While NHL managers, coaches and players would always rather win than lose, even in the pre-season, until the regular season starts, wins and losses really don’t matter. While there is no reward for teams that perform well prior to the first week of October, the pre-season is still important – for some players and teams more than others.
In my opinion, the Flames are one of those teams, and here’s why.
BEHIND THE BENCH
With a new coaching staff and a number of new players, the Flames have a lot of work to do before they officially open their 2018-19 season versus the Canucks at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Oct. 3.
With a new head coach in Bill Peters, who exercised an escape clause in his contract with the Carolina Hurricanes to become the Flames’ new bench boss last spring, the team has to learn a new system. Peters wants the team to be aggressive on the forecheck and play even faster than they did under Glen Gulutzan, which would be a lot of fun to watch.
New associate coach in Geoff Ward, who as a side note, was my road roommate for a season in the AHL, joined the Flames following seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Bruins, and more recently, three with the Devils. Ward, who won a Stanley Cup as Claude Julien’s right-hand man in 2011, was brought in primarily to fix the team’s power play, which at 16 per cent, was tied for third-worst in the league last season. Ward will also focus on the Flames’ talented (and suddenly deep) forward group, while former Stockton Heat head coach Ryan Huska, who was promoted from the AHL to the NHL during the off-season, will handle the defence core and try to further improve a penalty kill that finished tied for seventh in the league at 81.8 per cent last season.
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FORWARD THINKING
After a busy off-season, there will be no rest for the weary for general manager Brad Treliving, who on paper, has put together the deepest Flames team in more than a decade.
As good as Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan were last season, and they were fantastic, the Flames leaned way too heavily on the dynamic duo to carry the team offensively. When Gaudreau, who established new career-highs for assists with 60 and points with 84, Monahan, who recorded a career-best 31 goals and 65 points, and Micheal Ferland, who was traded to the Hurricanes on Jun. 23, didn’t light the lamp multiple times a game, the Flames had a hard time scoring enough goals to win games, at least without a first-star performance from their No. 1 goaltender, Mike Smith, who stole a number of games for the team, especially early in the season.
One of the Flames’ biggest Achilles heels last season was secondary scoring.
While the second line of Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik, who were saddled with as many defensive-zone starts and tough matchups as just about any other line in the league, had a solid season, only Tkachuk, who scored 24 goals and posted 49 points in 68 games in a stellar sophomore season that came to an early end because of an upper-body injury, performed to expectations offensively. With that said, the line was excellent defensively and far from the team’s biggest problem last season.
Well aware that the Flames need more from their bottom-six forwards this season, Treliving added significant depth by making the biggest deal at the NHL Draft and some big splashes in NHL free agency.
By acquiring versatile forward Elias Lindholm, who was selected one spot ahead of Sean Monahan at fifth overall in 2013, from the Hurricanes, and adding 10-time 20-goal scorer James Neal, late-bloomer Derek Ryan and dynamic up-and-comer Austin Czarnik in free agency, Treliving has given his new coaching staff a plethora of options, something that the old staff simply didn’t have.
IN DEFENCE
As anxious as I am to find out who makes the cut and who plays with who on the four forward lines on opening night, I’m also wondering how the team is going to deal with a potential logjam on defence.
While I believe that the top four is set in stone, there are at least four defencemen fighting to form the third pairing.
The Flames’ first and second pairings on Oct. 3 will be Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie and Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic.
At this point, I would be surprised if the third pairing for the team’s season-opener versus the Canucks wasn’t comprised of incumbents Brett Kulak and Michael Stone. With that said, Rasmus Andersson, who didn’t look out of place in 10 NHL games last season, looks like might be ready to graduate from the AHL.
As an older, more established defenceman who has two years left on a contract that pays him $3.5 million dollars per season, I can’t see Stone losing his job to Andersson to start the season. In my opinion, Stone is a really solid third-pairing blueliner who can play on the second pairing if need be, as he did down the stretch two seasons when he helped the Flames make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Having said that, Andersson is doing his best to force the Flames to find a spot for him. But where? If the Flames believe that Andersson would be an upgrade on Kulak, they could slide him or Stone, both right-handed defencemen, to the left side. Or at some point in time, an injury or a trade could create an opening for the talented youngster, who was an AHL All-Star with the Stockton Heat last season.
The other player pushing for a top-six spot is Juuso Valimaki. The Flames’ last first-round pick, selected 16th overall in 2017, has first-pairing upside. With that said, with no professional experience, I strongly suspect that the 19-year-old will start the season in the AHL.
In addition to the additions, with forwards Dillon Dube and Andrew Mangiapane and Andersson making extremely strong cases to be in the team’s opening night lineup with their play to this point in the pre-season, Treliving and Peters are going to have some very difficult decisions to make between now and Oct. 3. That is a very good thing.
