Plenty of positives for Flames despite Battle of Alberta loss

CALGARY — Don’t try telling an Albertan there’s good to come out their team losing the provincial rivalry.

But plenty of what transpired at the Saddledome Saturday in Calgary’s 4-2 loss to the Oilers falls into the category of exactly what Flames fans should be looking for as the team plays out the string:

First, they lost.

The Flames now sit 25^th overall, putting just seven teams ahead of them in the draft lottery with six games remaining.

The Kraken are four points up on the Flames, leaving Calgary a comfortable distance behind.

It would take quite the faceplant to dip below Ottawa or Montreal, who are three points behind Calgary, but given the fact the Flames have now lost eight of their last nine, anything is possible.

Second, they played well.

No one in the dressing room was happy with the result, but the effort was there in a game the Flames battled back from a 2-0 deficit to tie it early in the third with their second power play goal.

Alas, as most games have ended of late for the redesigned Flames, the Oilers found a way to score the winner with ten minutes left when Evan Bouchard’s bomb from the point found the top shelf.

Jonathan Huberdeau was right afterward, saying the Flames were the better team.

Third, Yegor Sharangovich hit the 30-goal mark.

Ten games into the season the young Belarussian acquired for Tyler Toffoli was languishing on the fourth line, as the winger and the coaches couldn’t figure out where he best fit.

Now he’s their leading scorer and a player so defendable and versatile that he filled in admirably as a top line centre after Elias Lindholm was traded.

He’s so well-thought of that with Connor McDavid in town Saturday the Flames re-jigged their lines to put the slick-skating Sharangovich on Mikael Backlund’s line with Blake Coleman, expressly to help shut down the world’s best player.

“What he’s done is a really good job at starting to play with confidence on both sides of the puck,” said Ryan Huska, who has used Sharangovich to anchor the power play and his penalty kill.  

“So now he knows he can be a difference-maker on any given night, and we see that most nights. We’re really pleased with what he’s done.”

Fourth, Connor Zary’s debut as a centre was a success.

With the desire to shift Sharangovich to Backlund’s line, the Flames needed a centre and chose Zary’s return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch to give him that assignment.

“Connor is a centreman,” said Huska, who started the game with Zary taking the draw between Huberdeau and Dryden Hunt.

“He hasn’t played there all year and after missing a game it was a tough ask of him, but I thought he did a really good job there.

This is ultimately where he’ll end up, and the coaches have spoken before about the possibility of trying him there.

Will he stay there the rest of the season?

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” said Huska.

“It’s an option for us.

“He was much better tonight. 

“You noticed him tonight, he was back to his normal way. And that’s something we want to keep seeing from him.

“Whether it’s because he got a bit of a boost from playing in the middle or he just wanted to get back to his normal self after missing a game, I’m not sure.”

Asked about his general philosophy regarding the possibility of flipping him back and forth from wing to centre, Huska shared interesting insight. 

“I think one of the hardest jobs in the NHL is to be a young centremen,” said the coach, who saw Zary play over 16 minutes, have three shots on goal and effectively move the puck around on the power play.  

“And I think that’s why you see a lot of times when the high draft picks break into the NHL they’re often put on the wing because it’s hard. They have to do a lot of heavy lifting down low in their own zone and their bodies aren’t physically ready for it.

“Connor has now played a number of years pro so we feel he’s able to handle it.

“But I don’t think there’s any issue flipping a guy back and forth.”

We’ll see where he plays next week when the Flames visit all three California clubs.