The Vegas Golden Knights needed a comeback to beat the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. Though it might not have been how they drew it up, the victory has the Golden Knights optimistic their struggles are in the past as they travel to Calgary to face the Flames on Thursday.
The Golden Knights want to build on a wild 5-4 overtime victory over the Kraken. Vegas led 2-1 going into the third period, trailed 4-2 with 8:30 remaining but roared back and won after Jonathan Marchessault’s second goal of the game with 17 seconds remaining forced overtime. Jack Eichel notched the winner.
“We stuck with it, and the desperation was for sure there,” Eichel said. “That’s what our team needs for the remainder of our year.”
The defending Stanley Cup champions sit in the Western Conference’s second wild-card position and have posted two consecutive victories after winning only twice in their 11 previous outings.
Adding an extra element to the Calgary clash will be the return of defenseman Noah Hanifin, the pending unrestricted free agent who would not re-sign with the Flames and was traded to Vegas last week.
In return, the Flames received defenseman Daniil Miromanov, a conditional first-round draft pick (either in 2025 or ’26) and a conditional 2024 third-round pick that would become a second-rounder if the Golden Knights win a playoff series this season.
Hanifin, who is in the Flames franchise’s top 10 among defensemen in games played, goals, assists and points, reportedly admitted he turned down an eight-year contract with Calgary. He might not receive a warm reception from Flames fans.
“I’m sure there are certain people who were upset reading that I was (hurting) the team,” Hanifin said, according to Sportsnet. “I never felt I was, or that it was real, but some of them may boo. … But there are lots of others who I had relationships with who will support me. I loved my time in Calgary.”
The Flames have lost three straight games since trading Hanifin. Calgary opened a four-game homestand with a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, and has lost a trio of games by a combined score of 18-5.
“We got three good lessons here, simple as that,” captain Mikael Backlund said. “Everyone in this room’s got to look at themselves and be better. We’ve got to be a lot better versus Vegas. We’ve played four contenders lately and played one good game; next game we’ve got to play a lot better than we have the last three.”
On top of working with a revamped defense corps — the Flames also recently traded away Chris Tanev — Calgary is now dealing with an injury to No. 1 goaltender Jacob Markstrom (lower body) as well as to scoring forward Andrei Kuzmenko (upper body).
The Flames hit the trade deadline hoping to make a run to the playoffs but now are focused on trying to pull out of a tailspin while integrating a handful of new players, especially on defense.
“I don’t think effort’s ever been an issue. We work hard out there,” center Nazem Kadri said. “Obviously there’s some plays that we wouldn’t want to happen, but I don’t know if it’s an effort thing. It’s more just a lapse in judgment, bad reads, those kind of things. Effort’s never been an issue for us.”
Flames coach Ryan Huska said the team’s struggles stem from a lack of defensive structure — although he denied it had to do with the number of new players.
“We’ve got to get back to the hard, team game,” Huska said. “I think we’ve gotten away from that the last little while and have to get that back against another good team.”
–Field Level Media
