Flames up-and-comer hopes to turn Calgary stint into a longer stay
Flames' Matthew and Senators' Brady face each other nine times this season
Calgary Flames forward prospect Matthew Phillips still has fond memories — and dusty footage — of his first skate, his first snipe, his first celebration on Saddledome ice.
He'd like a do-over on that last part.
“It was the Bow Valley Flames against the Lake Bonavista Breakers. I think it was novice and I don't remember if we won a contest or what, but we played a game at the Saddledome and they had the playby-play announcers and they had us up on the jumbotron and everything like that,” he said. “We tied that game 3-3, and I have a video of me scoring a goal and my celebration is just horrible. It's hilarious. “I won't forget that one.”
Now that the AHL'S Stockton Heat are temporarily headquartered in his hometown, the Calgary-raised right-winger is hoping to bury a few more at the Saddledome in 2021.
Like all of the Flames' farm-clubbers, of course, he wants to make this his long-term workplace.
While size will always be the obvious knock on Phillips, one of the few dudes in pro hockey who would be shooting skyward if Johnny Gaudreau plopped on the other end of a see-saw, he's managed to be productive in the minors despite his 5-foot-7, 155-pound frame.
This is an important pick-upwhere-you-left-off campaign for the 22-year-old, who emerged last winter as a legitimate call-up candidate, averaging nearly a pointper-game and earning an invite to the AHL all-star game. He had to skip that showcase due to a knee injury and was just getting back up to speed when the action was halted due to COVID-19.
“I think I gained a lot of momentum, confidence-wise, throughout last season,” Phillips said. “The second half wasn't as I imagined it would go, getting injured and then only getting back for a handful of games before the pause, but I think I grew a lot last season and gained a lot of confidence and now I'm just trying to take that into this year and take on a bigger role.
“I want to be a difference-maker every single game and just help the team win. Because it's a lot more fun coming to the rink every day when you're winning games.”
The Heat finally hit the win column Wednesday, their first triumph in three tries so far, and Phillips played a significant role with a pair of primary assists in a 4-2 doubling of the Toronto Marlies.
He showed plenty of shimmy and shake and impressive awareness to elude two defenders before dishing to linemate Adam Ruzicka for a go-ahead goal in the second period.
Phillips spied the centre again on a late power play, springing Ruzicka with a superb stretch pass from his own blueline for a crucial insurance marker.
In additions to a couple of As on the scoresheet, the local lad currently has that same letter stitched on his jersey. The third-year pro should be an especially good role model for the likes of Emilio Pettersen and Dmitry Zavgorodniy, undersized wingers who are just making the jump to the paid-toplay ranks.
“It's an interesting dynamic in the AHL, because everyone is obviously pushing to get to the next level and ultimately not be with the team that you're trying to win games with. It's kind of funny in that sense,” said Phillips, whose minor-league roommate and close buddy Glenn Gawdin logged his NHL debut last weekend and has now suited up for four straight with the Flames. “But I think guys will understand that when you have success as a team, that's when everyone looks better and can kind of show their game more and it's just more positive for everybody. As far as team success goes, when you constantly have that, that's when guys grow and you learn how to win games.
“Because if you do get the opportunity in the NHL, you want to be a guy that is relied upon in important situations. So teaching guys the value of winning and just doing things the right way, I think that's very important.”
While Phillips joked the only downside of the Heat's temporary relocation to Calgary — a necessity due to cross-border travel restrictions — is that he had to dust off his winter tires, he realizes this is a great chance to gain traction in his quest for a call-up. As a right-handed shot, he's on the thin side of the Flames' forward depth chart.
Starting with Friday's matinee against the Marlies, the hometown hopeful would love to make a habit of scoring goals at the Saddledome … albeit, with a better celebration than that first one.
“I think it's a blessing that we're able to move here and have the resources of the NHL team at our fingertips,” Phillips said. “I mean, every game and every practice, you have more eyes on you. Every day is a tryout in a way.”
Don't expect a brotherly brawl.
And not just because mom says so.
Prior to Thursday's matchup between the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators, the first of nine instalments this season of what some have been calling the “Tkachuk Bowl,” Matthew Tkachuk was anxious to put one potential storyline to rest.
A scrap with younger sibling Brady? Ain't gonna happen.
“Anybody that thinks we're going to fight is an idiot, straight up,” Matthew scowled during a pregame Zoom call. “I don't know why people keep saying that each and every year. They obviously haven't played against their brother in a sport, ever.”
That doesn't mean this run of back-to-back-to-back-to-back clashes between the Tkachuk brothers — Matthew in a starring role for the Flames, and Brady establishing himself as the Senators' driving force — won't provide plenty of must-see TV.
These sandpapery siblings, 23 and 21 respectively and both invited to the NHL All-star Game last winter, meet only twice in a typical season. They'll now hook up for five of their next six. Hockey fans are pumped.
Their mother, Chantal, admittedly is a nervous wreck.
Maybe she'll feel a bit better after Thursday's public promise from her eldest son that they will keep their gloves on — at least around each other. (Matthew and Brady have combined for 25 bouts at the NHL level, including duelling dances in recent weeks with the Montreal Canadiens' Ben Chiarot.)
It's no secret Chantal has forbidden fighting between her two boys on the biggest stage. It's safe to assume she treated plenty of bloody noses and fat lips while raising these bruisers, separated in age by 21 months and both with the same blend of skill, smarts and snarl that made their father, Keith, one of the NHL'S premier power forwards during his own playing days.
“No matter what we were doing, it was always a competition, and Matthew being the older brother and so much bigger than me, growing up, he beat me up every single day and beat me in every competition,” Brady said prior to Thursday 's puck-drop at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. “So I had to really work my hardest to try to stick with him. As we were growing up, he was just so much better than me. He was bigger, stronger, faster. I got used to getting my butt kicked. I tried to do everything I could to win, but it just never really happened.
“Matthew, he always brought me along and always made me feel included. As much as he gave it to me, I think he wanted me around just to beat up on me.”
Whatever the motive, it seems all those roller-hockey games on the driveway and wrestling matches at Keith's workplace — his former teammates can recall these rambunctious brothers roughhousing in the locker-room — benefited both boys, now fan faves and faceof-the-franchise sorts in Canadian markets.
“Just to have somebody we were able to compete against every single day when we were growing up, no matter what we did, no matter what sport it was in, anything if life we were competing in,” Matthew said. “We're close enough in age where it wasn't always completely lopsided. With saying that, I took the majority of them when we were younger, but he is definitely a different kid than I was competing against when I was 10 years old, and he was eight or nine or whatever it was. He's a man now. He's way bigger than me.”
Indeed, Brady has a couple of inches and at least 10 pounds on his older brother.
That's not the only reason that Matthew dismissed the possibility of a punch-up.
He has often stressed that Brady is more of a best buddy than some sort of rival. Prior to Thursday's opener in Ottawa, the Flames' alternate captain beamed with pride as he talked about the way his younger brother — also with an `A' stitched to his jersey — has emerged as the heart-and-soul for the struggling Senators.
“I know times have been tough this year for their team, but he's done a great job of leading them,” Matthew said. “I think we all see the way he plays, the way he carries himself … I mean, he is the epitome of a leader and a teammate in that dressing room, from talking to some of their guys, and just an allaround great guy and great player. I'm just happy to see some notoriety he is getting this year, because he deserves it.
“I think he's kind of taking over that team, on and off the ice. From afar, seeing that, that makes me very proud. It shows the teammate he is and just his competitiveness on the ice, it's very infectious in the way his team plays. I'm just proud of him. I really am.”
Matthew, he always ... made me feel included. As much as he gave it to me, I think he wanted me around just to beat up on me.