Calgary Flames forward Nazem Kadri, fresh off a season where he scored a career-high 35 goals, offered an innovative solution to boost his team’s offence, which was fourth worst in the league a season ago.
“Maybe we can just get the other team to pull the goalie and play without a goaltender,” the veteran centre said with a wry smile Wednesday morning ahead of the Flames’ tilt versus a Vancouver Canucks squad that’s sending the likes of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Kiefer Sherwood to the Saddledome.
After three years of cycling through different linemates, including stints with each other, Kadri and left winger Jonathan Huberdeau played more than 650 minutes at five-on-five together last season, and both found success. Huberdeau had 62 points, his highest total as a Flame. Their most frequent linemate was 22-year-old Matt Coronato, who the organization views as a possible 30-goal, two-way threat.
So far through training camp, however, Huberdeau and Kadri have rarely been on a line together. Head coach Ryan Huska currently has Kadri centering Joel Farabee and Yegor Sharangovich. Huberdeau is with Coronato and Morgan Frost.
“It’s more about finding something else right now,” Huska said, adding that it’s easier to experiment with that chemistry now than during the season. “The three of them [Huberdeau-Frost-Coronato] seem to have something going.”
The shift is also about igniting Frost and Farabee, both of whom are skating in their first full training camps with the team after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers last season.
The Flames view Frost as an offensive centre who they want to eventually rotate in on key defensive situations. They just want to see him drive the net more. The early returns have been promising. Frost is tied for the league lead with six preseason points and said he’s found a groove on the line.
“We spend all day together anyway, so it’s pretty normal at this point,” he said of his connection with Coronato. “He’s so dangerous if you find him in the slot anywhere…just want to find him wherever you can.”
Huska called Huberdeau the “dad” of the trio and said he was enjoying the role of elder statesman. Frost is embracing the chance to have the playmaker on his left side.
“I’ve played a couple years now but it’s still so cool to me just to come to the rink and see my name next to a guy like Huby,” he said. “I think we can score goals and be dangerous in the offensive zone.”
Farabee will likely see time on various lines during the season because of his ability to forecheck, play physical, and kill penalties. Huska wants him to feel empowered by the role.
“I think we’re going to see him in different situations this year,” Huska said. “He’s going to kill penalties one night. The next night, he’ll be on the power play. He’s going to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades for us. I do anticipate he’ll be bumped around the lineup…he’s fluid. He’s able to be moved around.”
As he settles in with new linemates, Kadri understands his coach’s thinking.
Kadri, Huberdeau, and Coronato combined for 40 per cent of Calgary’s 220 goals a season ago. For a Flames team that was one goal away from making the playoffs, spreading the wealth (along with systems tweaks that Huska has said they will implement) could pay dividends.
“I think a balance in lines could also be pivotal and spread [the offence] out a little more,” Kadri said. “You give opposition teams tougher looks and tougher matchups…but we have to continue to shoot the puck.”
For Huska, it’s not a permanent switch but the chance to see whether he can rely on other duos and trios during the season. He said that putting Coronato back with veterans Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman is also an option given their built-in chemistry.
“We know that Naz and Huby play well together, it’s just about finding other combinations that we maybe haven’t hit on yet,” Huska said. “We know Huby and Kads go well together. It’s not anything we’re setting in stone. It’s just us trying to find some different combinations that maybe we can go to at some point…you always know you can go back to it.”
Related Stories