Hot start: New Flames quickly mesh in win over defending champs

CALGARY — With 669 diamonds glittering on the Stanley Cup ring he was presented with minutes earlier, Nazem Kadri beamed when asked the obvious question.

Does it fit?

“Oh, it fits,” he smiled.

“It definitely fits.”

Kadri was given the ring in an informal gathering with his former Avalanche teammates half an hour after his new club beat the defending champs 5-3.

Quite a day.

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It was a fascinating start for Kadri and the radically re-tooled Flames, as the question heading into their season also revolved around fit.

Would Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weeger mesh early on with a team many now consider better than the one Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk departed?

So far, so good, as all three found the scoresheet in their Flames debut, which included overcoming a 1-0 deficit to hang five straight on the early favourite to repeat as champs.

Sure the Avs were tired, having arrived in their Calgary hotel rooms after 3 a.m. following their emotional home opener a night earlier.

But, the Flames managed to pull off the win despite Darryl Sutter’s insistence his team’s 5-on-5 play was questionable, his top new defenceman has plenty to learn about how his team checks and that Kadri and Huberdeau only found the scoresheet via the two power play goals they set up.

Other than that, Darryl, how was the fit?

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Clearly, special teams won the day for the Flames, as a Dillon Dube shortie early in the second gave the club a big boost, followed by a Rasmus Andersson breakaway coming out of the penalty box that was followed by the two extra-man snipes.

“Defenceman scoring on a breakaway — you don’t see that very often,” chuckled Sutter.

“That was definitely my first time,” added Weegar, when asked if his Hail Mary pass after blocking a shot marked his first such outlet for a streaking defenceman.

“I Iooked up and saw Andy there, and I said, ‘that’s a shocker.’ But what a great move by him.”

A move Andersson discussed the previous two minutes with fellow penalty box buddy Mikael Backlund.

“We talked about it in the box that I was going to go out and get a breakaway,” laughed Andersson, who made a nice fake before calmly threading the puck between the legs of Pavel Francouz.

“I said I was going to, ‘fake shot and go backhand,’ so (Backlund) was a little mad at me I went forehand.

“If I didn’t score he was going to give it to me because we talked about it for two minutes. I was kind of laughing when I got the puck too. It was nice to see it go in.”

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The win ended an NHL-record 12-straight season-opening losses for the Flames and gave Sutter his 700th career coaching victory, something he said afterward, “meant a lot.”

It was a meaningful evening for many, as witnessed by the entourages tailing the newbies around the bowels of the rink afterwards.

Huberdeau’s 22-year-old sister, Josiane, who opened the evening for a raucous crowd with the U.S. anthem, was one of 30 family members and friends the Saint-Jérôme, Que., native had to buck up for tickets.

They watched him make a brilliant pass Tyler Toffoli just missed converting in the opening minute, and delighted in seeing newly-anointed alternate captain Elias Lindholm finish off a no-look pass from No. 10 to round out Calgary’s scoring early in the third.

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Kadri’s crew waited for their hero to emerge from the closed-door meeting with his ring, and then followed him into another room to ogle it after he spoke with reporters.

“It means a lot, of course. It’s super emotional,” he said of the ring presentation.

“It’s something that’s very difficult to do. You find out a lot about your teammates when you’re in that situation and your back’s against the wall, whatever the case may be, deep in the playoffs. Obviously there’s no other guys I’d rather do it with and it’s nice to be able to turn the page on the chapter and start fresh with another great team.”

Two teams that may ultimately meet again in the spring when more rings are up for grabs.

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The Flames’ opponent Saturday in Edmonton might have a thing or two to say about that.

But for starters, a pretty rewarding evening to open his seven-year Cowtown commitment.

“A win and getting this, I think that’s the cherry on top, for sure,” said Kadri, whose slapper bounced in off Toffoli’s skate for the eventual game-winner one minute into the third.

“We caught them on a back-to-back and they’re a great team. I know they’ll be making a run this year too. We’re going to try to be in the mix also.”

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