The Calgary Flames spoiled the end of the Florida Panthers ‘Fans’ Florida Panthers Black Friday with a 5-3 comeback win, outscoring the Panthers 5-1 after allowing two goals in the first three minutes of the game.
Related: Flames Fight Back From Early Death To Beat Panthers
It was a win for the Flames in their last five games, and they now have a possible 11 points from their last eight games. With a team that continues to play better, more consistently, let’s discuss what we can take away from the win.
First two on the blue line
After falling behind 2-0 in the first three minutes of the game, yan kuznetzov created an entry controlled by the area, and shortly after crossing the blue line, he entered the flames himself and got some momentum to possibly get back into the game.
This was the first goal of Kuznetzov’s young career with the Flames after 13 games since being drafted in the second round of the 2020 entry draft. Following the game, in his post-game interview, he said he “felt good about being ready to go out on the road,” and said his confidence is growing now that he’s spent more time with the NHL’s Flames.
One first on the blue line was not really important. However, Mackenzie Weegar ended up finding the back of the net for the first time this season. After this game, he said, “It feels good, and I hope that it sets me up for something good and can start to contribute more on the offensive side.” But, before this, Weegar pointed to Kuznetson’s goal as the game changer.
Nazem Kadri snaps goalless streak
Before this game against the Panthers, Nazem Kadri had gone ten straight games without a goal. It wasn’t for lack of effort, either, as he had 28 shots on net and 19 on net.
Despite having three multi-point games and a career-high seven in this stretch, you can tell he was motivated to contribute more. He put up another offensive offensive performance with a goal and two assists, 11 shot attempts, seven scoring chances, and three high-danger chances.
Kadri’s goal during a RASMUS Andersson Point Shot at home, after a long, hard-working shift in the offensive zone where the Flames won battles on the boards to set up the opportunity.
It’s fitting that this is how Kadri broke out after a long stretch of creating a ton of chances but failing to find the back of the net. It showed his moral character, and after the game, he said that the goal “was very good and summed up how we wanted to play.”
Another great performance from devin cooley
Many people, myself included, were critical of Devin Cooley as a backup entering this season. However, over the past two months, he’s made a case that he could be the team’s No. 1 prospect if it weren’t for Dustin Wolf signing a massive contract extension in the offseason.
In this game against the Panthers, he stopped 37 of 40 shots, made eight high-danger saves, and saved 3.03 goals above expectations. Even with five goals on the board, without Cooley’s great performance, the Flames might have lost this game.
Now with nine games (Six Starts), Cooley has a percentage of .930 Save percentage, which is the third percentage that keeps the goalies to make the Goalies start, and saved 7.37 more goals, which is the NHL-most of the NHL.
Earlier, I was ready to give the wolf, saying that the flames had problems defending themselves in front of him. However, with Cooley getting more and more time and dominating the net lately, it’s getting harder to believe it will be an excuse.
While most of the focus was on the offensive side tonight, Cooley definitely deserves a ton of credit for this win, and it boggles my mind that he isn’t named one of the three stars in this game.
What follows the flames?
This was the fifth game of the series in which the Flames played seven of eight on the road. So far, they are 4-2-0 through this challenging part of the schedule. They will close the trip with matchups against the Carolina Herdanes on Sunday and the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
After this win, there are only six flames in the play area. If they can get a win in one of these two to close out the trip, and stay hot in their homestand four, this team could find themselves back in the playoff mix, despite Hockey World calling for them to sell everything important on their roster.
