Pospisil’s return to play protocol has been a slow build. Wednesday’s upcoming tilt with the Penguins is the Flames’ 50th game of the season. And if Pospisil draws in, it will be his first.
He was one of the first six skaters named to Slovakia’s roster for the upcoming Olympics, too, but Pospisil said Tuesday that pending assignment didn’t factor into his rehabilitation.
“I started skating beginning of December, so, if I (wanted) to rush it, I would probably (have played) already a couple weeks,” he said. “Of course, I want to play Olympics, but even if there is no Olympics, I would play.”
At Tuesday’s full practice - the first on Scotiabank Saddledome ice since before Calgary’s recent five-game road trip - Pospisil centred a line with Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka.
And Head Coach Ryan Huska figures that when his Slovak pivot does make his return to the lineup - be it against Pittsburgh, or further down the road - he’ll come as advertised.
“My belief is he only knows one way to play,” the bench boss explained. “I think we've seen that throughout his career. But I do wonder if he's going to be a little bit different in certain situations.
“My gut says that he's gonna be the same old 76 that we've seen over the last number of years, because that's what's he bringing into, and that's how he knows how to play the game.”
“For me, it's hard to change something, you know?,” added Pospisil. “When I step on the ice, I think I'm a different person, and it just is inside of me.
“You want to win every game, you want to help, you know, and I think when I play physical and make space for my teammates, we have a better chance to win the game.”
“They did an excellent job, finding balance where you can kind of feel like he was back to normal a little bit, giving him necessary time off and allowing him to do the things he had to do to, I think, mentally feel like he was getting better to start with,” said Huska. “And then they were very strict in his recovery routine with how much they would allow his heart rate to go up, there's all sorts of different things.
“Our guys put in a lot of time with him. Most of the heavy lifting was done by our medical group. They did an awesome job.”
Over the course of the season, Huska has mentioned Pospisil’s speed - first and foremost - when asked about his missing forward.
And he repeated that Tuesday morning.
But this time around, he’s got one more bit of hardware in his 23-man toolkit.
A sparkplug, even, that he hopes will turn up the wattage when he draws back into the fold.
"I do really feel we miss the pace,” Huska said. “I do feel like we missed his size and kind of physicality in our lineup since he's been gone.
“It’ll be nice to have him back in our lineup.”
