'I'LL BE READY'

Oooh, baby.
Hockey, a new home, and little bundle of joy on the way?
Talk about a good summer for Austin Czarnik and his wife Rachel.
"We found out during the quarantine that she was pregnant," Czarnik said with that proud, papa-to-be spirit clear in his voice. "A little baby girl.
"It's been a crazy time, that's for sure. A lot of excitement for us in an otherwise difficult time.

"It's nice to get back here, feel something a bit normal again and get back to work. She's back home in Michigan, holding down the fort and taking care of everything back there."
Surely, it wasn't easy to leave home - now, more than ever.
But with the new house in order and the chance to win a Cup staring him down out west, Czarnik packed up and said his goodbyes (for now) and wrapped his mind around the 'hub city' concept.
He's one of the 11 players at camp who were not on the Flames' active roster at the time of the shutdown on March 12. Having spent most of the season with the club's AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat, Czarnik is looking to catch the eye of the coaching staff and force his way into the conversation before the Stanley Cup Qualifiers kick off on Aug. 1.
"It's a good opportunity," Czarnik said. "You've got come ready to go and obviously every time you're out there, you've got to give it your best. I'm going to work my hardest and if I'm in the lineup for the start of it, perfect.
"If not? Then I'm going to keep on working."

Czarnik appeared in eight games for the Flames this year, scoring twice and adding an assist in his final three before suffering a lower-body injury in late-October. He returned to full practice about six weeks later, but was re-assigned to SoCal with a spot on the big club no longer available.
From that point on, he tore it up with the Heat, and was the only player other than Alan Quine to finish at or above a point-per-game pace with 33 (16G, 17A) in 32 tilts.
"It went really well down there," Czarnik said. "I was really focused on shooting the puck a lot and that was one thing they were telling me to do up here as well. I was able to get some goals and make some plays down there, all year.
"The team down there was really good. We had a really good crew that was clicking on all cylinders - everyone was - and it's unfortunate that the season was cut short, because we were really making a push.
"My focus is to take what I was working on down there in Stockton and apply all that here with the Flames."
Czarnik is now focused on earning a role for what may be one of the most entertaining Stanley Cup tournaments of all time.
General Manager Brad Treliving has made it clear that no one's job is safe.
You have to earn it.
"Because of the uniqueness of the situation - camp's important," he said. "The top 20 play.
"This isn't one of these things where, 'OK, let's take the first third of the season and see how everyone does.' I don't care if you played in Stockton or if you played 10 games here or if you played 70 games here. Can you help us beat Winnipeg?
"If the answer's yes, you're in."
That's music to the ears of Czarnik, who has 121 games of NHL experience under his belt, and offers a specialized skill-set that can definitely be part of a winning equation.
"I played tons on the powerplay down there in Stockton," he said. "They had me in the same spot as they had me up here (right flank, where both of his goals came from this year with the Flames). That's my spot. I love it there.
"Everything seemed to work. I even started penalty killing, which was nice to get back on that side of things. I'm not sure what the plan is up here for me yet, but I want to be a multi-systems guy for this team.
"Whenever I'm needed, wherever I'm needed, I'll be ready."