Jason LaBarbera was up in the press box of the Scotiabank Saddledome when the other Calgary Flames coaches and the players were lining up on the ice to shake hands with the Dallas Stars.
Had been part of that procession after the Flames beat the Stars 3-2 in overtime Sunday night, the Flames goaltending coach would have had a words of high praise for Stars’ rookie goalie Jake Oettinger, after the 23-year-old singlehandedly came close to ending the Flames’ season with a 61-save performance in Game 7.
“It was certainly impressive,” said LaBarbera. “You’re sitting there every night thinking, when is this kid going to crack, and you think maybe we’re getting to him a bit and he just never cracked, and you think, this kid might steal the series for them and really he almost did.
“He’s got a good pedigree, he’s a first-round pick and he played world juniors, it’s not like he came completely out of nowhere and they’ve done a really good job biding their time with him. He was the fourth guy (on the Stars’ depth chart) to start the year and he just worked his way through the season and got his opportunity and just took the ball and ran with it. I would imagine he learned a lot about himself the last two weeks and he’s got a bright future.”
Oettinger finished with 282 saves, tied for fourth all time in an NHL playoff series, and he made the Flames’ series-clinching victory a heartstopper. They outshot the Stars 64-28 and peppered Oettinger with 43 shots came in the first two periods. The Flames fell behind 40 seconds in, on a goal by Jamie Benn and trailed until the 8:44 mark of the second period, when Matthew Tkachuk tied it 2-2. Johnny Gaudreau’s second goal of the playoffs, 15:09 into overtime, ended the series. Gaudreau picked up a loose puck after Elias Lindholm’s shot from the slot ricocheted off Oettinger’s mask. It was the only Calgary goal in the series that came off a rebound, the most common method of scoring in the NHL.
The Flames won the Pacific Division and finished 13 points ahead of the Stars, who claimed their playoff spot as a wild card. Oettinger, who went into the series with no NHL playoff experience, said the Stars took advantage of their underdog status and found a way to push the heavily-favoured Flames to the limit.
“For me, the whole series I was just trying to have fun and enjoy the moment,” Oettinger said. “No one expected to be where we are and that almost makes it easier – no pressure. Obviously they had a lot of pressure over there and I just wanted to go out there and be proud of the effort and do everything I can to help the team win. When you have nothing lose it’s a lot easier and I felt I did that.”
Almost lost in Oettinger’s refusal to allow the Flames to score was what Jacob Markstrom did in the opposite crease to keep the Flames’ playoff hopes alive. The Stars had the first four shots of overtime and Dallas defenceman Miro Heiskanen came to ending it with a one-timer from the point that Markstrom turned aside with a kick save. The Swedish goalie also kept the Flames alive late in the third period, stopping Stars centre Jacob Peterson on a breakaway.
The Flames went on the power play six minutes into overtime and had a few close calls but couldn’t beat Oettinger. The Stars countered with a shorthanded chance on an odd-man rush and Joe Pavelski rifled a shot from the slot, forcing Markstrom to make a game-saving blocker save. It’s the type of goaltending he’s been giving the Flames all season and the reason why 32-year-old Swede is a Vezina Trophy candidate.
“It was a goalie battle for sure and it wasn’t an easy series for a guy like Markie to play in because he was standing there for long stretches watching the other guy dominate and as a goalie it’s easy to get frustrated in the fact your guys aren’t scoring,” said LaBarbera. “That’s why he’s an elite guy in this league, he’s able to not let those emotions take over and distract him and he did a really good job of keeping himself patient and letting the game come to him.
“When there’s stretches of games where you’re not getting a lot of shots you just have to make the timely save and you never know when that’s going to come. When there’s a lot of emotion in the game and the building’s buzzing and your team’s not scoring it’s human nature to try to make something happen for yourself and he did a great job all series of not letting that happen because that’s when you get yourself in trouble.”
Markstrom’s 1.53 goals-against average leads the playoffs and his .943 save percentage ranks second only to Oettinger’s eye-popping rate of .954.
“He’s been in the league awhile and he has a real good understanding of his game and how he needs to play,” said LaBarbera. “He made a couple adjustments over the course of the season and it’s just keeping him focused and level-headed. He’s a competitive guy, an emotional guy, and it’s always a fine balance of not letting your emotions take over. Sometimes you need that, but for the most part you’ve really got to keep yourself calm and patient and he did a really good job of it all year. Obviously, when you have a team around you that’s a little more predictable, that helps too.”
Now in his second season as the Flames goaltending coach, the 42-year-old LaBarbera joined the Flames in January 2021, right before the bubble season and right after he coached Canada’s world junior team to a silver-medal finish as the goalie consultant. He signed a three-year contract with the Flames, taking over from Jordan Sigalet as goalie coach, allowing Sigalet to focus more on scouting in his new position as Calgary’s director of goaltending.
Markstrom signed as an unrestricted free agent and began stopping pucks for the Flames about the same time as LaBarbera started his NHL coaching career. Together with more-than-capable backup Dan Vladar, 24, the Flames allowed just 206 goals for a 2.51 average in the 82-game season, third-best in the NHL behind Carolina (200) and the New York Rangers (204).
“For me as a coach, getting to work with two really good people and two really good goalies makes things a lot more enjoyable,” he said. “You get a guy like Dan who is eager and wants to learn and work and be an everyday guy at this level, he gets to learn from me and from watching Markie on a daily basis so it was a good situation for him.
“Markie has had an awesome year and it was fun to be around and help him to be as consistent he was this year. For me coming in, it was obviously a big task. You sign a guy for six years and pay him a lot of money ($36 million), you don’t want to mess him up. I was lucky enough to play as long as I did and have a lot of experience in a lot of different things and I just try to take those experiences into this side of it and try to relate to him and it’s been awesome so far.”
In a 17-year pro career, LaBarbera played 187 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Phoenix Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks. He was drafted by the Rangers in the third round in 1998 and played four seasons with their AHL affiliate in Hartford, where he was the league’s MVP in 2003-04. The 42-year-old former Portland Winterhawk/Spokane Chief was born in Burnaby but played most of his minor hockey in Prince George.
In the lowest-scoring first-round series of the 2022 NHL playoffs, the Flames scored 16 goals in seven games and the Stars counted 15. That’s how close it was. So it was only fitting overtime was needed to decide it. In a post game interview, Tkachuk was asked how being pushed to the limit by the Stars will benefit the Flames moving forward in the playoffs.
“They made us earn every single inch,” said Tkachuk. “That’s probably the best possible series that we could have gained some experience there, with how tough it was. That’s playoff hockey in a nutshell for you.”
LaBarbera knows his team learned a few lessons on the ice will take into the next round against the Edmonton Oilers.
“I think this group in the past maybe would have gone off-script a little bit at times when things aren’t going their way and that’s something Darryl (head coach Sutter) has really instilled in them all year, they’ve got to stick with it and they did that all series,” said LaBarbera. “It would have been easy to get frustrated and start doing things that maybe aren’t the smartest things to do and they did a great job of sticking to it. That’s a good learning experience for a team to go through a series like that and be the better team, even though the goalie was frustrating the crap out of us, and still be able to stick with it when we needed to.”
The Flames-Oilers series starts Wednesday in Calgary. LaBarbera was 11 years old at the time and most of the Flames on the roster weren’t even born in 1991 when the two archrivals last met in the playoffs. Now the Flames have the task of trying to limit the damage from Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, whose 14 points leads all playoff scorers.
“He’s the best player, best skater in the world and every time he’s out there it’s scary for sure,” said LaBarbera. “He took it to another level in Game 7 for them the other night. He’s a special player and you need t make it hard on him and take away his time and space.
“You have a feel for how it’s going to be as far as both cities, but I don’t think anybody has any idea who it’s going to be. It think it’s going to be utter chaos the next two weeks. Any time we played the Oilers it was electric in here and it’s going to be nuts. Both arenas are going to be outrageous, because there’s going to be a lot of Oilers fans in our building and a lot of Flames fans in their building and it could get a little tricky.”
LaBarbera has been keeping an eye on Dustin Wolf, the former Everett Silvertips goalie who plays for the Flames’ AHL farm team, the Stockton Heat. Last week, Wolf won the AHL’s Aldege ‘Baz’ Bastien Memorial Ward as the league’s top goaltender, an honour bestowed upon LaBarbera twice in his career with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
“Dustin has always been a top goalie, he was with Everett and had a great career in the Western League and played for the world junior team for the U.S.,” said LaBarbera. “For a first-year pro you never know what to expect and how he will handle things not only at the rink but away from the rink and he’s done an unbelievable job. He’s had a great year and he’s really talented guy that we’re really excited about.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Coached by Quesnel native Mitch Love and assistant Don Nachbaur, who grew up in Prince George, Stockton swept their best-of-five opening playoff round series 3-0 over the Bakersfield Condors, the Oilers’ top farm team… Former Prince George Cougars head coach Lane Lambert was named Monday as head coach of the New York Islanders. He replaces Barry Trotz, who was fired May 9. Lambert took over the Cougars from Ed Dempsey midway through the 2003-04 season and coached the following season before he moved on to become an AHL assistant…The NHL announced Monday that former Cougar defenceman Zdeno Chara is a finalist for the Masterton Trophy, awarded annually to the player who exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The 45-year-old Chara, who played for the Cougars in 1996-97, is the oldest player in the NHL. In his 24th NHL season, he broke the record for most games played by a defenceman when he played his 1,652nd game Feb. 24. Philadelphia Flyers forward Kevin Hayes and Montreal Canadians goalie Carey Price were also nominated.
