VANCOUVER — Minutes before the first of 11 goals were scored in one of the craziest see-saw battles you’ll ever see, there lay Flames centre Kevin Rooney along the boards, motionless.
Knocked out by a J.T. Miller hit a few feet from the boards into which he crashed awkwardly, several Flames made bee-lines for Canucks before a stretcher showed up to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.
Nonetheless, Canucks fans, not generally known for their decorum, chanted Miller’s name.
Big mistake.
“I think that pissed guys off,” admitted Connor Zary of the scary situation that unfolded eight minutes into a scoreless season opener.
“Obviously Miller didn’t mean to hurt Rooney, but when the crowd is chanting his name after he knocks a guy out it’s not a very good thing to hear.
“We were a little rattled in the first, took a few penalties and got behind.”
Down 4-1 after an opening period of the season that seemed to be setting the most horrific of tones for a significantly retooled Flames club, those with the stomach and patience to see their response were rewarded with a Zary solo effort in overtime, as the Flames cap a comeback for the ages.
“The Comeback Kids all over again,” smiled GM Craig Conroy as he walked to the dressing room, referencing the 2014-15 Flames whose penchant for late-game heroics landed the unheralded group the most shocking of playoff berths.
Sparked by a Gordie Howe hat trick from newbie Anthony Mantha who somehow helped turn the game around with a late first-period fight, the Flames scored four unanswered goals in the third to stun Canucks fans by taking a 5-4 lead.
Despite the fact a Mikael Backlund attempt at the empty net was blocked by Quinn Hughes and turned up ice for Miller’s game-tying slapper with 1:37 left, the Flames bounced back again with Zary’s needle-threading drive to the net around Filip Hronek and Arturs Silovs he punctuated with a primal scream.
How symbolic that all three Flames skaters on the ice for the winner — Zary, Martin Pospisil and Daniil Miromanov — weren’t on the opening night roster a year earlier.
“I think it says a lot about us as a team, everybody trusts everybody out there and the coaches trust in us,” said Zary, who toe-dragged Hronek while Pospisil opened space with his speed.
“We talked about it so much in camp. People are going to talk down on us as a team or say we’re not good enough or in a rebuild or whatever, but every guy in here knows what they can do, and it gives guys a chance to build on their game and do a little more than they’ve done in years past.”
What it also does is provide fuel to the belief Backlund and his leadership group have insisted this team has in itself despite being written off by the masses.
“I felt like a special feeling in camp, and I know it’s one game but something to build on for sure,” said Backlund, who explained he tried to shoot at the empty net between Hughes’ legs, but shot it too high.
“That’s going to be our mentality all year. No quit, keep going.”
What could a galvanizing win like this do for a young team like his?
“I hope a lot,” said Huska, who said after the 6-5 win that Rooney was walking around and, “from what I understand, he’s doing fine.”
“It gives us a little bit of ammo too, that if you do things the right way you give yourself an opportunity to have success.”
Nothing seemed to be going right in the first, when the Canucks scored twice on the power play and a third time as a penalty expired.
Matha made up for a dumb penalty late in the first by scoring a short-handed goal before dropping the mitts to try exacting a little revenge on Miller. Miller got the best of him, which fueled the fans even more.
However, the Flames were the better team in the second and got goals in the third from Rasmus Andersson, Martin Pospisil, MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau, setting up Zary’s beauty.
“That’s one way to start the year — there was a lot of stuff going on, a lot to take in,” smiled Weegar.
“I think the hit took us away from our game a bit, but I like how we responded. In the room after the first period, there wasn’t any panic, it brought everybody together, we rallied, and I loved how we were committed to playing our game after that.”
And they did it with just three centres rotating and a goalie in Dan Vladar who stood tall to make 20 stops to steal the win despite early chaos.
Shortly after Sam Honzek took his pre-game rookie lap, the 19-year-old almost scored on his first shift, sailing a shot just wide from in close. He wasn’t much of a factor the rest of the night in a game that far exceeded the normal intensity of the NHL.
Opening nights between two rivals can do that.
But this… this one was ridiculous.
