{"id":411461,"date":"2026-01-16T21:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/411461\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T21:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:02:22","slug":"runaway-freight-train-kevin-bahl-becoming-big-hit-threat-for-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/411461\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Runaway freight train\u2019: Kevin Bahl becoming big-hit threat for Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Bahl has been lowering the boom.<\/p>\n

If you follow the Calgary Flames<\/a>, you\u2019ve likely noticed that Bahl has delivered several big hits over the last while.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more of a mean streak than we\u2019re accustomed to seeing from this towering defenceman, a dude who certainly has the size to be a menacing physical presence.<\/p>\n

The latest example was Bahl\u2019s thunderous check Thursday on Chicago Blackhawks youngster Oliver Moore. This was a bit of a throwback, with Bahl leading with his hip as he hammered Moore along the boards in the neutral zone.<\/p>\n

On the Blackhawks\u2019 home broadcast, Darren Pang exclaimed: \u201cOh my!\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sportsnet showed the replay to viewers across Canada, colour analyst Jason York put it this way: \u201cThis is a runaway freight train.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choo choo.<\/p>\n

Listed at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Bahl has one of the best sticks in the NHL, a combination of read and reach that can make it awfully tough to carry a puck past him.<\/p>\n

As opponents have recently scraped themselves off the ice, they\u2019ve likely been thinking, \u2018I would have preferred a poke-check.\u2019<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t necessarily a change that shows on Bahl\u2019s stat-sheet \u2014 he is currently being credited with 1.57 cranks per game, up slightly from 1.49 last season \u2014 but it feels like a few of his recent collisions may have registered on the Richter scale. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Just ask JT Compher of the Detroit Red Wings, Cole Smith of the Nashville Predators or Zach Hyman of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bahl\u2019s most notable wallop came on Oilers superstar Connor McDavid. The best player on the planet had just been denied on a breakaway and was stopped at the edge of the crease to try to corral the rebound when Bahl bowled him over.<\/p>\n

Moore can commiserate. His bones might still be reverberating a little.<\/p>\n

Asked after Thursday\u2019s triumph in Chicago if he has noticed an uptick in physicality from No. 7, Flames coach Ryan Huska replied: \u201cFor sure.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Kevin is just gaining confidence in his overall game,\u201d Huska said. \u201cAs a defenceman, when you mature a little bit and him recognizing that he plays against top players all the time, if you can be a little bit harder, a little bit more physical on those players, I think it goes a long way. So I think he\u2019s gaining a lot of confidence in his ability to be a good shutdown defenceman.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s great news for the Flames, who are counting on Bahl to be one of the long-term leaders on their blue-line, even though he\u2019ll need to develop chemistry with a new partner when Rasmus Andersson is inevitably traded away.<\/p>\n

While the Flames know they can count on Bahl to be strong and steady, the threat of a heavy hit adds another element to his game. For what it\u2019s worth, the 25-year-old insists he\u2019s always looking for an opportunity to \u201clay on the bod\u201d but isn\u2019t out there trying to revive the old Rock\u2019em Sock\u2019em brand. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust being physical, sometimes you\u2019re gonna catch a guy,\u201d Bahl shrugged in a recent interview with Postmedia. \u201cSo just keep laying on the bod and every once in a while, a guy is going to be a bit off-balance or whatever and then you get the better part of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just about keeping physicality in our DNA as a team. And sometimes they go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when they do?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun,\u201d Bahl said, smile growing. \u201cAlways fun to get the boys going.\u201d<\/p>\n

wgilbertson@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Bahl has been lowering the boom. If you follow the Calgary Flames, you\u2019ve likely noticed that Bahl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,96,17763,155,5862,93,146,896,5,2338,231,4,857,3327,1587,1585],"class_list":["post-411461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-cole-smith","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-david-bloom","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-kevin-bahl","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nhl","tag-oliver-moore","tag-rasmus-andersson","tag-trent-frederic","tag-zach-hyman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115906802098886545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}