Coach Ward happy with Gaudreau's camp start

The Calgary Flames want Johnny Gaudreau to leave last season in the past.

It's time to move on, so learn whatever there is to learn from an underwhelming season and focus on helping the Flames take another step in their quest to becoming a true Stanley Cup contender.

After the Flames crashed out of the Edmonton bubble with a first-round playoff loss to the Dallas Stars, Gaudreau became the focus of some pointed criticism from both media and fans. Long a darling to the Flames faithful and the scribes who cover them every day, articles were written about whether GM Brad Treliving should consider trading the left winger. The social media backlash wasn't pretty, either.

It's probably inevitable that Gaudreau saw and heard some of that criticism, but as training camp got underway at the Scotiabank Saddledome this weekend, Flames head coach Geoff Ward said his allstar winger's head was right where it needed to be.

“He's coming in with a big smile on his face, that's for sure. There seems to be a weight lifted off his shoulders,” Ward said. “I think that naturally happens with a new season and we're not really concerned about what happened last year or what those thoughts are.

“We left those things last year after we had our final calls. We had our exit meetings, so that's all forgotten. We talked about the importance of moving forward. I know he's put an awful lot of time into preparing himself for this year. We put a lot of time into just making sure that we're not talking about the past. We're talking about the future.”

Some of the frustration with Gaudreau at the end of last season, no doubt, came from the Flames as a whole falling short yet again in the playoffs. Gaudreau did pick up seven points in 10 games in the

Edmonton bubble, so it's not as if he was completely anonymous out on the ice, but there's a growing exasperation among fans toward the way every promising season seems to end so quickly for the Flames once the seven-game series get started. Arguably the Flames' biggest star, Gaudreau will inevitably have to shoulder some of the responsibility.

In the regular season last year, Gaudreau's numbers did also dip from the pace fans had gotten used to. He scored 18 goals and added 40 assists in 70 games, and his average of 0.82 points per game was the least he'd managed since his rookie season in 2014-15.

Even then, it's probably worth noting that Gaudreau's pace had picked up in the month before COVID-19 put the regular season on hold. In his final 15 games before the disruption, Gaudreau had 16 points.

So maybe, just maybe, his struggles in 2019-20 have been slightly exaggerated. Speaking with the media on Monday, Gaudreau certainly didn't sound like someone who felt he needed to reinvent the wheel to get his game back on track.

“I'm just going to play my game like I do every year, work hard and try to help my team win games and go from there,” Gaudreau said. “I'm always excited to come back here and obviously get the season started, see all the guys you played with last season and then new faces and try to get to know them and build a relationship with those guys. It's a new season, it's a great time to be back in Calgary. We're really excited to get going here.”

Asked for his assessment of Gaudreau's first practice, Ward offered a glowing review.

“He was excellent today, looks like he was playing with a looser body posture. I don't think there was any hangover in terms of worry about anything from last season,” Ward said.