland was in. He does things the way coaches want the game to be played. He’s a very coachable guy and he’s a very intelligent player that understands how to play both sides of the puck.”
While on the mend
Kirkland has, no question, analyzed every single one of those clips.
Probably a few times over.
“I had a lot of time to sit around and think and reflect and watch the old games that I played,” said Kirkland, explaining how he filled the first few months of his layoff. “There’s a lot of time you spend watching film, looking back on things. It can look like a really easy game when you’re watching it after it’s happened, but there’s always stuff you can learn.”
Nobody ever suggested this part would be easy.
Any athlete who has recovered from ACL surgery will wince at the mere mention of this gruelling, grinding process. Among the reasons for that, Kirkland lists the extended timeline and the “complexity of the rehab.”
“At the start, it’s so monotonous,” he said. “It’s just so repetitive and tedious little exercises. You’re almost learning how to walk again and then when you get back on the ice, it’s, ‘OK, how do I skate? How does this feel?’ And then there are ebbs and flows of it, too.
“You can go out for three days straight and be like, ‘Oh my god, I feel great.’ And then you do one turn or you make one jump in the gym and, all of a sudden, it flares up a bit and you’re not feeling too well for a week.
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“It’s even moreso challenging mentally,” he continued. “Physically, you’re capable of doing all the stuff. But when you’re standing there doing single-leg quarter squats or just stepping up onto a box again, it can get pretty boring, pretty tedious.
“So there’s a lot of different parts that were challenging and not too fun. But we’re excited to be on the other side of it.”
ICE CHIPS
The Flames have reassigned defenceman Mace’o Phillips, their third-round pick this past summer, to the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. Phillips, an imposing presence at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, had a strong showing during rookie camp. The 18-year-old should log major minutes in Green Bay … The Flames will continue their exhibition slate Tuesday, when they welcome the Seattle Kraken to the Saddledome.