CALGARY – Shortly after participating in a centre ice scrap featuring 477 pounds of fury and almost 14 feet in height, Curtis Douglas had a message for Adam Klapka:
“I’m sorry.”
At the tail end of their heaviest of heavyweight tilts, Douglas threw a pair of ill-advised cheap shots at a prone Klapka, who had ended the tilt seconds earlier with a knockdown.
“He apologized to me (in) the penalty box after for the late punches, but I think it’s fine,” said Klapka, whose six-foot-eight, 235-pound frame betrays the fact he may be one of the nicest men in hockey.
“There’s so much going on, and he was just thinking we were still going. We got a power play, and we scored, so it was awesome.”
In a game that had been preceded by plenty of chatter over his team’s recent failure to respond to a pair of crease crashes by Colton Dach that injured Devin Cooley and endangered Dustin Wolf, Klapka’s triumph over Seattle’s six-foot-nine behemoth set the tone for a 6-2 win.
Douglas’s indiscretion did indeed lead to an early power play goal that kickstarted a night in which Matt Coronato had a career-high four points, Joel Farabee had three, Matvei Gridin and Morgan Frost had two apiece and Aydar Suniev scored once.
But while a scoring binge by the youngsters, Dustin Wolf’s bounce-back return, and a Farabee goal that sent two lucky fans to Vegas were all feel-good stories, it was a pair of messages sent by Klapka that made up the most important stories of the night.
First was the fight.
Then came the declaration.
“I would like to say something about it,” said Klapka of pre-game criticism suggesting someone — anyone — needed to make Dach pay for his recklessness.
“We got a power play (on the first crease crash on Cooley).
“Back in the days probably something would happen, and I understand it, but at this time the power play is so good and can help the team too much. I think it was a smart decision from all of the guys.
“After that Middsy (Jake Middleton) asked him three times (to fight), and I asked him too, but he didn’t want to. I know people blame us that we didn’t do anything, but it’s kind of hard to do when the guy doesn’t want to do anything. I feel like we did everything we could.
“We protect each other on the ice and we care about each other, but in that situation I think the guys did the right decision to not do anything stupid.”
Defending his teammates on and off the ice.
A big part of Klapka’s learning curve as a valuable fourth-line utility man has been learning how and when to fight.
He’d heard the criticism this week, and he also heard Douglas asking early for a dance.
So he stepped up.
“I kind of knew he was going to come, so I said, ‘let’s do it in the middle of the ice,’” smiled Klapka, who enlisted the services of a towering former MMA fighter as part of his summer training bouts.
“It was a good fight, actually.”
Farabee agreed.
“Awesome fight,” said the Flames’ leading scorer, whose goal during the Minute to Win it promotion sent a British couple to Vegas.
“We talked before the game about how we wanted to bring guys into the fight, and to square off with another guy that big and is a tough guy is not an easy job. For him to do that got us going – a lot of credit to him.”
Ryan Huska felt his team was sluggish off the start, and gave Klapka kudos for an energy boost that ultimately saw his team break a 1-1 first period tie with three second period goals in five minutes.
“Adam kind of took it upon himself and tried to pull the guys into the game, and I think that’s important,” said Huska, whose club has won five straight home games.
“He had energy in the first period when not a lot of guys did, and I think he helped push the rest of the team forward.”
He set the stage for a long list of teammates to pepper the scoresheet, while he accrued even more respect amongst peers who know he tried his best to step up in Edmonton.
“Sometimes it’s not about scoring goals and making points,” smiled Klapka, who sits second in the league with 37 penalty minutes.
“Something I can help with like this, I take it 100 per cent.”
7:03
