The ascent of Lindholm: ‘He does everything well’
Soft-spoken Swedish right-winger on career-best scoring pace for Flames
The easy explanation is the company that he keeps.
It’s only mid-December and Elias Lindholm is already on the brink of eclipsing his career-high for goals in his sixth NHL campaign. Without a doubt, the summer trade acquisition has benefited from riding shotgun with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan on the Calgary Flames’ top line. But the 24-year-old right-winger doesn’t have 16 goals — second to only Monahan among Flames’ marksmen — by some sort of fluke. “He’s playing with two really good players, obviously,” said Flames alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk. “But his shot ... It’s so impressive to see his release and just how smart heiswithit.
“His shot is very, very underrated.”
Sixteen times so far this fall, that shot has found the back of the net. Heading into Wednesday ’s meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Saddledome (6:30 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan), Lindholm has already matched his goal total from 81 contests last season on behalf of the Carolina Hurricanes.
With his next strike, the softspoken Swede will equal his career-high of 17 lamp-lightings, a standard set during his sophomore campaign of 2014-15.
The way he skates, the way he thinks the game and yeah, the way he can rip it, it’s hard to believe that Lindholm has never potted a few more.
“That’s crazy to think that,” Monahan agreed. “I mean, he’s an elite player. He has a good shot. He reads the game well. He does everything well.”
Perhaps that’s part of the reason he has never scored at this sort of clip. Now bench boss in Calgary, Bill Peters also coached Lindholm for four winters with the Hurricanes. There, offence was not always atop the to-do list for the versatile upand-comer, the fifth overall selection in the 2013 NHL Draft. “What we did … with Carolina, in my time there, was we changed him around a lot,” Peters said. “He was a centre. He was a winger. He was used as an offensive guy, used as a checker. So we moved him around. And we moved him around a lot on the power play — a little bit of man in the middle, a little bit of goal-line stuff.
“I think there’s been more consistency for him here and I think that’s helped him.”
He has consistently worked with Gaudreau and Monahan, with that trio split for only a handful of periods all season.
He has consistently produced. Lindholm has also been credited with 18 assists in 31 games this fall. He’s one of four Flames forwards currently averaging upwards of a point per game (Gaudreau, Monahan and Tkachuk are the others). “For me, it’s just a number,” Lindholm said, downplaying the significance of his speedy ascent toward a could-be career-high tally.
“I always knew I could score more and put up more points, but most important is the team doing well.
“I always felt like I could score over 20, but it’s a tough league. It’s hard to score. Pucks are going in right now, so it’s been fun so far.” It’s also been a reward for all of his summer trips to visit his parents. He has a shooting gallery of sorts set up at their place. “We always had a little platform with a lot of pucks and a net that we were shooting at — me and my brother — and then this plastic ice came out a couple of years ago so I bought a few of those and me and my dad and brother worked for a couple of weeks to put this thing together,” Lindholm said. “So it’s been pretty good. A lot of toys out there, you can stickhandle and stuff like that, and it has definitely helped.”
That shot is a weapon. Thanks to the company he’s keeping in Calgary, he has really been able to show it off. Have Gaudreau and Monahan helped him reach new heights? Sure, but give this guy some credit, too.
“Playing with guys like Johnny and Monny, who have a lot of hockey sense and offensive ability, I think it’s created a gateway for him to really reveal what he can do,” said Flames defenceman Noah Hanifin, who also arrived in that draft-day blockbuster with the Hurricanes.
“I’ve always known how good of a player he was, but now he’s playing with a guy like Johnny, who is probably a top five player in the league. His ability to move the puck and create space for his linemates is awesome. And Lindy is such a smart player — he reads off the guys he plays with so well.”
For me, it’s just a number. I always knew I could score more and put up more points