CALGARY — After eight straight losses, and weeks of frustration, the Calgary Flames finally got a chance to exhale Sunday night.
No matter where things go from here, and how hard it will be for the Flames to climb out of the hole theyâ€ve been digging, it would be hard for anyone who has ever played a sport not to appreciate how good their first regulation win of the season mustâ€ve felt.
“I would just say itâ€s a weight off our shoulders,†said Connor Zary, when asked to describe the feeling in a dressing room in which there havenâ€t been a lot of smiles of late.
“I think it’s been a tough stretch for us. We’ve had games where we’ve done the right thing and we haven’t come out with the result. And I think tonight we kind of put it together.â€
Shattering their offensive glass ceiling with a 5-1 win, the Flames eliminated the penalty problems, the defensive gaffes, the offensive miscues and the prolonged lapses to beat up on a New York Rangers team that has had its own struggles of late, losing six of their last seven.
No matter how troubled their opponent, the Flames needed to end the misery of a string that saw the club play their 10th game of the season before recording their second win.
Their first home victory did well to temporarily mask a 2-7-1 start that still has them sitting last in the league standings.
“At the end of the day, you just feel good to get a win,†said Zary, whose club hadnâ€t scored more than three goals in any previous game.
“I think you come in here, you take a deep breath, you hear the music playing, and everyone’s talking, everyone’s laughing, and that’s what you want, right?
“You play hockey because you love it, and you have fun. No one wants to go through those stretches. But when you play a game like that, that’s a lot for us to look forward to and build off of.â€
Nazem Kadri got the ball rolling early with a nifty finish less than two minutes in, prompting many to wonder if the team that was 0-5 after scoring first would finally finish the job.
Midway through the period Kevin Bahl and Noah Laba traded goals 10 seconds apart, setting up a timely insurance marker by Yegor Sharangovich midway through the middle frame that saw the puck bounce off Igor Shesterkinâ€s glove and trickle fortuitously over the line.
It was the sort of break the Flames have been on the wrong side of so often early on.
Then again, in hockey and in life, you make your own breaks.
Another key bounce came shortly afterwards when Dustin Wolfâ€s sprawling save on Alexis Lafrenière prevented the Rangers from climbing to within one.
“It just hit the inside of my stick,†Wolf said of his most spectacular of 30 saves.
“Honestly, I didn’t see him back there… thought I was screwed. Just kind of threw something, anything at it. And those are the bounces we haven’t been getting, and it feels good to be on the other side of it.â€
As it was on opening night, when the Flames beat Edmonton in a shootout, Wolfâ€s play was key to the win.
Seems it always will be for a team that has long struggled to score goals.
“This one feels good,†said Wolf, who has started nine of the teamâ€s first 10 games.Â
“This is a building block in the right direction. We played a pretty solid, full game here at home, and that’s what our fans deserve.
“If we can stay out of the box and create our offence five-on-five, I think we’re a pretty good hockey team.â€
That theory will be tested on the teamâ€s four-game eastern road trip, which starts Tuesday in Toronto, and continues through Ottawa, Nashville and Philadelphia.
“We lost eight games, right? We’re pissed off,†said Zary, bluntly, summing up the misery his club was playing through.Â
“We know we need to be better, and to a man, we knew that. You can say all you want… but we need to have games like that where we come out and have the energy and do those things.â€
With the losses piling up, coach Ryan Huska sent a controversial message Sunday morning, choosing to make Matt Coronato a healthy scratch.
Insisting it had nothing to do with effort, and everything to do with “giving him a chance to reset,†Huska insisted the teamâ€s best young scorer will be back in the lineup against Toronto.
“We love Matty, he’s a great kid, he’s a hard worker and everybody wants him in our lineup,†said Blake Coleman, who scored twice in the third period to up his team-leading goal total to five.
“But… eight in a row, something’s got to give, and they’re trying to make a point. It could have been a number of guys.
“I don’t think anybody’s not expecting Matty to come back and be a big difference-maker for us. Hopefully he took the night to reset, and he’s going to be a big reason why we get this thing moving the right way.â€
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