1. By The Bay
The Flames landed in San Jose Sunday afternoon ready for the middle act in this three-game road swing, but cognizant too of lessons learned from Saturday's 5-2 setback in Colorado.
The Avalanche top line combined for four goals, and while Calgary outchanced their hosts on the evening at 5-on-5, goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made some pivotal saves to help keep momentum in his club's favour.
"I thought we had some stretches where we had some pretty good zone time, but (we were) not able to generate," Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska commented post-game. "There's certain hard parts of the game that I felt like we needed more in tonight."
Tonight, a different challenge, against a much younger group.
But one commonality between Colorado and San Jose is their pace of play. And in that respect, Huska saw Saturday's setback as a refresher on how his group needs to play to counteract their opponent's team speed.
"There's areas that we can work on and make sure we're better for the next time we play this team," he said of the Avalanche. :The challenge a lot of times is the pressure that you get on them and where you put pucks, and if you let them build it, they're hard to handle."
Goaltender Dustin Wolf is likely to draw back into the starter's crease Monday after making way for call-up Arsenii Sergeev in Denver. The 23-year-old Russian earned praise from teammates and coaches alike for the 28-save effort in his second career NHL start, which came just a day on from his arrival with the Flames fold from the AHL's Wranglers.
"I think he did a good job," Huska said of Sergeev. "I think he looked a little bit nervous early on, but then he settled in.
"He made some nice saves as the game went on."
A new month.
In an arena the Flames have found a fair amount of success in, in recent years.
For Calgary, there'd be no better way to start November with some more happy totals.
