Recently found this gem: Game 7, 1995 Quarter Finals; Flames/Sharks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-o-r28yNLs&t=5286s
Now I know a lot of us do not like going down the rabbit hole of what a disaster this series was, but as much as it still stings that we lost to one of the worst teams in the league that year, this series just absolutely fascinates me. We outscored SJ 35-26 and still lost. To this day, that is one of the strangest stats I've ever seen. I have to think that has to be some sort of record.
Series Summary for context:
https://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...er-finals.html
This is the series that also broke Trevor Kidd. After having a really good season in 94-95 (taking over for Vernie) he just absolutely broke down in this series. Even in game 7 is just seems like he's fight every shot thrown at him. I'll still never understand why Dave King didn't turn to Rick Tabaracci. Tabs was acquired late that season and played really well in limited action.
Also, after watching Game 7 the best player on the ice for the Flames was Paul Kruse. Seriously, not joking at all. This was shades of Ferland against Vancouver in 2015. Kruse seriously looks like Rick Tocchet in this game. He's hitting everything and absolutely driving play. I was shocked to see this. Easily the best hockey he played in his career. I had an exchange with Eric Duhatschek over at The Athletic when he posted his ABC Flames list and he said this about Kruse:
Looking back at Duha's quote, it's clear as day at the confidence boost in Kruse's game that season--seriously check out this game just for that.
Another big factor in this series was Gary Roberts being out with his neck injury. I am 100 percent convinced that GR would have been the difference in this series. He was playing his best hockey between 92 and 96 (in limited action) and was still an absolute physical force. Not only did the Flames dominate time of possession and dictate the play in this game, they were also so much more physical than SJ was. SJ would have had zero answers for Roberts.
Here are the lines I gathered from watching the game (I had forgotten how much Dave King shuffled things up, but these were fairly consistent from the third period into OT)
Fleury - Neiuwy - Sullivan
Titov - Reichel - Stern
Kennedy - Otto - Kruse
McCarthy - Kisio - Nylander
Line 1: Man, Fleury dominated this series. 14 points in 7 games. He was all over the ice in this game. What a beaut too--missing teeth and all. That speed tho! Roberts would have been so good on this line.
Line 2: Titov and Reichel had nice chemistry together. Stern almost won the damn thing in the first OT! Stern looked really good in this game too. King seemed to get the best out of guys like Kruse and Stern.
Line 3: Best line of the night, easily. King had them out there a ton. So many chances from these 3. Sounds like Otto was battling a wrist injury. Looking back, Otto is absolutely one of my favorite players from this era.
Line 4: McCarthy didn't get a shift the entire game! Which means he wasn't credited with a GP (always thought that was a weird rule) Kisio played sporadically, and Nylander started on line 2 but switched with Stern. From that point on he only really played on the one PP the Flames got, setting up a nice goal. Nylander also had a really bad turnover leading to the Sharks 4th goal.
ZZ - Chiasson
Musil - Patrick
Keczmer - Housley
Paring 1: ZZ and Chiasson were all over the ice. Absolute joy watching these guys. ZZ seemed to be the alpha of the entire D-corp, which I had forgotten. At one point in the 3rd, Chiasson slashed Jeff Friesen with a brutal cheap shot across his exposed wrist after his glove had fallen off--easily something that would get a player 10 games today. No penalty called!
Paring 2: Both solid. Nothing fancy.
Paring 3: This was interesting to me. Dave King seemed to have zero trust in Housley . I know that he was not know for his D and it shows as he's easily 4th in the pecking order behind ZZ, Chiasson and Patrick. I would have thought he would have been a much bigger factor in this game, which is weird as he had 9 points in the series--I am guessing they were mostly on the PP.
Ok, wow, this turned into a novel. Always fun going back and playing the what-if game with this series. If we had won we would have gotten Chicago in the next round (which would have been a tough matchup). SJ wins and then they proceed to get swept by Detroit being outscored 24-6! Safe to say that this series took its toll on them.
Ugh, maybe next up I'll go back down the '94 Vancouver series rabbit-hole. That one always seemed to sting a bit more than this one did.