When asked how to fix what ailed them, he was - not surprisingly - right to the point.
"Our starts, emotional engagement, physical engagement, and our execution with the puck," he deadpanned Wednesday follow practice, a day after a heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat 4-3 overtime victory against the Arizona Coyotes at the Scotiabank Saddledome, a win that required a late rally to dig out of a 3-1 hole.
"You've got to provide a dimension. Everyone's clear on what they do to help a hockey team win games, and you've got to provide that each and every night and start on time. Our starts haven't been good enough, so you've got to get prepared - individually - to start, and that collectively it gives us a chance to start on time."
They were relying too much on late-game heroics and third-period desperation hockey to get their points.
They needed consistency, and they needed it off the hop.
When they took to the ice against the Garden State Gang, they did, as asked, hit the ground running, so to speak.
They were physical, finished their checks, skated with purpose, moved the puck with crisp tape-to-tape passes, and came back hard to break up Devils' possessions in their zone.
It was one of their stronger opening frames, which the team built off of for a four-goal second period en route to a 5-2 win.
They outshot the Devils 17-4 in that dominating middle stanza, 26-13 in the first 40 minutes.
Noah Hanifin had a big night for the Flames, scoring a goal and adding a couple helpers, while Big Save Dave enjoyed a relatively quiet night by his recent standards turning aside 21 shots.
The refs kept their whistles quiet early in the game, leading to quick end-to-end action.
They finally sent someone to the bin at the 12:46 mark, Nikita Gusev banished for tripping Tobias Rieder, the speedy forward turning up ice with the puck after a turnover but having his skate whacked out from under him.
The Flames struggled to get pucks on net during the man-up chance, failing to register a shot.
A scant 58 seconds after the penalty expired, rookie Jack Hughes - the 2019 first-overall pick - split Calgary's D, bouncing of Mark Giordano and then skating in alone on Rittich, using a lightning-quick forehand-backhand-forehand to wrap the puck around the Calgary 'tender.
The Flames started the second period on a powerplay with Wayne Simmonds off for slashing, Hanifin nearly knotting things up with his wrister beating Mackenzie Blackwood but ringing off the inside of the pipe and firing out into the far corner.
No matter.
Derek Ryan took it upon himself a few minutes later to split the D himself at full speed, before cutting in on Blackwood and deftly depositing a lovely backhand over the goalie's blocker 3:03 into the middle stanza.
Michael Stone - who drew back into the lineup on the blueline - got a helper, as did TJ Brodie.
