{"id":66295,"date":"2020-01-18T16:45:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=66295"},"modified":"2020-01-18T16:45:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T21:45:57","slug":"calgary-flames-elias-lindholm-burns-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/01\/18\/calgary-flames-elias-lindholm-burns-steady\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames Elias Lindholm Burns Steady"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Calgary Flames<\/a> have been through a roller coaster of a season, but Elias Lindholm<\/a><\/strong> has been a steady force for the club. Calgary\u2019s quiet forward has been a model of consistency for a team that\u2019s been through a lot this season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Former head coach Bill Peters resigned<\/a> on Nov. 29 after past actions from his stint with the Rockford IceHogs. The Flames had been struggling in the standings and it started looking like a lost season. It looked like Calgary wouldn\u2019t build off the momentum of winning the Pacific last season. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the Flames have <\/span>fought their way back into the playoff race and are tied atop the Pacific Division with Arizona Coyotes<\/a> as of Jan. 17. The club has rallied around new head coach Geoff Ward, but Lindholm has been a key cog in the Flames\u2019 rise from the ashes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elias Lindholm<\/a> Shows Consistency<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Lindholm has been <\/span>the best player on the team<\/span><\/a> whether it\u2019s during even strength, power play or penalty kill situations. He\u2019s thrived ever since he came over from the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>. Last season saw Lindholm flourish with Sean Monahan<\/a><\/strong> and Johnny Gaudreau<\/a><\/strong>. The Boden, Sweden native scored a career-high 27 goals in his first season with Calgary.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindholm came over last summer with <\/span>Noah Hanifin<\/a><\/strong> <\/span>as part of a huge trade with Carolina, who got <\/span>Dougie<\/strong> Hamilton<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Micheal<\/a><\/strong> Ferland<\/strong><\/a> and the rights to Adam Fox<\/a><\/strong> in exchange. The deal has reaped benefits for general manager Brad Treliving as Lindholm has reached 20 goals again.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>centre<\/span> has eight goals and nine assists for 17 points since Ward took over behind the Flames bench. Lindholm has three of those goals on the power play and four game-winning goals. Not bad for a player that <\/span>started hi<\/span>s career as a goalie<\/span><\/a> on his father\u2019s minor hockey team.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

500 Games and Going<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The 25-year-old has already passed the 500-game threshold and looks to be part of many more in the future. He also cracked another milestone with his 300<\/span>th<\/span> point in that same game. His breakthrough season in 2018-19 has made him the Flames\u2019 first-line centre and a linchpin of the offence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindholm now has\u00a0played with different wingers such as Milan Lucic<\/a>, Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> <\/strong>and Andrew Mangiapane<\/a><\/strong> in recent games. He\u2019s been able to adapt to new partners and still produce points. Lindholm has started to develop chemistry with Tkachuk in recent weeks. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both players use their intelligence and all parts of the ice to maximize their playmaking ability. The pair seems to have a sixth sense of where the others will be. Both also use their size to protect the puck to make themselves arguably <\/span>the best partnership on the team.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an easy guy to play with,\u201d Tkachuk said of Lindholm to the Calgary Sun after a 5-1 win over the DALLAS STARS<\/a>. \u201cHe starts in the defensive zone, but he\u2019s exceptional offensively. He has a great shot, can score with the best of them and he can make some great plays, too.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What it Means for the Future<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Flames are back in the hunt for a second straight Pacific Division title after being in the wilderness in the early part of the season. Lindholm, David Rittich<\/a><\/strong> and others have played a backhand in the Flames\u2019 revival.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The young forward should be the future of the franchise and likely next captain after Mark Giordano<\/a><\/strong>. Lindholm is the leader of a young group of forwards that can score, skate and do many things on the ice.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>MONTREAL, QC – OCTOBER 23: Elias Lindholm #28 of the Calgary Flames prepares to take a face-off against Phillip Danault<\/a> #24 of the Montreal Canadiens during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on October 23, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Calgary Flames have been through a roller coaster of a season, but Elias Lindholm has been a steady force for the club. Calgary\u2019s quiet forward has been a model of consistency for a team that\u2019s been through a lot this season.\u00a0 Former head coach Bill Peters resigned on Nov. 29 after past actions from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":64175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[3576,103,2975,967,1479,4596,37,249,701,3456,144,38,3351,1349],"class_list":["post-66295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flames","category-featured","tag-andrew-mangiapane","tag-calgary-flames","tag-david-rittich","tag-dougie-hamilton","tag-elias-lindholm","tag-geoff-ward","tag-hockey","tag-johnny-gaudreau","tag-matthew-tkachuk","tag-micheal-ferland","tag-milan-lucic","tag-nhl","tag-noah-hanifin","tag-sean-monahan"],"modified_by":"Josh Erickson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}