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Thank you Elias for many years of exciting hockey!!
‘It’s been truly amazing’: Elias Lindholm says farewell to Flames fans
Lindholm arrived in Calgary in 2018. The skilled Swede collected 148 goals and 357 points in 418 career appearances in the Flaming C crest.
While he was a key piece at the Saddledome, skating primarily as first-line centre and with an ‘A’ stitched on his jersey as an alternate captain, his current contract expires at the end of this season and extension talks had stalled in the fall.
Welcome Andrei to the C of Red
https://twitter.com/user/status/1753244975524106732
A deep dive on Andrei Kuzmenko, the newest member of the Calgary Flames
Kuzmenko’s strengths and weaknesses
Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala broke down Kuzmenko’s game in mid-December once trade rumours around the player started to swirl. Here’s a summary of what he said in the article:
In the NHL, players have different roles, and everyone can’t do everything. In Kuzmenko’s case, he’s an offense first player and shouldn’t be tasked with a heavy defensive shutdown role, that’s just not what he’s built to do.
Kuzmenko is an effective player between the faceoff dots and below the hash marks in the offensive zone. That’s where he can make a big impact and it’s important to get him to those spots to be successful, ideally on the power play and at 5v5.
He might be having a down year, but his stats are really not that bad this season. With eight goals and 21 points in 43 games, Kuzmenko is on track for 15 goals and 40 points over 82 games while playing a brutal fourth line role.
As I stated above, he’s actually shooting the puck more frequently than he did last season, but is playing less and isn’t hitting the net as often. That’s okay, and bound to correct as the season goes on.
Kuzmenko’s confidence is at an all-time low. He has the potential to get back to the player he was last season, but he was just not feeling it in Vancouver. “There’s been nothing crisp with his handling of the puck. He’s having pucks slide off his blade in high-danger scoring areas and he’s trying to make an extra play instead or ripping the puck on net.”
The best note is this: “My advice would be for the Canucks to be careful what they ask for. Kuzmenko’s element is hard to find. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gon