Update: It appears that ownership shares a few sentiments with today’s piece. Per Eric Francis of Sportsnet:
All contract talks are now on hold for a Flames organization that may be on the precipice of having to take a radical new approach.
Big news. We’ll be breaking down some precedent over the next few days.
The Calgary Flames announced today that they are calling up 22 year old
Connor Zary from their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.
The 24th overall pick in 2020 has had a slow and steady approach to development. His point totals have climbed drastically year over year as you can see below. This season the 6’0”, 179lb has a goal and nine assists in six games.
Credit to EliteProspects.
It would appear
The Saskatoon Sniper has earned a look in the top six. He’s also getting practice reps on the second power play unit. Flames head coach
Ryan Huska mentioned today that he will be playing on a line with embattled puck carrier,
Nazem Kadri — who has struggled through a bitter opening to the 2023-2024 regular season. One goal, one assist and a whopping -11 in nine games.
It’s an undeniably bold move by Huska and not an easy one to agree with. Be sure to watch the video below of Huska’s reasoning, which is consistently fair and thorough.
Let’s pose a question. After a three-shot, zero-point performance against the Oilers on Saturday, 20 year old
Matthew Coronato now has gone five games without a point. He’s bounced around lines, he’s taken power play shifts, he’s a -9 on the season. Despite that, you can see that he’s verging on breaking-through if he could just find a line that moves the puck a bit faster.
Do you take Zary out of his natural center position for his first NHL game just so he can attempt to give some sort of parabiosis-like boost to a proverbially drowning veteran?
Or do you put Zary with Coronato with the hope that the new line doesn’t skate like the rest of the team with the exception of the Backlund line?
Throw
Walker Duehr on as the other winger and that sounds like a refreshingly bullshit-free line.
Another question.
How much better would Calgary look with not one, but two lines that actually try to hit their own blue line with speed?
It wasn’t rocket science why the Flames got stomped by a basement team on Sunday. Four players standing flat-footed waiting for the puck to get loose means that the other team has time to fully set up in the neutral zone. If you’re taking your first three steps at the top of the defensive circle, there is going to be four opposing players in front of you and maybe one option to pass to as you head up the ice.
Ryan Huska talked a big game about high-flying transition hockey during the preseason. Right now his team is currently the worst in the league at breaking the puck out and moving through the neutral zone with speed. It’s reason #1 why they’re sitting in 31st place as of October 31. It’s reason #1 why all of these star players aren’t putting up points.
If your team is constantly running the puck slowly up against a 1-2-2 or 2-1-2, you’re going to lose a lot. You’re not making the playoffs. Your product isn’t entertaining.
How much of this start is Huska’s fault and how much is it on the players failing to execute?
The Power Play
For those who didn’t turn off the
2023 Heritage Classic after goal one,
what were your thoughts on the two five-on-three power play opportunities the Flames were given early on?
They were laughably bad. Most of it was spent trying to hamfist the down-low pass layup to the middle that
Matthew Tkachuk had mastered. Jonathan Huberdeau got the first crack at being the passer at the goal line.
It was as if Huberdeau was just imagining himself on a whiteboard. He stood way too high up — enough to essentially be covered by any defenceman playing a box formation on his side.
By the time a pass was sent to him, he amazingly was instantly getting checked.
Paste and repeat that same sequence a few more times and you saw four minutes of a laughably awful power play. Easy answers always seem to come for armchair coaches and armchair general managers, but really,
who is not telling say, Jonathan Huberdeau or Nazem Kadri, to stand a little further back if you’re playing that spot? Are we really to believe that these guys don’t know that they’re supposed to spread out more at 5-on-3?
You have to wonder what’s going on there.
Is this really Marc Savard’s power play? How many cooks are in that kitchen?
Game day tomorrow against the 5-1-1 Dallas Stars.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via eliteprospects.com and espn.com.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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