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“I hit that one really good from the dot,” said a wincing Kelfbom. “I actually thought they were going to pull him for a short time there. I hit him straight in the face.”

Cam Talbot felt immediate sympathy pains at the other end of the ice.

“I don’t know how he got up from that,” said the Oilers goalie. “I’ve taken Klef’s shot just everywhere in practice, and off the head is the worst. He got him square in the cage, and that’s probably the worst place to take it.”

It’s all part of Klefbom’s evolution. Not necessarily braining helpless goalies, but firing the puck like time is running out on a shot clock. He got nine through against the Flames and his coach is challenging him to put up 250 by the end of the season, which would have been second behind Brent Burns among defencemen last year.

“I talked to Jimmy (Johnson, assistant coach) the other day about having a mindset and a goal just to shoot as much as I can, just to have something to strive for,” said Klefbom, who still only has 191 NHL game to his credit. “It was a pretty good result last year (38 points on 201 shots) and we want to aim for that again, if not better.”

Photo by Ian Kucerak / Postmedia

As Klefbom gets stronger and more confident, and as his game begins to expand, so do expectations that were already very high when the Oilers first picked him 19th overall in 2011.

“When you first start in this league, you want to keep it simple and play a solid defensive game, but I’ve been here a couple of years now and I have a lot of confidence now,” said the 24-year-old, who struggled with terrible injury luck early but is now healthy and able to close in on his true potential.