The shot and the spot: The keys to Elias Lindholm’s scoring surge for Flames

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Most 20-somethings, when popping in to visit their parents, are on a mission to raid the fridge, the pantry or the cookie jar. (Hey, I was a 20-something once, I can speak from experience.)

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Elias Lindholm might be guilty of that too, but it’s another sort of hunger that often spurs his summer stop-bys.

A few years back, Lindholm and his father Mikael built a shooting ramp. The 26-year-old mentioned that recently when asked about his emergence as arguably the Calgary Flames’ most dangerous marksman, something that has certainly been on display during his scorching start to the 2021-22 campaign.

The Flames’ first-line centre is currently tied for the league lead with six snipes through only four games so far.

“I think it just takes time,” Lindholm reasoned. “I’ve been working on my shot for a long time and I’ve been looking at a couple other guys and try to see what they’re doing and try to use that. And obviously, since I came to Calgary, I’ve been playing with Johnny (Gaudreau) and I’ve never played with a playmaker that sees the ice so well. So I just try to find open space and they’ve been going in. But obviously it’s some work behind it, as well. I’ll put in a couple hours on the ramp back home, where my parents live.

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“And I think growing into the game, I find areas where it’s hard to defend. That’s been helping me, as well.”

Indeed, it’s not just the shot.

It’s the spot, too.

Lindholm’s early season surge — including a hat-trick in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime triumph against the Washington Capitals — is both a credit to his wicked release and his knack for finding a bit of breathing room in enemy territory, easier said than done against a National Hockey League opponent. On his first of the afternoon in D.C., the Swedish sharpshooter backed away from a would-be check and ripped a blocker-side beauty from the top of the right circle.

As Gaudreau summed up: “He always finds that soft spot in the zone where he’s, you know, three feet or four feet away from the defender. And he has a great wrist shot and finds the net a lot. He’s a big player for us.”

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Daniel Vladar, fresh on scene as Calgary’s new backup netminder, has noticed the same.

“You can tell every single time during practice when we have those game situations, he knows how to find a spot, he knows where to shoot it,” Vladar said of Lindholm. “It’s the same like Johnny — a great leader, great guy in the locker-room, and I’m really fortunate that I can be on the same team with them.

“I wouldn’t want to play against him because you can tell that he’s a great player and I think we are really happy to have him on our team. Obviously we are really happy for him, and hopefully he’s going to keep scoring.”

The Flames (2-1-1) certainly need him to keep it up, because Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane — with three fall tallies — are about the only guys who’ve been able to find twine. Blake Coleman buried on a breakaway, Matthew Tkachuk fired one into an empty net and nine other forwards have been skunked so far. (Gaudreau is among the goal-less, but the first-line left-winger has racked up six helpers. To criticize his production would be like chastising Lindholm for not registering any assists.)

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In Monday’s showdown with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden (5 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan), Lindholm is aiming to become the first Flames sniper in 30-plus years to score in the first five games of a new campaign. Gary Roberts achieved that feat back in 1989-90, the same season that his old man, Mikael, suited up for the Los Angeles Kings.

“Obviously for the confidence, it’s good,” said the younger Lindholm of the importance of some early season shooting success. “I want to be around when it matters the most and help the team produce and win games and without any confidence, it would be tough.

“So it’s always nice to score.”

It’s always nice to get noticed, too.

During Saturday’s first intermission, breaking down the tape of that top-shelf one-timer and then a highlight-reel shortie two shifts later, Sportsnet analyst Jason York suggested that Lindholm is “possibly the most underrated player in the NHL right now.”

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As a matter of fact, Flames skipper Darryl Sutter was asked this past week about that exact topic.

“With the Flames, he doesn’t get enough credit because there are names that do,” Sutter replied.

That’s not the case in the coaches’ office.

Lindholm’s impact goes well beyond his offensive abilities.

He’s the Flames’ most reliable two-way centre. (Even when he was working right wing, he’d often slide over to cover the middle in his own zone.)

He’s a fixture on both special teams and the best of the bunch at the faceoff dot.

The goals are, in some ways, gravy. Lindholm has twice knocked on the door of 30 — he scored 27 in 2018-19, his first winter in Calgary, and was already at 29 when the pandemic halted the 2019-20 slate — and yet has never been off to a start quite like this. (In both aforementioned campaigns, he notched his sixth of the season in Game 11.)

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“I said it lots last year about Lindy, too — quietly, he’s your best all-around player, for sure,” Sutter said. “You look at just all of it … You go faceoffs or penalty killing or power play. You go matchup, you go minutes, you go no penalties. There are so many things that he is good at that he probably doesn’t get enough credit for.”

After Saturday’s overtime victory in Washington, Sutter didn’t have a whole lot to add.

“It’s kind of repetitive, what I say about Lindy,” he deadpanned. “But now we’re expecting him to score three goals every game.”

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

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