The project follows the trials of a rock climber named Alex Honnold, who is widely considered to be the greatest free solo climber in recorded human history.
Free solo meaning that "one climbs without ropes or other protective equipment." The film Free Solo was named after the style of climbing but has since become more well-known than the sport itself.
For Honnold, free solo means climbing stuff like this with nothing but a bag of chalk and an expensive pair of angled shoes.
Photo: Mike Murphy; CC BY-SA 3.0
The film is riveting. Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi took home Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature Film. Free Solo is currently streaming on Disney Plus; 140 minutes of vicarious dread.
Among other characteristics, Honnold, now 39, is believed to have an extremely underactive amygdala.
To keep this bus on the road, we’ll keep the neuroscience lessons to broad strokes. The amygdala manages the fight-or-flight mechanism, among some other lesser functions. If you called it the "fear center of your brain," your doctor would likely smile and nod just to keep the follow-up on your summer cough running smoothly. It also manages decision-making during high-stress situations.
Without the intrusive dread that most of us experience when standing on a precipice greater than a few feet, Honnold took his love for climbing to, sorry about this, new heights.
Trevor, what does all of this have to do with the Calgary Flames?
We’re getting there.
Resetting the Amygdala
Tracking individual statistics for the Calgary Flames has been a wild ride this season. The most intriguing stats can arguably be found at the very top of two columns.
Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team in scoring with 30 points in 40 games. Right behind him is Nazem Kadri with 28 points in the same amount of appearances.
Jump over to the plus/minus column, and they're also both close to the top. Kadri is -13 and Huberdeau is -8.
If we break their goal differentials down into months, we see that Kadri had a tough October, while Huberdeau had a rough November. We’ll also include their points per game to note how much offence the two are creating while they work on both ends of their game.
October – 10 games
Huberdeau: 0
pts/GP: 0.70
Kadri: -9
pts/GP: 0.60
November – 15 games
Huberdeau: -7
pts/GP: 0.47
Kadri: -3
pts/GP: 0.60
Where things get interesting is December.
The two continued to struggle in terms of turnovers, clean passing up the ice, and risk mitigation, but we began to see a jump in production.
One nice clean break statistically is that the the line of Huberdeau-Kadri-Pospisil was first deployed this season on December 3; Calgary’s first game of the month. Huberdeau and Kadri both picked up assists as the Flames shut out the Blue Jackets 3-0 on the night the Gaudreaus returned to Calgary.
December 1-19 – 8 games
Huberdeau: -4
pts/GP: 1.13
Kadri: -5
pts/GP: 0.75
We see a definite bump in production, but clearly, areas of their game are being neglected. If they played like that all season, Kadri would be a -51, and Huberdeau would be a -41.
As always, defensive stats get murky. If we had a Turnover Within Five Seconds of a Goal Against stat available or a Lousy Backcheck Rating, surely that data would be a little bit discouraging for Flames fans during that span.
Take a closer look at the above play. By nature, fans want to watch the pass, the anticipation, the energy from the arena after a goal is scored. Who failed to pick up their player or who made a bad pass is generally tallied by the team internally.
Baby Steps
That December stretch may go down as the most bizarre two-and-a-half weeks of the 2024-2025 Calgary Flames season.
The first line was being praised constantly by media and fans due to the two bonafide stars hitting more highlight reels. Not mentioned during the waxing was that line finding themselves on their fair share of the opposition’s highlights as well.
The team went 3-2-3 in that time, allowing 3.50 goals against per game.
The “All Is Changed” Moment
Much like your typical losing streak, that line started to play better as they reached the end of that poor stretch.
Perhaps more importantly, the three continued to find ways to score.
Let’s take a look at Huberdeau and Kadri’s stats since December 20.
December 20 – January 9
Huberdeau: +3
pts/GP: 1.00
Kadri: +4
pts/GP: 1.00
That line has begun to bring expectations to another level. Despite a rocky start (dominant Columbus game aside), the trio has now outscored the opposition 12-6 at 5v5. Per MoneyPuck, their expected goals percentage of 60.8% leads the team among forward lines that have played 75 minutes or more.
It may surprise you to read that going 3-2-3 during that early December stretch still gave the Flames a respectable .563 points percentage. Good for 15th place in the NHL over that span.
Despite a plethora of mistakes from the two, the Flames found a way to survive. In fact, they did just as well as they seem to have done all season; floating around .550.
Maybe that was the message needed.
“You can make mistakes. You don’t have to overthink things. The Hockey Gods will sort it out.”
Something like that.
Context is always a challenge. It’s one thing for a line to gel over time, but it’s something completely different for two-thirds of a line to suddenly stop making the characteristic mistakes that Kadri and Huberdeau have been known to make since joining the Flames organization in the summer of 2022.
For Jonathan Huberdeau, that stretch lasted almost the entire duration of his time as a Flame. The St. Jerome, Quebec product would so often manage to glean out a pocket of confidence only to have it dashed by some creative form of losing possession.
Jonathan Huberdeau is playing with no confidence right now. It's tough to watch. pic.twitter.com/sUaUyiHC8I
This is certainly a storyline to follow as the 2024-2025 season continues into the second half. Will Calgary’s highest-paid player once again find a reason to lose belief, to lose the joy of the game?
Or is what we’re currently seeing, a Jonathan Huberdeau that hasn’t allowed the ever-present worry to affect his next shift; the next game, something we can look forward to over the next six-and-a-half seasons?
Ryan Huska and the Flames Coaching Staff, his teammates, and most importantly, Jonathan himself deserve their flowers for getting there.
Calgary currently sits one point out of a Western Conference Wildcard spot with 42 games to go. The team above them, the Vancouver Canucks, has gone 2-3-5 in their last ten. Much of the Flames playoff hopes will ride on the confidence of their suddenly dynamic duo.
Definitely worth tuning in. Especially with the Flames having a few days off. https://t.co/XyUbFKcl8L
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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