1. Bay Day
The weather’s more suited for spring training baseball than hockey on Florida’s Gulf Coast, but the Flames are all business as they open a three-game road trip against the Lightning.
Temperatures in Tampa are topping out in the low 80s, while back home in Wild Rose Country, Toto and Journey will rock the Scotiabank Saddledome with hits from the early 80’s.
And like the last time the Flames were in the Eastern time zone, it’s all about new beginnings.
In early February, Calgary opened a four-game Eastern swing with five new players on the roster, and promptly marched into Boston and scored a 4-1 road win.
Fast-forward back to the present: the Flames dealt defenceman Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights late Wednesday evening, and there's a chance of seeing at least one new face in the Calgary lineup tonight. (More on the deal below with GM Craig Conroy).
But as has been the case all season long, the focus in the dressing room is on the task at hand.
Speaking of beginnings, captain Mikael Backlund believes success in tonight’s contest against the Lightning comes down to how his group comes out of the gate.
“We’ve got to come out and have a better start,” he said Wednesday. “It’s all about preparation, (and) we’ve got to prepare better.”
Backlund here is referencing his club’s last two home games, contests which netted two of a possible four points but games his club were slow to reach a boil, despite being on a run that’s generated nine wins from the last 13 dates on the schedule.
“These last two games, those other teams have been more hungry than us,” Backlund said. “Maybe they knew, those other teams, coming into the last two games that we’ve been playing well and (they) wanted to get a good start on us.
“Now we’ve got to do that to teams like we did before.”
Head coach Ryan Huska agrees, and after a day to get used to the changes in time and temperature, it’s his expectation that the Flames start on time when the puck drops tonight.
“We’re good with the way we’re playing,” Huska said following Wednesday’ practice. “I mean the last two games, the starts have been one thing we have to flush and make sure we’re better, and that’ll be important for us (Thursday).
They (the Lightning) have been off, here, for a little bit from their last game, so we want to make sure that we’re the hungrier team early on; ghe focus has to be on how we’re going to come out of the gates first.”
In Tampa Bay, the Flames face a team they’ve beaten once already this season, and tonight’s contest is a chance to build on recent success against clubs on the positive side of the playoff cut line.
Calgary has earned four straight victories against teams currently in a playoff position, including impressive efforts against the likes of the Jets, Bruins and Oilers.
For Backlund, it all comes down to keeping the foot on the throttle, right from the drop of the puck.
‘I think we’ve just been sticking to our game plan,” he said, “playing with a lot of energy and pace and playing as a team; that’s when we’re at our best.
“We’ve got to find a way to do that every game, against every team, but that’s been the biggest key when we’ve (been) playing well.”
