A couple quick notes on last night’s game.
The Backup
Does anyone else feel like we’re stuck in the quietest goalie controversy of the 22-23 NHL regular season?
The eye test tells us that Vladar simply looks sharper. For example, Jacob Markstrom has allowed the first goal in his last two games. Both sequences involved the giant Swede falling over backwards before the puck was shot.
The stats back it up. Across the season? Markstrom has a .893 save percentage. Vladar has a .910.
Recently? Since January 1, 2023, Markstrom has been a mess. Four appearances, 1-1-1 as well as a game he got chased 35 seconds into the 2nd period. Vladar gets credit for the OT loss in that game even though he didn’t allow a regulation goal against. Across four games Markstrom has had a .875 save percentage and a 3.29 goals against average.
The 25 year old Czech backup has been the opposite. Two appearances, 1-0-1, .950 save percentage, and a sparkling 1.19 GAA. Small sample size, but he’s doing everything right with the opportunities he’s given.
With the Western Conference wildcard race as tight as it is right now, when does head coach Darryl Sutter call a spade a spade?
South Dakota’s Finest
It’s always special to see a player score their first NHL goal. Walker Duehr’s game-opening marker at 15:24 of the second period last night was no exception. A beautiful shot off of a sublime feed from Nazem Kadri and a great play up the ice by Trevor Lewis.
The Milan Lucic ride has been a fun one, but it’s not unreasonable to say that his time on the second line won’t last forever. Walker Duehr presents a tantalizing option.
We would get to see Jonathan Huberdeau move back to his natural left side. Walker Duehr is a right-shot right wing.
Another factor is his speed and ability to protect the puck. Anthony Duclair and Sam Bennett found success by opening up ice for Huberdeau to rove through and break open plays. A big reason that we saw Adam Ruzicka succeed offensively with Huberdeau was due to his ability to get a quick zone entry and cause headaches with his powerful stride. Duehr has that ability as well. So, what about a line of:
Huberdeau-Ruzicka-Duehr
This opens up the lineup for all sorts of things. Let’s try.
Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli
Huberdeau-Ruzicka-Deuhr
Kadri-Backlund-Coleman
Lucic-Lewis-Mangiapane
The third line would be more of a 1F, 2F, 3F configuration instead of the traditional position-based line. Much of Mangiapane’s success last year was from catching loose pucks and driving up the neutral zone on his own. Huberdeau’s line would be extremely hard to retrieve to puck off of.
Food for thought.
The Struggles of 2022-2023 Kevin Rooney
This deserves a short preface. Kevin Rooney has a niche in the NHL that we’ll outline below. His game may not be where he wants it to be at the moment, but he has the ability to get it back. We should all be rooting for him to do so. He can make the Calgary Flames a better team.
July 13, 2022, was a bit of a rough day for Flames fans.
The opening day of free agency. Amid a hurricane of speculation regarding the freshly unrestricted Johnny Gaudreau and the questionable loyalty of Matthew Tkachuk. Flames fans hunkered down and refreshed their phones.
"I came to this conclusion of what I wanted to do and go elsewhere probably about a week, week and a half ago, maybe, and kind of just from then, just figuring out where I wanted to go.
-Matthew Tkachuk, July 24, 2022, on ESPN Sportscenter
With roughly 20 million in cap space opening up in the weeks following, you could say expectations were high. Brad Treliving eventually got his big ticket UFA in 31-year-old Nazem Kadri signing a seven times seven deal — day one was more of a Charlie Brown moment for Calgary’s faithful.
That rock came in the form of penalty-killing specialist, Kevin Rooney. The contract was 1.3 million for two seasons.
The signing ended up being a bit of an informal offseason “trade”. The Flames signed Rooney after he departed the Rangers organization. The Rangers signed Ryan Carpenter, who wasn’t re-signed by the Flames after being acquired for a 5th-round pick at the trade deadline.
Neither has flourished in their new roles. They’re both playing in the AHL at the moment. Carpenter has at least found a way to put up offence with the Hartford Wolf Pack — he has nine goals and three assists in 14 games.
Rooney, on the other hand, is really fighting it on the Flames affiliate. Four points in 12 games.
You never get the whole story by just checking the stats. Taking in a game earlier this month shed some light.
January 2 featured a rather uninspired effort from the Calgary Wranglers. The eventual result was a 5-2 loss to an Abbotsford Canucks team featuring Nils Hoglander and Vasily Podkolzin. Mitch McLain had a goal and mixed it up physically. Matthew Phillips made a few nice passes, hit a few posts, and received a couple big hits. Walker Duehr used his speed and size to find open ice. Jakob Pelletier had a goal and made a nuisance of himself.
Kevin Rooney just didn’t seem comfortable that night. Late on a couple of plays, not a sniff of offence, he received what was the biggest hit of the game during the second period.
It might be fair to say he’s not getting a call-up in the near future, but his body of work in the past proves he has the potential to be one of the game’s best penalty killers.
Penalty Killing Specialist
Just last season, he made a huge difference on a team that ultimately reached the Eastern Conference Final. It’s a difficult task to isolate a depth player’s contributions defensively, but we got to see a sample of when he drew out of the Rangers lineup for a stretch mid-season.
The first 54 games, up to March 2nd, of the 21-22 season had the Rangers rolling at an 82.3% penalty kill. On March 3, Rooney was placed on injured reserve. He missed 18 games. The Rangers’ penalty kill dropped almost 5% to 77.4% over that span.
On April 9, Kevin came off injured reserve and the Rangers penalty kill jumped to 90% over the final ten games of the season.
What Now?
It might not be unreasonable to assume whatever injury that had Kevin missing over a month of hockey might be affecting his play. Various sources report it was an upper body injury.
Rooney’s injury history is vague, but very limited. He was day-to-day with the Devils in 2019-20 with an upper body injury. He was out two weeks. In 2021, he missed eight days from the Rangers with something undisclosed. As mentioned above, he missed a little over a month last season with an upper body injury.
His extra cap hit isn’t ideal, but for the foreseeable future, it’s not really significant.
While Rooney is on the Flames, his cap hit is 1.3 million. While buried in the AHL? Almost nothing. $175,000.
A buyout during the summer would do more harm than good. The Flames would take on a cap penalty of $433,334 through each of 23-24 and 24-25.
In other words, it’s best to let Kevin find his stride with head coach Mitch Love and the Wranglers.
Honestly, some time off would likely help as well. If he has a nagging shoulder or back — those need time to heal. If it’s concussions? Perhaps playing out his 2.6 million dollar contract and then finding a less physical Euro league would be best. His money is all guaranteed in this current contract — even if he’s playing in the minors.
Here’s hoping turns the corner soon.
The Flames have an early one tomorrow. 12:00 pm MST. Stop in for a game day piece.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick.com, nhl.com, capfriendly.com, and theahl.com.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»