It was a rough year for Calgary Flames fans. We knew that. The team made things interesting toward the end of the line, but in the end, they missed the post-season, and all of the turmoil surrounding the team resulted in a general manager leaving, a coach being fired, and an organization in limbo with lots of important dates coming in the near future, and some players that have been relatively non-commital regarding coming back to the organization when their contracts are up.
However, now that the Flames season is over, there’s playoff hockey to watch, but if that isn’t enough, you can watch Tyler Toffoli, MacKenzie Weegar and Milan Lucic play for Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships! (Editor’s note: Matt Coronato is also playing for the United States, but he played just a single Flames game this season.)
Team Canada is going for their second gold medal in the last three years, but what does that have to do with Flames fans, other than the fact that it’s, you know, Team Canada? Well, not only would you be tuning in for some good ol’ Team Canada hockey, but the team is being captained by Toffoli, with Weegar and Lucic getting bestowed with alternate captain duties as well.
In the team’s first game–their only pre-tournament game before the actual event gets underway–they defeated Team Hungary by a score of 5-2. Cody Glass scored a hat trick to lead the way, and Lucic registered a primary assist on a nice play below the goal line, but neither Toffoli nor Weegar got onto the scoresheet.
Look, I know that this isn’t the optimal kind of hockey that Flames fans want to be watching during this exciting time of year. However, I think it’s worth considering this as a kind of therapy.
Yes, it’s not the actual Flames, but considering how the majority of the fanbase felt when things came down to the wire, and the young players that made things exciting weren’t getting ice time, it’s probably for the best. With this Team Canada, there’s no need to worry about the style of hockey not being exciting, and there’s no need to worry about young players not getting ice time or being put in a position to succeed.
Even though the team has 34-year-old Lucic in the forward core, they also have Glass, Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, Jake Neighbours, Joe Veleno, Jack McBain, and the guy plenty of people are tuning in for, Adam Fantilli. So, there’s no shortage of fast and physical young players that can create offence with the puck.
The defense core is going to be led by Weegar, but features Jake Walman, Ethan Bear, Pierre-Oliver Joseph, and Tyler Myers as well. They’re going to be far more into moving the puck up to the forwards than creating the offence from the blue line. There’s also the young duo of Devon Levi and Sam Montembault in goal that Flames fans get to watch if they decide to tune in.
The bottom line is, this season was rough. There’s no going around it. But if you still want a taste of the best parts of the Flames (maybe outside of Lucic’s performance other than his hitting) mixed with absurd amounts of young talent, you’ll be able to find it on this Team Canada roster. There’s lots of fun to be had with their first game coming against Team Latvia.
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