SEATTLE – “I think he gave us exactly what your backup guy’s supposed to do on back-to-back night.”
Those were the words of Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter after Dan Vladar had back-stopped his team to a massive 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
It’s high praise.
While Jacob Markstrom has found his form in the last month and gotten back to being the pillar of stability in net that the Flames need him to be, the team still needs Vladar. Especially in games like the one they won on Wednesday night.
It was their second game in 24 hours. They were playing an opponent who were well-rested and hadn’t played in five full days. The Flames, meanwhile, had to fly to Seattle immediately after their emotional Tuesday night loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Calgary.
So yes, they needed Vladar to stand on his head a little bit. Markstrom had been exceptional against the Oilers, but it wasn’t enough, and the Flames didn’t want to be dropping points to another Pacific Division rival for a second-straight night.
By any measure, Vladar answered the call.
“Our goalies are really good,” said Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson, who contributed two assists against the Kraken. “Marky was unbelievable (on Tuesday) and Vladdy was unbelievable today, and that’s all you can say. They made huge saves and we’re lucky to have both of them.”
There is no goaltending controversy in Calgary. Nobody is suggesting that. Instead, it’s more that the Flames are reaping the benefits of having two very good goalies in their lineup. They know they can rely on Vladar if Markstrom needs a night off, and that’s a nice luxury to have.
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Wednesday night merely served as another reminder. It wasn’t just that Vladar stopped 29 of the 31 shots that the Kraken fired his way. It’s not like they were weak shot attempts. Three times, the Kraken had breakaways. They didn’t score on a single one of them.
Vladar was also sharp when his line-of-vision was obstructed and did a nice job clearing the puck from in front of the net. In the early going, especially, Vladar turned away opportunities and gave the Flames a chance.
That’s all a coach like Sutter could have asked for.
“Come in and make sure you do everything you can to carry the flag for your team,” Sutter said, elaborating on his answer when he was asked about Vladar’s performance.
Vladar himself was saying all the right things after Wednesday’s win. He heaped praise on a gutsy performance from his teammates to scrape out the victory and gave a shout-out to Jonathan Huberdeau, in particular, for his game-winning goal in the third period.
He also understood the assignment on Wednesday evening, though, and rose to the occasion.
“Obviously, a back-to-back, with travel here, for me I kind of knew, especially (the Kraken) I knew they had five or six days off right now, so I knew they were going to come, and they did,” Vladar said. “I was just trying to hold my ground for as long as I could and give our group a chance to win. I’m just super happy we buried a third.”
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