The Calgary Flames reached 2025 sitting in a playoff position, an impressive achievement for a team that was supposed to be a rebuilding bottom-feeder.
Even so, the Flames prepare to host the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday knowing full well the job is far from done with the season’s midway point yet to arrive.
“We’re not here to be in a playoff spot January 1st and then not when the season’s over,” Calgary forward Ryan Lomberg said. “We’re in one now, we’ve got to do what we can to stay in one and continue to climb here. We’re proving people wrong, but we’re not proving ourselves wrong.”
The Flames kicked off a three-game homestand with a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on New Year’s Eve, which moved them into the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Calgary was pegged by nearly everybody in the hockey world to struggle after trading away a litany of key veterans last season and into the summer and going with more youth.
Instead, the Flames are hanging around the playoff race, and they are on a 4-1-2 run.
They are receiving key contributions from a couple of veterans: Jonathan Huberdeau, who has scored 16 goals this season and is on pace for a career high, and Nazem Kadri.
Kadri broke a tie game against Vancouver with yet another third-period goal. Eight of his 14 tallies this season have been scored in the third period.
“I always try to approach it and have that killer-instinct type mentality and want to be the hero,” Kadri said. “When the game’s on the line, I like to step up. It’s not going to happen every time, but I sure like to believe that.”
Utah is struggling through a five-game skid, with only one extra-time point earned following an 8-1-2 roll that pulled the club into the playoff mix.
Utah arrives in Calgary following a 4-1 loss at Edmonton on Tuesday, which was a 1-1 affair until the Oilers scored twice in a 20-second span five minutes into the second period.
“I think we pushed and I still think we have a lot more in that room and we would all feel and say the same thing about (the Tuesday) game,” forward Liam O’Brien said. “We had a push and hit a crossbar and had an empty net there on the one play. We kept it tight, but we have to find ways to win games.”
The swoon leaves Utah five points back of the Flames in the playoff chase.
Although the team is struggling to find the win column, coach Andre Tourigny is doing his best to keep his charges upbeat and looking for the positives whenever possible.
“I liked our mindset in the (Edmonton) game. I think we went to play the right way,” Tourigny said. “We defended with a lot of pride, we were resilient all night long. Obviously, I don’t think we had the energy and the wheels to generate a lot of offense, but I loved the fight in our guys a lot.”
Utah captain Clayton Keller, who leads the team with 37 points, missed the Edmonton game due to illness. There was no word on Wednesday whether he would return to the lineup in Calgary.
–Field Level Media
