The Calgary Flames fell apart like Jacob Markstrom’s skate blade.
No one could have predicted this game. Coming into Vancouver on a 10-game winning streak and facing a Vancouver Canucks team that had looked fragile in recent games, the Flames were the favourites on Thursday night. The Flames even had the newly-traded-for Tyler Toffoli in tow, the former Canuck turned Canuck-killer.
If the Canucks were to pull out a win, surely they would need to grind out a one-goal effort featuring heroics from Thatcher Demko and a little luck.
Nope.
Instead, the Canucks blew the roof off Rogers Arena, scoring seven unanswered goals before finally giving up a late goal to win 7-1. They made the Flames look like pretenders rather than contenders, their flame flickering out like a candle on a windy night.
The result was so unlikely that it’s literally the first time it has ever happened: never before has a team ended an opponent’s 10+ game winning streak by by winning by 6+ goals. Yes, that’s an extremely specific statistic but that’s how extremely specifically weird this game was.
The least predictable part of the game was when Jacob Markstrom left after three goals. He wasn’t pulled from the game — his skate blade came off his boot and, as they desperately tried to fix it at the bench, the referees decided they were taking too long and forced the Flames to bring in their backup, Daniel Vladar.
Poor Vladar had no chance. He came into the game in the middle of a Canucks power play and they showed no mercy, immediately scoring the 4-0 goal, then another before the end of the second period on a penalty shot. With the score 5-0 heading into the third period, Vladar stayed in.
“His blade came out and they couldn’t get the other one back in,” said Flames head coach Darryl Sutter, shrugging his shoulders with a rueful laugh. “He didn’t have a skate. He would have had to go to a rubber boot.”
It wasn’t just the bizarre circumstances that doused the Flames, however. The Flames came completely unraveled, taking undisciplined penalties and the Canucks made them pay on a suddenly lights-out power play.
“Our penalty kill wasn’t very good tonight,” said Sutter. “Our defence, as a group, was borderline awful and that reflected in our penalty killing.”
The higher the score, the more the Flames unraveled, starting scrum after scrum, trying to enact some sort of physical revenge for the on-ice drubbing they were receiving. Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau took note, limiting the ice time of his top players in the final minutes, even though Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Bo Horvat each had two goals and were on hat trick watch.
“First of all, we play them two more times and I've always been a guy that just never wanted to pile it on once you know you're gonna win the game,” said Boudreau. “And you never know — they’re a big physical team and the last thing you want to do is have your best players out there and, in a meaningless situation, take a shot off the foot.”
The unspoken, between-the-lines element of that quote is that the big, physical Flames were already taking liberties after the whistle — there was no sense risking the Canucks best players in pursuit of a hat trick.
The Canucks instead just watched the Flames continue to combust, burning out like a dying star.
Forgive the many mixed metaphors in this. Yes, the Flames fell apart, flickered, unraveled, and combusted, all at once. It’s the only way to explain what I saw when I watched this game.
- Okay, it’s not the only way to explain what I saw. The other explanation is that the Canucks were wearing the almighty black skate jersey, which inspired them to play like an unstoppable juggernaut. Is it just a coincidence that Markstrom had skate problems when the Canucks were wearing the flying skate? We’re through the looking glass here, people.
- Wearing the black skate jerseys for their game honouring Black History Month, which typically features the pan-African colour scheme of black, red, yellow, and green, worked out incredible well since the black skate jersey already has three of those four colours.
- The in-arena experience was on-point all night, starting with a video from Justin Bailey, currently playing for the Abbotsford Canucks, celebrating the history of Black players on the Canucks. Claude Vilgrain, the first Black player in Canucks history, was on hand for the ceremonial puck drop and a first intermission interview. Musical guests, dancers, and video segments were all in keeping with the theme. It was all very well done.
- The skate jersey looked best on Thatcher Demko, who looked like a taller Kirk McLean in his custom gear, albeit with modern goaltending mechanics. Those mechanics flew out the window, however, for one incredible around-the-world glove save after Demko lost his stick. It was as old-school a save as Demko has ever made.
- “I don't think I've ever done that in my life, the windmill stuff,” said Demko. “It's never really been my game, not even in practices or anything, so that was weird. I don't know what came over me, maybe a little bit of Kirk there.”
- “I always try to be very cognizant of who's come before me and who's paved the way for guys like me,” said Demko of why he paid tribute to McLean. “I ended up calling Kirk and asking for his permission. I didn't want to rub him the wrong way or anything but he's a great guy and he gave me the green light. So, a lot of detail went into it, I was working pretty hard with my gear company, CCM, making sure that every detail was on point — a lot of back and forth, and they nailed it, top to bottom.”
- It might seem strange to celebrate the goaltending in a 7-1 win but Demko was legitimately fantastic and key to the Canucks win, keeping the game scoreless through the first period before the Canucks started racking up goals. He stopped two breakaways in the first period alone and all sorts of odd-man rushes and grade-A scoring chances throughout. He was a worthy winner of the game night championship belt.
- Let’s get to the goals. After a first period power play that was, in Boudreau’s words, “horrible,” the Canucks figured it out in the second period. It started with a cracking one-timer from Elias Pettersson that went in off the knob of Markstrom’s stick with such force that I’m surprised it didn’t knock Markstrom’s stick clean out of his hand.
- The intriguing aspect of Pettersson’s goal is where he scored from. Instead of the top of the faceoff circle, he was lower down. Pettersson started at the top of the circle and first returned a pass to Quinn Hughes, then drifted backwards into his new spot, which meant the penalty kill, anticipating a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, were no longer in his shooting lane.
- “We talked about that before, that I wanted to play a little lower,” said Pettersson. “I can get closer to the net and most teams usually take away the top pass or if I stand higher up. So, I tried to play a little lower and Quinn found me and it went home.”
- Pettersson’s linemates, Nils Höglander and Vasily Podkolzin, didn’t get on the scoresheet, but their line was easily the Canucks’ best at 5-on-5. They created some of the Canucks’ best scoring chances, played solid defensively, and were dangerous in transition. That’s a line that needs to stay together.
- “They had a multitude of chances that they didn’t finish on,” said Boudreau of Höglander and Podkolzin. “In a year from now or two years from now, they’re going to be finishing all of those. It's the learning curve that they're going through that maybe they took a little too long or hesitated a little bit too much when they had those 2-on-0s down low or 2-on-1s down low. But it's a great learning experience and they compete.”
- When Pettersson is at his best, he plays a surprisingly physical game and he threw a classic reverse hit on Trevor Lewis that was as much a signal that he’s back as his three-point night. That’s the Pettersson Canucks fans know and love.
- Jason Dickinson left the game in the middle of the second period after crashing hard into the boards after a hit by Erik Gudbranson. Dickinson was in obvious pain and is expected to get imaging done on Friday to assess the injury.
- J.T. Miller made it 2-0 with another power play goal, picking the top corner on the short side with a wicked wrist shot from the left wing. It was about as perfect a shot as you’ll ever see and Markstrom should feel no shame in being unable to stop it.
- “Last time we played in Calgary, it was the exact opposite,” said Miller of their power play. “We got a ton of power plays and couldn't even get set up. They outworked us, they out-executed us and we knew that we had better than that and had to make a statement today.”
- Less than a minute after Miller’s goal, Bo Horvat made it 3-0. Tyler Motte, playing in Dickinson’s spot on Horvat’s wing, charged out to the point after a faceoff and blocked a shot, immediately breaking the other way for a chance. Markstrom made the first save but the backchecking Noah Hanifin threw the rebound up the middle to Horvat, who went over the blocker like Kam Chancellor.
- When Markstrom left the game because of his skate issue, Vladar had to come in cold against a Canucks power play that was suddenly red hot. The Canucks scored on their first shot on Vladar, 28 seconds after he came in. Brock Boeser sent a hard pass to Miller at the backdoor but, instead of going for goal, Miller angled his skate to bank the puck to a wide-open Horvat with a wide-open net.
- Honestly, it’s only right that the one night with the skate jersey featured a skate assist.
- With four seconds left in the second period, Rasmus Andersson made a boneheaded mistake. On a wild scrum in the crease, Andersson grabbed the puck, which is an automatic penalty shot. Miller, on the first penalty shot of his career, weaved in slowly from the left side and made a devastating deke from his backhand to his forehand, leaving Vladar completely lost in the woods like Kristoff.
- The Canucks didn’t let up in the third period. Attacking in transition, Tanner Pearson took a shot from the right wing off a pass from Miller, putting it low on the pads so Vladar would be forced to kick out a rebound. Conor Garland fired the rebound at the open net and Vladar nearly robbed him with his stick, but the puck deflected off his paddle and went just under the bar. Garland didn’t even believe it was in — the broadcast didn’t catch it but the scoreboard showed Garland on the bench asking, “Did that really go in?”
- “He couldn’t tell,” said Miller, who could be seen on the broadcast assuring Garland that it hit the back bar. “He actually thought it didn’t go in.”
- Pettersson then made it 7-0 with a shorthanded goal, completing the quadrella of ways to score goals: power play, even strength, shorthanded, and penalty shot. It was an incredibly sneaky play: Pettersson was waiting on the boards in the neutral zone and suddenly darted in to steal the puck from Elias Lindholm. On the breakaway, he went top shelf, where bartenders keep the expensive liquor.
- The broadcast caught this one sad Calgary Flames fan leaving the game after Pettersson’s goal wearing a Johnny Gaudreau jersey. Not long after, Gaudreau himself left the game after complaining a little too vociferously about a missed high-sticking call to earn a 10-minute misconduct.
- As pointed out by Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool, who is from Abbotsford and was in attendance at the game, 7-0 is a touchdown. He then added during a brief interview during a stoppage, “I just want to say that the Calgary Flames suck so bad.” The Canucks initially tweeted out the video of him saying so but then deleted it. Fortunately, the broadcast caught him saying it too.
- The Flames finally got on the board with two minutes left, with Andrew Mangiapane ending Demko’s shutout bid. Not to worry — it was a classic snack goal. Just like a snack is what you eat to keep yourself from getting too hungry later, a snack goal is what a goaltender gives up when they don’t want the opposition getting too hungry to score the next time you see them. Like Boudreau said, the Canucks have to play the Flames two more times this season.
- This was a fantastic, complete effort from the Canucks. They played well at 5-on-5, they got great goaltending, they were opportunistic on the power play, and they stayed disciplined and avoided penalties. Beating the Flames this season is an accomplishment in and of itself. Walloping them 7-1 is a statement.
- “We just set a standard for ourselves for the rest of the year,” said Miller. “That's not by winning by six goals, but it's the playing the right way, being sharp on the special teams, being ready to start the game. We have a standard — we need to play to that from here on out. We shouldn't be satisfied with anything other than that.”
