The Calgary Flames made their intention crystal clear over the summer when they dealt three highly valuable draft picks to acquire defenseman Travis Hamonic from the New York Islanders: It's time to win.
Coming off a disheartening first-round sweep at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks, the Flames made it their mission to, first, find a new goalie - which came in the form of a trade for Mike Smith - and second, bolster the depth of a blue line that was already among the league's best.
With a lead pairing of Mark Giordano and Dougie Hamilton, Calgary needed someone to complement talented puck-mover T.J. Brodie, and free him from the shackles of partners that restricted his skill set in the past. Flames brass identified that player as Hamonic, and his move to Alberta rounded out a top four that looked ready to compete with anyone they matched up against.
So, early on, how has Calgary played with Hamonic?
To put it succinctly: not great. A 10-game sample size, especially one that draws from the first 10 games with a new organization in a new conference, doesn't provide a clear enough picture of how things will play out in the long run, but even considering the transition, Hamonic's start to the 2017-18 season has been underwhelming.
(Photo Courtesy: Action Images)
Firstly, the Flames as a whole need to tighten up defensively. They're allowing 34.2 shots against per game (25th) and 60.27 attempts per hour at even strength (23rd).
When digging a little deeper, it's clear the defensive pairing getting hit the hardest is Hamonic's:
Pairing
CF%
Rel CF%
xGA
Brodie-Hamonic
49.67
-1.32
6.86
Hamilton-Giordano
54.95
6.49
4.87
Bartkowski-Stone
44.03
-5.87
2.72
(CF%: Corsi-For Percentage, Rel CF%: Corsi-For relative to teammates, xGA: Expected Goals Against. All stats at five-on-five, courtesy Corsica)
The Bartkowski-Stone pairing hasn't been great either, but Brodie and Hamonic have logged nearly 100 more minutes at five-on-five, posing a considerable problem for the Flames each game.
The good news for Calgary, which is 5-5 this season, is that Smith has stood tall amid a massive workload, posting a .928 save percentage through nine starts. And while Hamonic hasn't yet had the effect Calgary imagined, there are 72 games remaining to sort things out.
In saying that, though, the Flames need Hamonic's pairing to sort things out sooner than later, as consistently being outshot always catches up to teams, usually in emphatic fashion.
Calgary's built an offense run on the star power of Johnny Gaudreau, and is getting the goaltending it's sorely missed over the last few years, but it's the newly formed blue line - the area they mortgaged a considerable chunk of their future to upgrade - that, right now, surprisingly stands between the Flames and their goal of taking the next step.
Also, Galchenyuk isn't even Russian; he was born in Milwaukee to Belarusian parents.
Milstein has two clients, Nikita Nesterov and Alexander Khokhlachev, who have played for Julien.
Nesterov appeared in 13 games with the Canadiens last season after arriving in a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Khokhlachev had a much-publicized feud with the Boston Bruins (where Julien was coaching) in the spring of 2016, which reached a boiling point when Milstein called out the bench boss for not giving his client a chance.
As for Russian players who played under Julien with the Canadiens, Alexander Radulov left to sign a lucrative free-agent contract with the Dallas Stars over the summer, while both Nesterov and Andrei Markov opted to sign in the KHL, and Mikhail Sergachev was traded to the Lightning for Jonathan Drouin.
Technically, the Arizona Coyotes aren't the closest team to the Vegas Golden Knights. They're not even the second-closest. Those teams would be the Anaheim Ducks, 259 miles away, and the Los Angeles Kings, 268 miles away. The Coyotes' arena is 281 miles away, in Glendale.
The Kings and Ducks, though, have each other as local rivals, and while every division rivalry is intense and important, there's something extra in the mix when geography comes into play.
The Coyotes have had that, to an extent, with the Kings and Ducks, but outside of the 2012 Western Conference Final, it hasn't always been a case of mutual antipathy, with the Coyotes ranking in distaste not only behind the L.A. area teams, but also the San Jose Sharks, as part of the California triumvirate.
"We had tough games against L.A., and that's the type of games that you want to play and be a part of," said Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, a four-time All-Star in his eighth season with the Coyotes. "I hope that we can get to that point with Vegas and I think we will, moving forward."
The early signs are promising. After their inaugural game in Dallas, the Golden Knights went to Glendale and beat the Coyotes 2-1 in overtime, then topped Arizona again, 5-2, in the first game in Las Vegas three days later.
"The first game against them, it really did kind of build a little something right away, and that's good," said Coyotes center Derek Stepan. "That's what makes fun hockey, is when you can get a rival that's so close to you. We can call it the Desert Battle or whatever you want to call it, and I think it's going to be good for many years to come.
"I think that's what makes our sport so great, is when you have an opponent you can really go against and really butt heads. That's what's fun about our game."
In a season that has begun with very little in the way of fun for the winless Coyotes, writing the first chapter of a rivalry may be the highlight. While Las Vegas may be just a few miles closer to Anaheim and Los Angeles, the point Stepan makes about them being the two desert teams is spot-on. That's what ties the Coyotes and Golden Knights together.
It is, however, going to take time. It does for all the best rivalries.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
"Rivalries, they grow," said Arizona enforcer/irritant Zac Rinaldo, who missed those first two Coyotes-Golden Knights games while serving a five-game suspension, but could help grow the rivalry through the sheer force of his Zac Rinaldoness.
"They can't just be put in motion. Both teams have to grow that rivalry. It can't just be named a rivalry when you haven't played each other. Like Pittsburgh, when I was with Philly, you have to hate these guys. It's different because Vegas just came into the league. That rivalry has to grow, and it will grow. But it has to come natural."
The next step on the path to the "Desert Battle" becoming special is Nov. 25 in Glendale. It's a long way to go before reaching Bruins-Canadiens territory, or even Ducks-Kings, but Vegas' entry to the NHL gives the Coyotes a chance at something they've never had.
"It's good to have some extra energy before those kinds of games, but it's so new, we haven't really built a rivalry yet, I think," Ekman-Larsson said. "At the same time, give it a couple more years."
Over the course of the 2017-18 season, theScore will run a series of interviews with former players in which they recall some of the greatest moments of their career. This edition focuses on Doug Gilmour, who racked up 1,414 points in 1,474 career NHL games with seven teams.
On breaking in with the St. Louis Blues as a late-round pick:
Most teams weren't going to give me a chance to play. Gord Woods drafted me (to the Cornwall Royals) and made me from a defenseman to a center, and we won the Memorial Cup - and then (Dale) Hawerchuk and Scott Arniel left, and all of a sudden they needed a No. 1 center. And I happened to take over that role. Gordie was a backbone, he really helped me.
When I got drafted in the seventh round, I had a chip on my shoulder. I was pissed. (Teammates) were drafted in front of me, and there was speculation that I was going to go in the second, third round. I was playing ball hockey the day before, and got in a fight and hurt my knee, so I was on the train coming back, and I was going to have part of my cartilage taken out. I got off the train, and my mom said I was picked up in the seventh round (by) St. Louis.
When I got there, we had (Bernie) Federko, (Blake) Dunlop, (Mike) Zuke, Larry Patey, Alain Lemieux, and Guy Chouinard. So (Blues head coach) Jacques Demers said, "We got a lot of offense here. We need defense. Can you check?" And I said, "Sure." That taught me another side of the game.
His favorite story from his nine-game stint with Rapperswil-Jona of the Swiss League during the 1994-95 NHL work stoppage:
We practiced in the morning and again in the evening, and then we would go to a team dinner. It was mandatory; everybody had to go. So we're at this big table, and there's one player on one side of me, and one player on the other side of me. And there are, like, three guys who can speak English.
So the guy sitting across from me says, "Doug, you ever seen a blowfish?" I say, "No, I know what it is, but I've never seen one." Well, both guys beside me, with beer in their mouths, spit right on my face. So I go, "OK, this is what we're doing now."
After that, we went to a bar ... and don't forget, the town of Rapperswil has about 15,000 people. And Bruno Hug was the (team) owner and general manager. We're in there, having beers, and they have those little shot bottles. You take the cap off, put it on the end of your nose somehow, put the bottle in your mouth, drink, and then spit the bottle on the ground.
So Bruno walks in, and all of a sudden I see one tall defenseman, I forget his name, and he has scissors with him. And he walks over and cuts (Bruno's) tie off. And Switzerland is really expensive; he probably has a $5,000 suit on. And now (the defenseman is) cutting the sleeves off Bruno's suit coat. And I'm going, "Where the hell am I?"
His other favorite story from Switzerland:
So I take the guys out for a fondue dinner, because I'm leaving in three days and I want to say thank you to the team. But I'll fast forward a little bit: I had a car accident that night.
What happened was, we're all at a big table at this fondue place, and I bought this jacket over there, it was $500 or something like that, a leather jacket that goes over my suit coat. It was really nice.
So I'm sitting there, we're almost done dinner, and I see the scissors come out. I run out of the restaurant, fly out the front door, go down a hill, headfirst into a Mercedes car door. That's my car accident. (laughs) So we left a note on the window.
I go see Bruno the next day, and he says, "You had a car accident last night. I got a call today ... $3,000 damage. What happened?" I said, "Well, I was getting chased out of the restaurant with the scissors, and I slid down the hill and I hit a car door with the side of my head and my shoulder."
He said, "You weren't driving?" And I said, "No." (laughs)
His favorite referee story:
The one with (Don Koharski), and Gary Roberts, and the case of beer.
Koho, I knew him, he lived in the Burlington/Oakville area. You get to know the referees, and what you can get away with and what you can't get away with. I think we were winning 6-2, and (I get a minor penalty), and I said to Koho, "Don't give me two. I need 10." And he goes, "You're kidding me, right?"
And I say, "No, you fucking asshole." And he said, "I'm not giving you 10." And I said, "Koho, you're a fucking asshole. Give me 10. I need 10 minutes." He goes, "Really?" And I said, "Yeah."
So he said, "OK, 10 minutes." And I said, "Thanks." (laughs) And I went off the ice and back to the dressing room, and started laughing.
So (Flames head coach Terry Crisp) is trying to figure out why I got kicked out, because I hadn't told anybody. And he goes, "You wanna tell me what that was all about?" And I go, "Well, it was a bet." And he says, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
I go, "Well, I asked Koho to give me 10 minutes. I didn't want two minutes, I needed 10 minutes. And there was only two minutes left in the game. And I just won a case of beer because I beat Roberts in penalty minutes." And he says, "OK. That's good." And he starts laughing.
The player he considers most underrated from his era:
I'd have to say Dave Andreychuk.
I played against him in junior hockey when he was with Oshawa. He was a bona fide goal-scorer. He took a beating. I asked him sometimes, "Why are you shooting right at the goalie?" He would shoot right at the goalie's stick or the pad, and it would come back to him, and he had that reach to get it around. And he would say, "Sometimes I just can't pick the corners."
I played with him in New Jersey, and Buffalo, after (Toronto). And we never played on the same line. We were roommates, and we'd look at each other and say, "We ever going to play together again?" We had a little bit of success ... did everybody forget about this? (laughs) It was hilarious.
What he would change as NHL commissioner:
I would add an extra 10 feet to the width of the rinks - not the length, the width. So 5 feet on each side. It will give your skill players that much more room to be that much more creative.
When I watch the European game, they trap. But when you have the puck down low, you want to see something. And to me, with the way the game has gone, let's see more skill. There's just not enough room for certain guys.
In a corresponding move, fellow defenseman Frank Corrado has been called up from the AHL. In six games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, the 24-year-old notched one goal and one assist.
Schultz has played the third-most minutes on Pittsburgh's blue line this season. He has three points in 10 games, but is coming off a career-high 51-point season.
Though the recovery time for a concussion is unpredictable, Schultz will be eligible to come off IR Wednesday, Nov. 1 in a rematch with the Oilers, meaning he will miss a minimum of three games.
The underachieving club's general manager, Marc Bergevin, was contacted about acquiring the Russian forward on Tuesday, but the Canadiens "aren't biting," according to Sportsnet's Eric Engels.
Montreal's disinterest was revealed Wednesday, about an hour after Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported the Vegas Golden Knights gave Shipachyov's representatives permission to look around for a trade.
Shipachyov was assigned to the AHL's Chicago Wolves for the second time already this season, but it's unclear as to whether he'll report.
The 30-year-old center piled up a career-high 26 goals and 76 points in the KHL last season, but he's played a mere 10:35 per game in three NHL contests, scoring one goal.
ST. LOUIS (AP) Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo scored second-period power-play goals and Jake Allen made 23 saves to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 on Wednesday night.
St. Louis has won three of its last four, losing only to red-hot Las Vegas in overtime.
Calgary had won its first four road games this season. Mikael Backlund scored twice for the Flames.
Schwartz and Pietrangelo scored in a span of 2:46 to break a 1-1 tie. The Blues had come up empty on their previous 18 power-play chances.
Alexander Steen added a goal and three assists for the Blues. It was his first points of the season after missing the first six games with a broken thumb.
Paul Stastny scored with 3:32 left to push the lead to 4-2. Joel Edmundson added an empty-net goal with 43.9 seconds left.
Schwartz, who has a five-game point streak, converted off a pass from Vladimir Tarasenko to give the Blues the lead for good, 2-1. Tarasenko's initial shot hit the post, but the rebound bounced right back to him. He found Schwartz open at the side of the net.
Calgary goalie Eddie Lack made 24 saves in his first start of the season. He came into the game with a 6-0 career mark against the Blues.
Matthew Tkachuk added two assists for the Flames.
St. Louis (3-0) and Tampa Bay (5-0) are the only teams unbeaten at home this season.
Allen improved to 5-2-1.
Pietrangelo leads all NHL defensemen with 12 points.
NOTES: St. Louis D Carl Gunnarsson missed the game after his wife Josefin gave birth early on Wednesday. ... Calgary RW Jaromir Jagr missed his second successive game with a lower body injury.
UP NEXT
Flames: Calgary returns home to host Dallas on Thursday night. It is the first of seven straight home games.
Off to a historic 7-1-0 start, the club apparently doesn't want to tinker with a lineup that's experienced early success. The 30-year-old has tallied one goal in just three games this season, and Las Vegas reportedly gave the Russian forward and his camp permission to seek a potential trade partner Wednesday.
The Golden Knights signed Shipachyov to a two-year, $9-million contract after he proved to be an elite offensive talent in the KHL, and while their experiment hasn't worked out, he should attract interest from other clubs.
Here are three teams whose bottom-six situations mean they should look to acquire him.
Florida Panthers
With a 3-5-0 record to begin this season, maybe a shake-up could help get the Panthers back on track.
The team's top two lines are solid down the middle, but their bottom two trios could use a boost. Shipachyov can fit that bill, but what really makes the Panthers an intriguing trade partner is the potential to reunite him with former teammate Evgenii Dadonov.
They played the previous three seasons together with SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL and combined for 348 points in 318 games over that span.
Dadonov's notched seven points in eight games to begin his NHL career. Meanwhile, Shipachyov's been limited to an average of 10:35 a night in his three outings, which have produced one goal.
A reunion with Dadonov and an increased role might benefit both Shipachyov and the Panthers.
Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes might have an embarrassment of riches on their back end, but they could use some more depth up front - specifically at center.
What's more, the Hurricanes currently have Ryan playing between two of their top wingers in Jeff Skinner and Justin Williams; they could use a more skilled option there.
Carolina's off to a 3-3-1 start and is scoring an average of 2.43 goals per game, 28th in the league. Offense is the team's biggest hindrance early on and acquiring Shipachyov could help address it.
The Sharks are off to an underwhelming 4-4-0 start, and while they've won three of their past four games, the club's offense sits 21st with just 2.88 goals per game.
The Sharks have the cap space to accommodate Shipachyov and his $4.5-million per season. With Thornton unlikely to continue playing beyond this campaign, it might be in the Sharks' best interest to lock up some depth at the position.
