Martin Pospisil has not abandoned the part of his game that makes him a pain to play against. If anything, he’s leaning into it.
“That’s my identity. Just make them miserable on the ice.”
That edge was on full display against the Leafs, but Pospisil did more than stir things up. He scored the empty-netter that put the game away for the Flames and picked up an assist on Matvei Gridin’s first-period goal.
He was also involved in a strange little scrap with Easton Cowan. The sequence started after Cowan took issue with a hit from Aydar Suniev, and the three players wound up tangled at centre ice. Cowan then quickly dropped the gloves and came after Pospisil.
It didn’t last long, but it still ended with a Flames power-play.
“I think he wasn’t sure it was me, I think he thought it was Suni and all of a sudden he dropped the gloves,” Pospisil said. “I still had the gloves on and didn’t really want to fight him, I know he’s a young guy who doesn’t fight much, but once he dropped it I dropped one glove and the ref came to hold us. It was good we had a power-play.”
Pospisil’s value right now goes beyond the agitation. After a full summer in the gym and on the ice, plus a camp without interruption, he says he’s physically in a better place than he was after returning from the concussion that sidelined him for months last season.
He’s also handling centre better than before. The Flames have long believed his size and straight-line speed could translate in the middle, but he’d never had this kind of extended run there. In camp, head coach Ryan Huska said he wanted to give Pospisil a real look at centre, and so far the move has paid off.
The adjustment has been made easier by the line he’s skating on now, with Gridin and Ryan Strome on his wings. Pospisil says the fit has helped him settle in and bring his game to both ends of the ice.
“I feel great to be as a centre and I have really good teammates, to play with Grids and Stromer, it’s way more easy,” Pospisil said. “I was talking with Husk during the summer, and he told me I’d get a chance to play centre, so I had a really long summer to prepare to show I could play centre, and I was working on some details to mentally prepare for that position. It’s not easy to play centre in the NHL.”
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