This season, the Calgary Flames certainly are not the most fun team to watch on a nightly basis. They do not have a skater anywhere near a point-per-game pace, any kind of high-end skill is non-existent on the team, and they play an extremely boring system that is designed to wear down their opponent as the game moves forward.
There are lots of factors that play into this. The players on the roster is the obvious one to point out. However, Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska has sure not made it any better with how he has deployed his club thus far since taking over as head coach last season.
Looking at Huska’s system
Huska knows the Flames lack any type of game-breaking ability on the roster. It has been that way since the 2022–23 season, and he has played the team as such. The Flames have been playing a rugged style this season that does its best to limit the chances given up in the defensive zone and with the hope that they convert on their chances in the offensive zone.
The team is built to win games 3–2 as opposed to 5–4. If a team scores more than three goals against the Flames, you can pretty much chalk it up to a loss for the Flames.
The dump-and-chase style has clearly not suited the Flames’ top players. The guys with some high-end skill are being neutered of any offensive creativity they might have. Look no further than Andrei Kuzmenko, who has seen both his production and ice time take a massive nosedive since arriving a season ago. I am not saying that this doesn’t fall on Kuzmenko—he is as much to blame as anyone—but I don’t think Huska is doing him any favours.
There is no offensive creativity
The team just plays with no creativity, and when you are being forced into a system that does not allow you to push the pace offensively, you are not going to score much at all. That has been the story of the season, as the Flames cannot score.
There has to be a change. I understand the Flames don’t have the firepower to light it up every night, but Huska has to let them push the pace and become more creative on the offensive end. They have talented players: Connor Zary shows it off every night, Matthew Coronato has shown it plenty this year, and we have seen the flashes in the veterans at times with Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and the aforementioned Kuzmenko.
There must be less of an emphasis on line matching, like it is game seven of the Stanley Cup Final, and more emphasis on letting his big boys play with the puck more and push for more offence. I certainly know it will make the games more exciting for the fans to watch as opposed to the snooze fest we get on most nights.
Evaluating Huska’s player deployment choices
This is where I have the biggest issue with Huska as the head coach of the team. Since taking over last year, it has been extremely hard to agree with how he has deployed his team and how he has handled certain players in different situations.
To start things off, he did not handle Coronato the greatest last season and to start this year. After consistently being one of the team’s best chance creators and shot generators, he found himself either on the fourth line, in the press box, or in the AHL. He had to force his way back onto the roster and has not looked back since.
Jakob Pelletier has been handled with extreme incompetence. Last season, after coming back from an injury, it probably would have been best if he spent a chunk of time in the AHL, but he was in the lineup for the Flames and was injured just a few games after returning. When he recovered from that injury, he was on the fourth line and then sent to the press box for stretches.
It has been the same this season. After dominating in the AHL, he was recalled and has played very well in the games he has played in. However, his ice time has been limited, and he was a healthy scratch last night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Huska using depth veterans instead of young players
These are the key seasons in the younger players’ development. There is no reason as to why Pelletier should be sitting in the press box while Kevin Rooney and Ryan Lomberg skate a regular shift when both have done next to nothing this season. They are not going to be around long-term, and we are still hoping Pelletier will be a long-time fixture on this team. He needs to play; enough is enough.
At the very least, Zary is finally playing down the middle, but I would like to see him play with a couple of more skilled players. I think pairing him alongside Coronato and Yegor Sharangovich could work wonders.
Wolf needs to be handed the net
This is where I have become completely baffled. When the season began, Dan Vladar and Dustin Wolf shared the net. There was a rotation, and both guys were getting the net consistently. Wolf had a stretch where he played so well that the team had no choice but to go back to him. The same cannot be said about Vladar, yet he has been getting more starts lately.
After giving up three goals to the Nashville Predators—albeit in a winning effort—Vladar was given the net once again against the Lightning, where he was horrendous, giving up eight goals. Wolf has had a few tough starts lately, but it’s no reason to stop the rotation.
Wolf has been by far and away the Flames’ best goaltender this season. He is the only reason they have as many wins as they do. He has been incredible, and the numbers support it. Vladar has had his games, but for the most part, he has been below average. He looks the same as he always had as a Flame.
It is time to stop messing around. The net belongs to Wolf; he is the future, and he is the best option the Flames have in the cage. There will be growing pains as a rookie goalie in the league. Playing on a bad team, there are going to be nights where he gives up a few more than you would like, but that is the nature of this game. The net belongs to Wolf; let him run with it.
Is Huska the guy long-term?
This begs the question: is Huska the best option as the team’s head coach in the long term? My answer is simple: no. He has a lot of the same qualities that Darryl Sutter did. He is stubborn and refuses to change. Sutter caught a ton of heat for how he handled Pelletier, but yet when Huska is handling the player worse than Sutter did, I do not see a lick of blame on him.
To me, Huska is a placeholder for when the Flames—hopefully—become competitive again, and they go out and find a real coach to handle the job. Maybe he gets better as time goes on, but I would doubt it. If he wants any hope of sticking around for the long haul, then he has to change his tactics, and he has to do it sooner rather than later.
