Flames’ Kadri returns to face Leafs, walking ‘a bit taller everywhere’ after winning Cup
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It’s not just Nazem Kadri who returns to Toronto on Saturday night.
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It’s Stanley Cup champion Nazem Kadri who will take on his former Maple Leafs teammates in the Calgary Flames’ lone visit to Scotiabank Arena in 2022-23.
“You walk a little bit taller everywhere,” Kadri said on Saturday morning of being a Cup winner. “But it’s something I worked very hard for. Nice to get that out of the way. Being a champion in special.”
After helping the Colorado Avalanche win the Cup last spring, Kadri was on the free-agency market for more than a month before he signed a seven-year, $49 million US contract with the Flames in mid-August. Kadri had a hot start with the Flames, starting the season on a six-game point streak, but he then cooled off considerably. He has picked it up a bit recently, recording five points in his past four games, and is tied for second in Flames scoring with 20 points in 27 games.
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“He came in, had a really good camp and probably his first 10 games he was really good for us,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “I had seen this before with players winning Cups … you kind of hit a wall at some point in there.
“The last five or six, you could see (his better play) come back again. Naz is a special-type player, a guy who has the intangibles that separate him. You could say he is old-school, but there is nothing old-school about having a big heart.”
It will be Kadri’s fifth career game against the Leafs since he was traded to Colorado — a deal that included Calle Rosen and brought the Leafs Alex Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie, and a deal the Leafs did not win — in July 2019. In his previous four games versus Toronto, Kadri had two goals and four assists.
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Hot, of course, barely begins to describe the Leafs’ play. In going 10-0-3 in their past 13 games, the Leafs have gone nearly a full month without losing in regulation, not having done so since Nov. 11 against Pittsburgh.
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The Leafs have posted consecutive shutouts in blanking Dallas and Los Angeles this week, and Matt Murray will be back in net after watching Ilya Samsonov beat the Kings on Thursday.
Mitch Marner will seek to extend his franchise-record point streak to 22 games. In 19 career games against the Flames, Marner has 14 points (five goals and nine assists).
“With Toronto, and I saw it last year, their top players, those guys have taken another whole level in terms of their leadership and they’re by-example type players,” Sutter said. “It’s so evident when you watch them. Even last year, you could see the difference in them.”
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The Leafs won’t have Pierre Engvall as he serves a one-game suspension, levied by the NHL for his high-stick on Sean Durzi of the Kings.
Is one game about what Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe expected as punishment?
“Yeah, I think that’s probably fair to say,” Keefe said.
Joey Anderson, recalled from the Toronto Marlies, will make his season debut. The game will be the 24-year-old Anderson’s 59th in the NHL. Wayne Simmonds also will draw in.
Keefe said that winger Nick Robertson will be out up to eight weeks with a shoulder injury suffered against the Kings, but will go the rehab route rather than have surgery.
For Keefe, the message during the Leafs’ run has wavered little.
“When things are going as well as they are right now, it’s important for me to make it clear to our guys about why it’s going well, and we show that (in video),” Keefe said. “We show that and we just need to continue to replicate it. We’re really embracing the things that have given us a chance to succeed every night, no matter who’s in the lineup.”
The Flames have not been good on the road, going 3-6-2, and went into Saturday clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Calgary lost in Columbus on Friday night.
“Our top players have to take a step up,” Sutter said. “It has really been missing on the road. It tells you our best players are not playing up to what we need them to do to get points.”
tkoshan@postmedia.com
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