EDMONTON — As awkward a position as Dustin Wolf has been thrust in the last few weeks, it threatened to get infinitely tougher Wednesday night in Edmonton.
Relegated to the sidelines since Oct. 15, as Devin Cooley has taken the league and the internet by storm, Wolf’s first shot at rebuilding his game came 20 minutes into a provincial battle with the NHL’s most potent team.
Hardly ideal.
A lower-body injury to Cooley, suffered late in the first period when Colton Dach drove towards the net and collided into the Flames netminder, opened the door for Wolf to start his redemption tour.
All eyes were on how he’d respond.
“In the room we were trying to pump up a little bit, and just tell him we're here for him,” said captain Mikael Backlund.
“It's never easy for a goalie to come in mid-game, no matter score and situation, so I thought he battled again.”
Being beaten on the first shot didn’t help, as a Mattias Ekholm shot off the draw found its way through traffic and sailed over Wolf’s shoulder to put the hosts up 2-0.
Wolf’s next big test came minutes later with a calm glove save on the world’s most dangerous player, Connor McDavid, who walked in with an uncontested shot from the hash marks.
No doubt huge for the confidence — his and his team’s.
He then made a nifty kick-save off a tricky point blast and later slid across to make a left-pad save on a Leon Draisaitl one-timer from the low slot.
Dogged by a nightmarish start behind a team that struggled mightily out of the gate, his first chance to play behind an improved group seemed like it could be an important inflection point for the 25-year-old.
By night’s end the results were mixed, as Calgary's four-game winning streak was ended with a 4-0 thud, in one of the most benign provincial matchups in recent memory.
“You never want to see someone get hurt, but it was good to get back in there, get my feet wet again, and try to feel good about my game,” said Wolf, who stopped 20 of 23 shots.
“It's tough (coming in cold), but you can't create an excuse around it. Your team relies on you to be back there and be at your best every time you're on the ice. You never want to see the first one go in, but just to build on that and get ready for Friday.”
No matter what the prognosis is on Cooley, you can bet Friday’s game against Seattle will be a big one in the eyes of Wolf, who is in Year 1 of a seven-year deal at $7.5 million per annum.
“He just needs to play,” said coach Ryan Huska when asked if Wolf’s goal now is to rebuild his confidence.
“That's all it is, is to get his back up a little bit and just go play. He's a really good goaltender. He gives us a chance to win every time he's in the net.”
A second crease collision by Dach pinned Wolf’s prone right leg into the post early in the third likely gave Flames emergency backup goalie Dusty Nickel heart palpitations before it was quickly made clear Wolf was fine.
Huska said after the game he had no update on Cooley, saying only that after the netminder finished the final few minutes of the first period “the decision was made to remove him from the game,” after talking to the training staff.
Expect the Flames to summon the Wranglers’ 23-year-old starter, Arsenii Sergeev, who made a stunning NHL debut late last season when he made 27-saves to secure a win in which he allowed just one goal.
With six games in 10 nights, Wolf will have ample time to show what two weeks of practice can do for a fella.
“The results haven't come for myself personally, but I've had a real good opportunity the last couple weeks to kind of get my feet under me, work on areas of my game that maybe aren't at my sharpest,” he said.
The Flames also lost Brennan Othmann, who departed the game with an upper body injury shortly after a first-period fight with Ty Emberson.
The battle that wasn’t
For a group that prides itself on an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality, it sure seemed odd that in a game that was clearly lost early in the third, the Flames chose not to make Dach answer for his liberties around the net.
Though neither play appeared malicious or with intent, teams generally push back when opponents feel comfortable to attack the crease area (twice) with speed.
Adam Klapka had words with Dach before a mid-third period faceoff, but no one pressed the issue.
Seems very un-Battle of Alberta-like.
“I don't think I call it running the goalie. Like the second one, he was knocked in by our player,” said Huska.
“There's no intent on either. The first one, he's just driving the net. If there's a situation where something were to happen that wasn't the right way, they would be in there 100 per cent.”
Backlund was asked about it too.
“Well, first I thought the team was right around Cools, so we didn't know he was hurt at the time, and we knew we were getting a power play,” he said of the first collision, which was a net-driving play that saw Morgan Frost’s defensive efforts contribute to the collision.
“Second time, I think I called him and I pushed him, and so that was kind of more on me. I know he was upset, he wanted a tripping call.”
Wolf was asked if he thought Dach was reckless.
“I guess you could call it that,” he said.
“I think accidents happen, but at the same time, he took a pretty good run at Cools when he could have probably hit the brakes. That was maybe a little more of a tangle-up in the third period. But at the same time, you want to protect your your own guys, I think we're going to keep doing that.”
