Don’t look now, but the Calgary Flames have authored one of the NHL’s biggest turnarounds this season.
After opening the season with the worst record in the NHL at 5-10-1, the Flames have since rebounded with a 16-7-1 string that has them sitting in a wild card spot.
And they’ve done it with some of the most unlikely candidates.
While Johnny Gaudreau has played well since returning from a broken finger Dec. 4, he and Sean Monahan are a combined minus-25 on the season. T.J. Brodie is a garish minus-17.
The big story of late has been the play of Calgary’s 3M Line—Mikael Backlund, Michael Frolik and Matthew Tkachuk.
By far the best trio the Flames have had all season long, they’ve been shockingly prolific of late with Backlund enjoying a five-game goal-scoring streak and Tkachuk riding a seven-game point binge.
Also up front, training-camp signing Kris Versteeg has played a key role for the Flames, exhibiting tremendous playmaking ability in Gaudreau’s absence that has done well to add depth to the team’s four lines.
They’re getting help from the back end, too. One year after being the fans’ favourite whipping boy, Dougie Hamilton has truly found his footing on the top defensive pairing alongside captain Mark Giordano.
An unlikely hero in net when the Flames started turning their fortunes around was 30-year-old career backup Chad Johnson, who grew up in southeast Calgary dreaming of one day being a Flame.
However, after winning 10 of 12 starts to save the Flames’ season, three losses in a row before Christmas opened the door for Brian Elliott to finally start redeeming himself following a horrific start as a Flame.
Elliott has now won his last five starts, giving Calgary an impressive tandem that is standing tall when needed most—on the penalty kill.
During Calgary’s opening swoon, the club’s special teams both ranked at or near the bottom of the league. Since Dec. 1, they’ve both rebounded nicely.
The Flames’ power play has been lights out, netting them 20 goals in the last 14 games. But the success of their penalty kill has been particularly key given the shocking number of minors the Flames have had to kill off this season.
One of the biggest questions facing this team all season has revolved around its mysterious about-face in terms of undisciplined play.
No team has been penalized more this season, which is a stunning fact considering the club had prided itself the previous year-and-a-half on being the league’s most disciplined squad under Bob Hartley.
Here’s where it gets weird:
The turnaround in the club’s penchant for penalties coincides with the Jan. 27, 2016, incident involving Dennis Wideman and linesman Don Henderson.
Known locally as the “Wideman Effect,” a faction of fans believe officials have targeted the Flames as payback ever since their colleague had his career ended by Wideman’s crosscheck.
It’s delusional at best to question the integrity of all the league’s officials with suggestions every game’s split-second penalty decisions are tainted because of one man’s transgression.
However, with four Flames players in the top 13 in minors taken (Tkachuk, Hamilton, Giordano and Sam Bennett), coaches and management are scratching their heads trying to figure out the surge in infractions.
It led GM Brad Treliving to refer to the Wideman Effect theory as “the sniper in the bush.”
“I’m kind of in the middle of a little study on that,” he chuckled. “No. 1, we’ve got to hold our players accountable. You’re not going to have success in this league if you’re taking five or six minor penalties. You can dodge it, but it’ll bite you. We’ve got to be a more disciplined team. But it’s a little odd. For a year-and-a-half, we were the least penalized team. We went a 130-game block of games (dating back to the start of the 2014–15 season) where we had the least amount of penalties. There have been 72 games where we’ve been the highest penalized team. That’s a little interesting. I don’t know what’s gone on. Before we start looking at the sniper in the bush, we want to make sure we’re looking at ourselves first to see if there’s things we can manage.”
Yet, the penalties continue, as does the admirable way Backlund and his band of merry penalty killers do their job.
They’re an interesting study, these Flames—zigging all year long when the hockey world expects them to zag.
But by climbing back into the playoff picture on the strength of the club’s supporting cast, you best believe there’s plenty of optimism as the real leaders of this club—Giordano, Brodie, Gaudreau and Monahan—start to round into form.