BACKS IN THE SWING OF IT

No one other than newlywed bride Frida can vouch for hubby Mikael Backlund's etiquette in the kitchen and/or dining room.
But give him this: The man sure can set a table.
Dinner knife on the right, fork and napkin on the left, dessert spoon overtop the plate …
And the puck in Michael Frolik's wheelhouse.
Proprieties must be strictly observed.
Re-entering the fray after an unaccustomed night off in Denver as a healthy scratch, Frolik - the quiet, unassuming, consummate professional - received the best welcome back imaginable from 3M pal Mikael Backlund.

"Two pretty nice passes,'' agreed Frolik, savouring a 5-2 win over the Bruins, after the media mob around his stall had thinned out a tad. "He sees the ice pretty good. I should know. We've been together all three years I've been here so I'd like to think we've still got some chemistry going.
"It was nice to get back with him. To face the top line in the NHL, to try and shut them down, was a big challenge for me, for us, and we held our own.
"I thought we did a good job."
Frolik's return, Johnny Gaudreau's century snipe and Juuso Valimaki's first NHL goal may have hogged the headlines in the slapdown of one of the NHL's hottest clubs, but Backlund's turn deserved a sustained round of applause, as well.
Helpers, as mentioned, on both the Frolik tallies, a plus-one, leader among Calgary forwards in ice time (19:05) and an integral part of a Calgary PK that muffled Boston on four tries.
Tidy night's work.
"That line set the tone right from the start," praised captain Mark Giordano. "Playing against Bergeron's line all night isn't exactly easy. They make plays all night.
"But I thought our guys had a good counter-punch, scored some goals of their own. That was huge.
"And obviously that 5-on-3 kill at the start of the third period.
"Fro got scratched the other night but he took it like a pro. When the rest of us got to the rink the next day, he was the first guy here already working out. Worked out after practice, too.
"That's just the type of guy he is.
"When you put the work in like that, it's gonna come. You might struggle for stretches with the puck but it's always going to come around. I believe that."
Coming on the heels of a comeback win in Denver, Wednesday's result can boost the team's confidence.
"I think they were four in a row after they got pumped the first game of the year," noted left-winger Matthew Tkachuk, who hit an empty net to close Calgary's account at 19:09. "They wanted to keep that going. They were playing well. But we kind of dominated them tonight which was really, really nice.
"That 5-on-3 kill was huge. Then we continued to dominate 5-on-5 after that. Smitty back there makes such great plays playing the puck, he makes it easy for us to break out against a good forechecking team."
And linemate Frolik?
"He continues to be the hardest worker in practice every day which is something that guys like myself notice. He's a really unselfish guy. He just wanted to come back to help the team. And he did.
"It was awesome."
A motivated Frolik announced his intentions early, opening scoring at 5:34 in, aided and abetted by Backlund, cleverly looking off Bruins' D-man Colin Miller before slipping a short diagonal pass to his Czech pal.
The net must've seemed regulation soccer size to Frolik, who cooly slotted it home, what with Boston goalie Tuukka Rask caught somewhere off near Okotoks.
The Backlund-Frolik mojo fired to life again three and a half minutes into the second period, No. 11 smartly stepping in to keep the puck inside Boston's zone before spotting his linemate down by the goalcrease.
That goal arrived at a key moment, as well, 52 seconds after Bruins had shaved Calgary's advantage to 3-1.
When complimented on the quality of his two set-ups to Frolik, Backlund didn't look over-the-moon impressed.
"Yeah, well,'' he countered, "he made a great pass to me, too. And I missed.
"So finishing it off is obviously not as easy as it looks.
"I'm just very happy to see him rewarded tonight. He took (the healthy scratch) the right way. Tough to sit out, especially being a veteran. Hasn't happened to him in awhile. But he's a great teammate. All the guys love him. We wanted him to play well.
"You could see him buzzing in the morning skate.
"And tonight, he came out flying. Just what we expected."
When informed that his centreman seemed Happy Face happy to have him back in harness and firing on all cylinders again, Frolik, too, could only smile.
"Well, I hope so."