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The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angles Kings 5-1 in their final regular season game.
As this was an inconsequential game for Calgary, the rookies were out on the ice, fully motivated under the bright lights of Hollywood, hoping to make an impact in their debuts.
And it became a memorable night.
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
1) Energized by rookies in the third after slow first two periods
Not surprisingly when you have a completely new lineup, things will take time to gel. The Flames found themselves asleep in the first two periods before waking up in the third. They had eight scoring opportunities in the final period with 5:05 remaining. In comparison, they had less than that in the first and second period individually in their entirety.
But the big story of the evening were the performances of the rookies in that third period. In the sixth minute, Sam Morton took a feed from Ryan Lomberg on a 3-on-1 rush, and the finish was beautiful for an NHL career-first goal. At one point, he was even looking for his second.
Zayne Parekh showed a sample of the reason why he had the most goals by a defenseman in an OHL season (TWICE! And both times with 33) with a deflection into the net to also get his first career NHL goal. Morton ended the night with an Expected Goal value of 0.16. Parekh’s night ended with a +3 rating and an Expected Goal value of 0.12. Plus a Second Star of the game award? Not bad, young grasshopper.
This is the first time since 2003 that two teammates have scored goals in their NHL debut games.
The other debutants Ayder Suniev and Hunter Brzustewicz had a rating of +2 each.
2) Special Teams
Calgary was 0-for-2 on the man-advantage. Seems like having Suniev, Morton and Parekh rather than the usual guys couldn’t strike oil on the power play either. But this is one game, so there’s that, and it's something they're going to have to address in the off-season.
But the penalty-kill is always going to be cherished down the stretch. Even though they gave up one goal in this final game, since March 26, this team has gone a league-best 21-for-23 in that duration. It’s always good to end on a great note.
3) Dan Vladar
With goalie Dustin Wolf sitting out, Vladar closed out the season for the Flames in net, giving the California rookie netminder a break after eight consecutive starts. Vladar did just nicely in the win, giving up just one goal against an Expected Goal value of 2.82. He ends his season with 12 wins, just a couple short of his career-best 14 from the 2022-23 season.
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