The Calgary Flames played their third game of the preseason against the Vancouver Canucks last night. They lost the game with a final score of 3-1, with the Flames’ only goal scored by Connor Zary. Here are three takeaways from the game, a showing of mostly American Hockey League (AHL) players against other AHL players.
Flames Need Zary’s Finishing Skills
The Flames’ only goal was scored by Zary, who was a first-round pick of the Flames in 2020, and made his debut for the NHL club in the 2023-24 season. Over his 117-game NHL career, he has 27 goals and 34 assists for 61 points. While his season has often been derailed by injuries, his above-average puck skills and shooting are not just an asset to the Flames, but a necessity.
Time and again, the team has proven that their biggest weakness is their offensive generation. They play a style that incentivizes shot quality suppression for their opponents, maximizing the generally weak forward group’s abilities to get as much as they can out of everyone. This has one huge drawback: they really don’t end up creating a lot of offence at all, which means that they have to do the best with what they have. Finishing skills are then the Flames’ biggest need, and those are hard to find. Zary is one of the few members of the team with an above-average shot, as demonstrated by his abilities on the power play last season. His goal last night, also scored on the power play, cements that.
Prosvetov’s Showing Was Strong, Considering the Circumstances
Besides their shooting problem, the Flames also have a backup goalie problem. While their starter is set, they have a number of players competing for the secondary role to Dustin Wolf, including Devin Cooley, who also started a game this preseason and backed up Ivan Prosvetov last night, and Owen Say, who played one period in Wednesday’s 4-1 win against the Seattle Kraken. Say performed well in a limited role, but also had a defensive group in front of him that was much closer to the Flames’ likely opening night defensive group. Prosvetov, on the other hand, played behind a defensive group with one certain opening-night Flame: Joel Hanley. Calgary ended up surrendering 30 shots on goal to the Canucks, and Prosvetov made 27 saves for a .900 save percentage.
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This was Prosvetov’s second start of the preseason. He also played in one of the Sunday split-squad matches, making 28 saves on 30 shots in Edmonton and picking up a win. While letting in three goals on a Flames team that struggles for offence is not an ideal statline, Prosvetov has already shown he can perform better than that, which is not something that Cooley can claim so far.
Rory Kerins Should Be on the Opening Night Roster
Outside of the Flames’ regular NHL players – Joel Farabee, Zary, and Hanley – who suited up last night, one of their best skaters was 2020 sixth-round pick Rory Kerins. Kerins played first-line centre last night in between Farabee and Zary, and not only looked like he could keep up with his linemates, but also his opponents. This wasn’t a standout performance by his standards either – over his past few preseason games, he has consistently demonstrated this level of compete and speed of play. Kerins has five career regular season Flames games, in which he registered four points total, all assists. He might not be first-line centre quality during an NHL season, but he looks like a player who might at least be able to add some bottom-six scoring.
What’s Next For the Flames?
The Flames played an extremely lacklustre game, although neither the roster nor the competition was NHL-level. After this game, they are now 2-2 in the preseason, having won one of their two games on the road and one of their two games at home. Their next game is on Saturday (Sept. 27) in Winnipeg to face the Jets.
