Flames beat league-best Bruins 4-1 in Boston with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri each earning three points
It’s being dubbed a youth movement, but the veterans really stepped up for the Calgary Flames in their first game back from an extended break. Over that break, they saw one of their best players over the past five seasons get shipped out, and the talk has been about who’s next to go before the NHL trade deadline.
With four players making their Flames debuts on Tuesday night, the Flames beat the league’s best in the Boston Bruins with a 4-1 win to kick off their road trip. And while they got goals from young Connor Zary, and newcomer Andrei Kuzmenko, it was a pair of three-point nights from Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri that stood out in what was a total team performance.
“A pack of hyenas can take down a lion,” was Kadri’s memorable quote after the contest.
He and Huberdeau were definitely the pack leaders.
Huberdeau set up Kuzmenko’s powerplay goal — just 4:20 into his first game as a member of the Calgary Flames following the trade that sent Elias Lindholm to the Canucks last week — and scored one of his own in the third period to make it 3-1 Flames and put the game out of reach for the Bruins.
Hometown boy Noah Hanifin scored on the powerplay later in the third to round out the scoring. Kadri was in on the first three Flames goals with assists — none nicer than the setup that sprung rookie Zary in for his 11th of the year.
It was just one game, but instead of looking like a team resigned to its rebuilding (retooling, reloading) fate, the Flames looked energized and almost unstoppable.
Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney played their first games this year, both coming back from shoulder surgery, and formed a frenzied fourth line. Recent waiver claim Brayden Pachal played a noticeably physical game on the third defence pairing with Oliver Kylington.
Pospisil returned to the lineup and was reunited with Zary and Kadri, although he popped Brad Marchand in the face and got five and a game for his trademark edge.
Losing their pacemaker halfway through the contest and still pushing the play made the victory even more impressive.
So did the pair of goals from a previously futile powerplay.
It was arguably the team’s best game of the year. At a time people are expecting to be one of the worst. Impressive, for sure.
With expectations low and energy high, the Flames seem to be feeling pretty good after their break.
“It was a great start, obviously, for the first game,” Huberdeau said.