Two wins in the same night.
Connor Zary and Yegor Sharangovich each potted a pair to lead a 6-1 rout at the Saddledome, while Matt Coronato tallied twice and Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Honzek racked up three assists apiece as the travelling troupe earned a 6-3 victory at Rogers Place over a lineup that featured Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the Oilers’ big names.
Nazem Kadri and Daniil Miromanov also tickled twine in the home half, providing plenty of highlights on the spiffy new Sportsnet Scoreboard. Rasmus Andersson, Justin Kirkland, Yan Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha contributed to the lamp-lighting in Edmonton.
Here are three takeaways from Monday’s pre-season double …
HUNGRY FOR SECONDS
This didn’t look like the start of a sophomore slump.
Zary was an offensive force in the southern half of the split-squad showdown, scoring twice and adding an assist. He did all that damage in the middle frame.
He polished off a beautiful feed from captain Mikael Backlund for his first snipe of the night, then fooled an opposing defenceman with a slick toe-drag and rifled a low shot for a power-play strike. His hat-trick attempt was denied by a sprawling Olivier Rodrigue, but Miromanov buried the rebound.
“It’s often hard for a guy who has had success, like he did last year, to come back and not feel like things are going to be easy,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska of Zary, who notched 14 goals and 34 points in 60 appearances as a rookie. “I give Connor a lot of credit, because he went and worked this summer, like the majority of our players, and he wants to come in and wants to almost treat it like, ‘I have to earn my way back to these spots.’ ”
There’s zero question that Zary, who turns 23 on Wednesday, will be an important piece for the Flames in his second big-league campaign. There has, however, been plenty of debate about the ideal slot for No. 47 in the lineup, about whether he should remain on the wing or get a look at centre.
Through the first few days of training camp, Zary has been skating alongside the trustworthy tandem of Backlund and Blake Coleman. That is oftentimes viewed as a shutdown line, although Coleman did score 30 goals last season.
“I talked about it earlier in the week, just how established those guys are and how long they’ve been doing it for and how long they’ve been perfecting their games for and playing together and building that chemistry,” Zary said after Monday’s home-ice victory. “So to just slide in there for the past five days or so, it’s been nice. Just trying to find some familiarity, and obviously it went well tonight.”
BACK BETWEEN THE PIPES
Dan Vladar looked good in the home crease at the Saddledome.
More important, he felt good.
Seeing his first game action since he had surgery in March to address the nagging pain and tightness in his right hip, Vladar knocked off the rust with an 18-save showing in two periods against the Oilers. That was all part of the plan — to exit after 40 minutes.
“I think I got better as the game went on,” Vladar said afterward. “Obviously I didn’t play for six-and-a-half months so I was probably more nervous than before my first NHL game. But my body felt good. And as the game went on, I felt better and better.
“I was super positive about my hip. I was just nervous because of the long time not seeing action.”
Vladar, now 27, has been waiting a long time for an opportunity to stake a claim to a starting job at the NHL, and this was a good first step in his quest to prove he should be Calgary’s No. 1 netminder.
His lone blemish was a low rocket from Mike Hoffman as the visitors capitalized on a power-play. Among his best work, he denied Adam Henrique on a breakaway.
If you’re keeping track of the crease competition, Dustin Wolf racked up 33 saves in Sunday’s 6-1 victory over the Kraken in Seattle, while Devin Cooley allowed three on 47 shots in Edmonton.
ROOM FOR CORONATO?
Matt Coronato opened the pre-season with a three-point pop-off in Sunday’s victory in Seattle.
Twenty-four hours later, he tucked two goals against the Oilers in enemy territory.
The 21-year-old right-winger is, through a pair of exhibition auditions so far, making an emphatic statement that he belongs in a top-nine forward role.
Thing is, those spots are currently spoken for.
Huberdeau and Mantha have been teasing the idea of a French Connection, and they combined for a gorgeous goal during Monday’s first period in Edmonton. Mantha dished to Huberdeau on a two-on-one rush and just when everybody else in the rink was anticipating a shot, his buddy returned the puck for a freebie. It was the sort of superb setup that Huberdeau was known for during his days in Florida.
It’s hard to imagine either Coleman or Zary being dropped to fourth-line duties. Same goes for Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko, who are looking to click with Kadri on what should be Calgary’s most dangerous offensive trio.
So where does that leave Coronato?
Good question. If he keeps this up, he’s going to force a difficult decision, which is exactly what you want from your up-and-comers.