CALGARY – As hesitant as hockey fans are to pay money for pre-season hockey, Calgary Flames fans got their money’s worth Tuesday with Zayne Parekh proving to be worth the price of admission.
Whirling, twirling, dishing and dashing, this is the Parekh Dome dwellers hoped they’d see when the Flames drafted him ninth overall two summers back.
If there’s a shred of the self-doubt left that plagued him last season, it appears he’s out-skated it with that sublime step that makes him one of the best skaters the organization has seen in eons.
He used it to go end-to-end with the type of power-play zone entry that causes crowds to gasp, interrupted by a juke-and-jive fake drop pass at the blue line that allowed him to get in alone for a great scoring chance.
One period later he’d factor into two goals, as part of an outing that gives plenty of hope the 20-year-old is not only ready to make the full-time jump to the NHL, but appears ready to be an offensive difference-maker.
In a pre-season with no real battles in Flamesland, the team iced what will essentially be their opening-night roster against Vancouver in a 3-1 win against Canucks rookies.
What mattered most was that the most intriguing prospect on the roster was also the best player on the ice.
A sick toe-drag on Kirill Kudryavtsev in the first period sparked a huge response from the crowd, as did a particularly impressive four-on-four shift in which he circled the offensive zone before making a great pass to Ryan Strome for a slot shot.
Less than five minutes after earning a second assist on a Joel Farabee power-play goal, Parekh added another helper on Sam Honzek’s rebound goal, which was a byproduct of Parekh’s cheeky dash in from the point to get in alone with a chance from the side of the net.
Two nights after racking up ten shot attempts, Parekh threw nine more at the net, forcing four saves.
Other notables on a night in which the Flames outshot the Canucks 30-9 and Matt Coronato had the snipe of the night with a top-shelf finish:
Playing on the top line with Coronato and Morgan Frost, Gridin made a great pass to set up Joel Farabee’s game-opening snipe.
Gridin’s real magic came minutes later, when he made a nifty drop to Frost as they entered the offensive zone, starting a pretty passing play that Coronato buried with a roof job.
There are plenty of reasons why Gridin is expected to be the Flames’ most exciting offensive player this season.
The coach has made a big deal about going to the net harder this year and nobody on the roster does it better, more consistently, or more fearlessly than the big Czech winger.
He was at his feisty best, continually crashing the crease, causing issues, creating rebounds and cleaning up the carnage caused by fellow muckraker, Martin Pospisil.
Klapka also made a deft pass from behind the net onto Pospisil’s stick for a great scoring chance. The duo will be fun to watch this season.
Sam Honzek
Scored on a rebound and was the first one over the boards for every penalty kill alongside Mikael Backlund.
Joel Farabee
A goal and an assist, while continuing to establish that he’s one of the team’s best penalty killers.
The Lines
Gridin – Frost – Coronato
Zary – Strome - Sharangovich
Honzek – Backlund – Farabee
Tysplakov – Pospisil – Klapka
Bahl - Nemec
Kuznetsov – Whitecloud
Middleton - Parekh
Wolf
Zarubin
PP1
Parekh – Frost – Coronato – Gridin – Farabee
PP2
Zary - Strome - Tsyplakov – Sharangovich - Nemec
