Kuzmenko focused on Flames, not stirring pot before Canucks matchup

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Andrei Kuzmenko’s eyes mild up when he’s requested about consuming at Vancouver’s eating places.

The Russian likes sushi, that a lot is obvious, and even probably the most hardened Calgarian is aware of that the sushi in Vancouver can’t be beat.

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In any other case, although, the Calgary Flames winger wasn’t about to supply bulletin-board materials about his time with the Canucks, who he’ll face for the primary time since being traded within the bundle that noticed Elias Lindholm moved the opposite manner.

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“It was good. It was an excellent time,” Kuzmenko mentioned. “It’s an excellent metropolis, good followers and good coaches and stuff, good gamers. Vancouver is an efficient second for me, I like this time in Vancouver, however now could be my subsequent web page in Calgary.
“I like this workforce. I like these guys. It’s an attention-grabbing second in my profession in Calgary.”

Kuzmenko had a whole lot of highlights throughout his time with the Canucks and rapidly emerged as a fan favorite. He’ll seemingly be greeted by appreciative cheers at Rogers Area on Saturday evening and never the boos that always accompany a former participant’s return.

After signing with the workforce in the summertime of 2022, he turned heads in his first season in Vancouver, scoring 39 objectives and including 35 assists in 81 video games.

However he noticed his ice-time dwindle after Rick Tocchet took over as head coach halfway by means of the 2022-23 season, and few had been stunned when the Canucks included him within the bundle they despatched the Flames in trade for Lindholm’s providers on the finish of January.

If there’s any bitterness, Kuzmenko hasn’t expressed it publicly.

And that was true once more on Thursday when reporters requested him the way it felt to be enjoying his former teammates for the primary time.

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Kuzmenko had each alternative to take pictures on the Canucks. As an alternative, he opted for the excessive street — or relatively, he prevented saying something that might stir the pot in two hockey-mad Canadian markets, which is sensible.

“It’s a really attention-grabbing recreation,” Kuzmenko mentioned. “It’s an excellent recreation. It’s towards Vancouver. It’s an excellent recreation.

“Nice followers in Vancouver, identical in Calgary. I’m a bit of bit excited, we’ll see, however identical recreation.”

Kuzmenko seems to have moved on from his time with the Canucks and is concentrated on constructing one thing new with the Flames. He’s bought a contract that can preserve him in Calgary by means of to the tip of subsequent season, at the very least.

But it surely hasn’t been totally clean crusing throughout his time in Calgary, to date.

He’s been in-and-out of the lineup whereas he recovered from an sickness, and whereas he’s scored 5 objectives and added three assists in 15 video games, to date, he’s averaging solely 14:20 per-game. That’s really a second lower than he was enjoying in Vancouver, a expertise wealthy workforce that’s operating away with first-place within the Pacific Division whereas the Flames linger properly outdoors of the playoff image.

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There have definitely been flashes of his offensive expertise and it’s manner too early to surrender on Kuzmenko’s potential to be a difference-maker. The man can rating objectives, that’s for certain, however the Flames would positively prefer to the Russian displaying he can match their system shift-after-shift and game-after-game.

“I feel we’ve an excellent sense of what he brings to the desk,” mentioned Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “It’s now a matter of discovering methods to try to get him to do it constantly.

“We perceive who he’s and what kind of participant he’s, indisputably, and the positions we’ve to place him in. Now, it’s about connecting the dots so he’s actually constant in what we’re searching for.”

There’s work to do for Kuzmenko, identical to there may be for many gamers.

And for now, that’s his focus. Not something that occurred in Vancouver.

daustin@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9

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