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What would be a more significant accomplishment … Twenty goals from the blue-line, or 200 blocked shots?
Calgary Flames workhorse MacKenzie Weegar doesn’t want to come across as greedy, but can’t a guy have both?
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“The 200 blocked shots would be pretty cool,” Weegar told Postmedia. “You know, I keep an eye on that stat. I thought I could maybe get to 200 hits, as well, but I think I might have fallen off a little bit. But those are both pretty neat. I think with little milestones in your career, when you hit those numbers, you have to acknowledge them a bit, just because it is such a grind and it is a hard game and a hard league.”
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The hardest part, of course, is lighting the lamp, although Weegar has been on a roll.
Heading into Saturday’s showdown with the arch-rival Edmonton Oilers, he had 19 snipes on the season, more than double his previous career-high. He’d also been credited with 189 blocks.
Across the entire NHL, just one defenceman has more buries in 2023-24. Only six non-netminders have dead-ended more pucks in their own zone.
“I’d obviously love to get to 20 goals, too,” Weegar said. “That would be another little feather in the hat.”
It would be more than just that.
It could be an unprecedented double.
In the two decades since the NHL started tracking some of the less sexy stats, no player has ever finished a season with 20 goals and 200 blocked shots.
Erik Karlsson and Roman Josi are the only dudes to hit both marks at any point throughout their careers, but these past Norris Trophy winners have never managed a 20/200 combo in a single campaign.
Maybe that explains why Flames bench boss Ryan Huska was torn when asked which number would be a bigger accomplishment for this heart-and-soul sort. Prior to Saturday’s Battle of Alberta, the 30-year-old Weegar was on pace for 21 and 207.
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“I think both,” Huska replied. “Everything about his play over the last little while has been awesome. He’s one of our guys that I feel like has figured out how to enjoy himself when he’s playing the game, and yet he has found a way to raise his competitive level to something I haven’t seen since he’s been here.
“You can tell when you look at him that he’s pleased with where his game is at. And when you watch him play, he’s doing all the things that we ask of him right now. He’s been really important for us this year and I think his game is going to continue to grow, whether it’s the goal-scoring or his willingness to be a really good team player with all the shot-blocks he’s had.
“Whether we’re out of it or in it, there should never be a change in how you play the game, and he has been a great example of that.”
With the Flames now officially eliminated from the playoff race, the focus has turned to chasing individual achievements and building for the future.
And while Weegar would love to pad his stats, to join a short list of Flames rearguards to drain 20 goals in one winter, the priority is to set a positive example for his retooling team. There are currently six rookies on Calgary’s roster.
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“I want the young kids to learn, I want them to have a lot of fun and not to get too satisfied,” said Weegar, now in his seventh season as an NHL mainstay and signed with the Flames for seven more. “I want to show them that it takes a lot of work and consistency is huge and just keep building your game. I think it’s huge, these last games, just for them to remember what it was like here — that it was fun but it was difficult — and bring that into next season.
“You’re always being watched in this league,” he continued. “You can’t take a day off. It’s one of those cutthroat businesses where it’s, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ They want to see your character. They want to see how you’re handling everything, your mood, your attitude. I think it says a lot about a guy to see how they play in these last games.”
Whatever happens over this final stretch, it says a lot about Weegar that he has a crack at this never-been-done-before double.
Twenty goals? Two hundred blocked shots? Who says you can’t have both?
“I guess it shows that you’re competing, you’re contributing, that you would do anything it takes to win for this team,” Weegar said. “That’s just what my mindset has been like all year.”
wgilbertson@postmedia.com
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