Deja-vu? Not quite.
There were some parts of Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks that looked eerily similar to their defeat to the Washington Capitals on Friday evening.
In both games, they shot out of the gate and were impressive in the first period.
And both times, there was a notable drop-off when they returned to the ice for the second.
So yeah, you wouldn’t be wrong if you drew comparisons between the two performances.
If there was a difference Sunday, it was that the Flames at least managed to bounce back and recover in the final 20 minutes and push the game to overtime. That’s progress, on some level.
“The third period wasn’t the same as the prior game,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “I thought there were stretches of the second period where we were fine. When you look at our game and how it changed, we started being less direct and our pace slowed down.
“You get away from it for a little bit and they did a good job capitalizing on our mistakes tonight and they ended up getting the goal they needed at the end.”
That game-deciding goal came from Beckett Sennecke. It was the 19-year-old’s third of the night and his hat-trick will undoubtedly be used as further evidence of the type of player the Flames can get if they keep up their losing ways and secure a top pick in this year’s draft.
The No. 3-overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft was truly outstanding throughout the night. Calgary hockey fans would love to see a player like him in a Flames uniform.
Here’s three takeaways from Sunday’s loss:
ON REPEAT
As much as the loss to the Ducks did legitimately play out differently to the defeat two nights early at the hands of the Capitals, that doesn’t mean the drop-off between the first two periods wasn’t frustrating.
The Flames were up 2-0 coming out of the first intermission and the game was tied 20 minutes later.
After being thoroughly dominated in the second period against the Capitals, it was certainly disappointing that it happened again.
“The first period and the third period were good. If we just keep pushing in the second the game would have been different, we let them back in and gave them some life,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund. “I thought we played really well for most of the game but we’ve got to learn from it. Two games in a row now where we come out really good in the first and not as good in the second. It’s time to learn from it and next game, don’t do it again.”
The Flames have lost four games in a row – two in overtime – are 3-7-2 in January and are seven points back of a playoff spot. We could spend the rest of this column unpacking what went wrong in their latest loss, but that’s been done so many times this year already.
Instead this writer is going to focus on two moments that were notable for more positive reasons.
The first was Jonathan Huberdeau scoring after going 10 games without lighting the lamp. He’s been accountable in the media about his offensive struggles and spoke about just needing to get to the net and trying to score a greasy one.
That’s exactly what he did on Sunday.
“Really different in regards to how we went to the net and the traffic that was in front,” Huska said. “That’s the way our team has to generate offence for the most part, right? Go there and be hungry and hard around the net front and do whatever it takes for them to go in. Sometimes they aren’t always pretty but it doesn’t matter the next day when people look at it in the newspaper.”
Since you may be reading this in the newspaper, we’ll leave it at that. It was good to see Huberdeau get one.
Hunter Brzustewicz scored the first goal of his NHL career late in the first period, and he was unsurprisingly thrilled.
Maybe not as thrilled, though, as Adam Klapka, who wrapped him up in what can only be described as a joyful hug.
“He picked me up like I was his kid or something, I don’t even know what happened really, he picked me up and twirled me around like i was a stringbean,” Brzustewicz said. “He’s a great guy, he really is. He’s been really nice to me ever since I’ve been in Calgary,he’s always taken me under his wing and I can’t appreciate him enough.”
Brzustewicz’s goal isn’t going to make any end-of-season highlight packages, but it was still a great moment to witness. The 21-year-old has been playing well on the blueline since getting called up from the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, but the one thing missing on his resume was an NHL goal.
He got it, and the only guy happier might have been Klapka.
“It’s special, you know? I played with him his first AHL game and first NHL game and to see him score his first NHL goal and be on the ice with him,” Klapka said. “He’s getting better every day and it’s awesome and he’s an awesome kid and an awesome hockey player. I can’t wait to see him in the future.”