Wow, that was a surprisingly spirited effort by the Flames. I didn't expect them to take over the game like they did. I definitely expected more from the Canucks with their current record and all, but I suspect they were out of gas with travel and games played recently.
Without a doubt, this is has to be the ideal line up going forward as virtually all the lines pulled their weight yesterday, Huberdeau probably played the best game I've seen from him in a long time and surprise surprise, it happened with Backlund as his centerman. I honestly have no idea why it took so long to put these guys together and why so many people were so fixated on a Huby-Elias duo. I thought they looked horrible together from right from the start dating back to last year and it's kind of annoying how much higher up the standings this team would be if everyone wasn't so fixed with the 10-28 combo.
Props to Pospisil and Zadorov for bringing the jam tonight. Haven't seen the kind of moxie since Matthew Tkachuk was here. A few jabs to JT Miller's mug, basically showing zero respect and zero fearlessness, love it. Zadorov really driving up that value too. That one shift where he leads the rush and drops it back to Huberdeau for a one timer then skates hard down and crushes Pettersson on his back. Have to think rival GMs are watching and salivating at the idea of this behemoth doing that for their team.
|