The Calgary Flames will be hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, and it will mark the second time that Johnny Gaudreau will return to the Saddledome since he left the Flames in the summer of 2022. While there are a group of fans that are over Gaudreau being gone, and while others (like myself) still wish that he was still a Flame, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and look at some of his best moments as a Flame and remember all of the good times we had with Gaudreau on the team.
Gaudreau’s first career NHL goal
The day is April 13th, 2014 and the Flames are playing in game #82 of the 2013–14 season; they’re not making the playoffs and have one final game to go. Just two days after signing his entry-level deal with the Flames, Gaudreau makes his NHL debut in Vancouver and proves that he was worth all the hype after winning the Hobey Baker Award.
Wearing the number 53, Gaudreau dazzled in his first game, making plays all over the ice, he was a difference-maker even though it was a throwaway game that didn’t mean anything. With the Canucks up 4-0 with 4:38 to go in the second period, a point shot from Chris Breen deflected off Gaudreu’s foot and trickled past Jacob Markstrom and in for his first career NHL goal. It sure was not the prettiest of his NHL career, but man did that goal ever inspire hope for the Flames future and it was just a sign of things to come.
Gaudreau’s hat trick rally against the Kings
It is now December of 2014, the Flames are in the midst of an eight-game losing streak and are currently in a 3–0 hole against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings, a team they are fighting for a playoff spot. The game is not going well for the Flames and they are staring down the barrel of a ninth straight loss.
The Flames got a late second period power play, and a shot that is blocked off the stick of Dennis Wideman deflects straight onto the stick of Gaudreau and he wires a shot past Jonathan Quick to cut the lead to 3–1.
Then with just 2:13 left on the clock in the third period, Gaudreau cut out front and buried a shot five-hole on Quick to make it 3–2. Just over a minute later, Gaudreau was sprung on an odd-man rush and a pass that was meant for linemate Jiri Hudler instead deflected off the foot of Drew Doughty and the puck crawled across the goal line to tie the game. The first hat trick of his NHL career gave the Flames new life. Captain Mark Giordano then capped the game off in overtime with a beautiful goal, ending the Flames’ losing streak, and that proved to be the turning point for the Flames as they went on to make the playoffs that season for the first time since 2009.
Electric game-tying goal in Game 3 against the Ducks
Now this just might be one of my favourite moments of Gaudreau’s career in Calgary. The Flames are in their second round matchup against the Anaheim Ducks in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Ducks hold a 2–0 series lead as they dominated the Flames in the first two games at the cursed Honda Centre in Anaheim.
Game 3 was an entirely different beast, the Flames were going swing for swing with the powerhouse Ducks, and after battling back from a 2–1 deficit, the Ducks took a 3–2 lead heading into the third period. It looked like Sam Bennett had tied the game with just over six minutes to play, but after a review, it was called no goal; the wind came out of the Saddledome and the fans and the team were (rightfully) upset by the league’s decision to call it no goal.
It looked like the Flames were done, it looked like the Ducks were going to take a commanding 3–0 series lead, that was until Gaudreau took matters into his own hands. With the goalie pulled, Gaudreau rushed the puck up the right side of the ice, got to the sideboards, and with no other option he took the puck to the middle and ripped a shot over the glove of Frederick Andersen. The roof nearly came off the Saddledome as Gaudreau had tied the game at 3–3.
He had some unbelievable moments as a rookie that season, but nothing would top this goal. The game went to overtime, and after some massive saves by Karri Ramo, Mikael Backlund won the game on a shot from the top of the circles. The Flames would end up losing the series in 5, but was that ever a memorable moment, I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
Gaudreau’s 100th point in the 2021–22 season
The 2021–22 season will always be looked back on as something special, even if the end of the season was as tragic as it gets for a hockey fan. In the final year of his contract in Calgary, Gaudreau was out to prove that he was worth every single penny of a new contract. After a 99-point season in 2018–19, Gaudreau was coming off a couple of sub-par years to his standards, only recording 57 points in 2019–20 and then 49 points in just 56 games in the 2021 shortened season.
He was coming into the year under the microscope, not only due to his couple of down seasons but also due to the fact that he was going to be an unrestricted free agent by year’s end with no contract in sight. Well, Gaudreau came out of the gates flying that season. As one-third of the best line in hockey that season, Gaudreau was piling on the points, making it one of the best “contract years” in NHL history.
Well, now it is April 12th, 2022, the Flames are down 3–1 to the Seattle Kraken with just over 16 minutes to play in the third period and Gaudreau is sitting on 99 points on the season. With the Flames on a 4v3 powerplay, Gaudreau threw the puck down to Matthew Tkachuk, whose centring pass went off of Adam Larsson and went right back to him and he slammed it in the back of the net getting Gaudreau to the century mark.
The team mobbed him, and with Gaudreau’s parents in the crowd, he finally got to the 100-point mark for the first time in his career. The Flames rallied from there, winning the game 5–3, extending their win streak to five, and Gaudreau would also get point number 101 on Tkachuk’s hat trick goal to seal the game.
It was an incredibly special moment, a player that was criticized so heavily coming into the season had just scored 100 points, the first Flame to do it since Theo Fleury in 1993. As we all know, Gaudreau would go on to score 40 goals and 115 points to end the year, a year that Flames fans will never forget.
Game 7 overtime series winner against the Dallas Stars
The pinnacle of Gaudreau’s time in Calgary, heck, this is the pinnacle of Gaudreau’s career: The series winner against the Dallas Stars.
The Flames were heavy favourites in their playoff matchup against the Dallas Stars in 2022, the Flames had won the Pacific Division and the Stars had just squeaked into the first wild card spot. Many thought the series would be over in five or six games, but the Stars executed their game plan to a tee, and with Jake Oettinger having maybe the best goaltending performance in a playoff series we have ever seen, the Stars and Flames were going to Game 7.
The Flames were playing down, Chris Tanev was hurt in Game 6 and was unavailable for the biggest game of the season. The Stars scored 40 seconds into the contest to take the lead, Tyler Toffoli tied it up early in the second but Vlad Namestnikov scored under a minute later to give the Stars the lead right back. That is when the Gaudreau masterclass began.
Gaudreau gave Tkachuk a fantastic feed at the end of a Flames powerplay that Tkachuk buried right under the bar to tie the game at two. Gaudreau had chance after chance in that second period, and if it was not for Oettinger, it could have been 6–2 for the Flames by the end of the second. The third period was a little tighter, but Gaudreau had a chance to ice it late, but Oettinger once again stood tall on the task. The game was off the overtime.
The extra frame was more back and forth than the rest of the game as the teams were trading chances. The Flames began to take over late as they had chance after chance. With just under five minutes to go in the first overtime period, the best line in hockey went to work. Gaudreau and Tkachuk played catch behind the net until Gaudreau found Elias Lindholm open in the slot for a chance that Oettinger fought off, but then Gaudreau caught the rebound, and the shot that we had seen a thousand times in his career, the short side shot from almost the goal line, went off the crossbar and in, winning the Flames the series.
The roof exploded as the puck crossed the goal line, the Flames mobbed Gaudreau, and in his first game wearing an “A” on his jersey in his career, Gaudreau had maybe the best game of his career, sending the Flames to a round two series against the Edmonton Oilers. It could have been anyone to win that game, but it being Gaudreau made it just even sweeter, and it will go down in history as one of the biggest goals in franchise history. I still get choked up just thinking about it.
What a time to be alive that was.
Forever a Flame, no matter what
I know people are still going to be upset with how things ended with Gaudreau in Calgary, I too still wish that things went differently and I really do wish that he was still a Flame. While he still may get booed tonight in his second go around in Calgary since becoming a Blue Jacket, I will always be so happy for what he did for this team and the fanbase. Gaudreau will always be a Flame at heart, no matter what.
