Practice Notebook - 23.02.26

The Flames hit the ice Monday morning for a fifth practice session since returning from the Olympic break, with a three-game California road trip right around the corner beginning Thursday in San Jose.

Get caught up on the news of the day with our Practice Notebook!

Bring On The Games

It's been billed a mini Training Camp, and almost a week in, there's a desire on the part of Flames veterans to get back to live opposition.

Thursday's game against the Sharks will mark Calgary's first game action in 22 days, and after session after session of small area games and special teams work, Flames captain Mikael Backlund figures that San Jose fixture cannot come soon enough.

"It's been a good few days here and it's been fun watching hockey, but now we're all excited to get back to normal NHL schedule and get back into games," Backlund said Monday.

For Backlund, Nazem Kadri and the rest of the Calgary roster, the break offered a good opportunity to reset and recharge, but Kadri believes the week's work has been beneficial.

"It's a balance between rest and work, and trying to find that balance, make sure you're ready to go for puck drops," said Kadri. "So I think it's been a very productive few practices, that's obviously not typical when it's, you know, in mid-season.

"So I think we've taken advantage of it."

When asked about the recent work his group has put in, Head Coach Ryan Huska alluded to a steady uptick in pace and polish, exactly the right type of crescendo he's looking for ahead of three away contests in the coming days.

"Every day, I feel like we've gotten better, and that was kind of one of the objectives coming into the start of practice ... get better as a team and get better every day," the bench boss said. "And I think today was our best day that we've had yet. I think the pace was up, I think, our tempo and our execution was good.

"And I'm looking forward to one more good one (Wednesday), and then we get to get back to playing games again."

Kuzy's Korner

He's come in and done his job.

And 42 games into his first full NHL season, Yan Kuznetsov is passing just about every incremental challenge that comes his way.

The 23-year-old has developed into such a mainstay in Calgary's top four on a pairing with MacKenzie Weegar, that one reporter quizzed Head Coach Ryan Huska Monday on the significance of Kuznetsov's name not being mentioned in the same breath as fellow freshmen Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh.

"He kind of settled in where you don't really notice them all that much anymore, because your expectations for him I think have changed," explained Huska. "But he's one of those guys that when you don't notice him, he's probably at his best. And that's a positive thing for him. We love the size, we love the speed, and I think he has gotten better every game he's played.

"Sometimes in our coach's office, we talk a lot about, I forget where this guy was at the beginning of the year. Now he's playing against top lines in the NHL, and he's done a very good job with that, and he continues to get better all the time."

Marty Miles

Martin Pospisil remained absent from Flames practice Monday, two days on from his Slovak side's final appearance in the Olympic bronze-medal match in Milan.

Pospisil missed out on skating in that affair against Finland due to illness, but Head Coach Ryan Huska affirmed that once Pospisil returns to the Flames fold, he'll be ready for re-insertion back into the Calgary lineup.

Just when Pospisil will be back, though, remains to be seen. And according to Huska, the winter weather wreaking havoc on the East Coast is to blame.

"We're running into issues with the snowstorm back East, so he was supposed to be back, I believe it was later today or tonight, but his flights have been changed around," Huska said Monday. "So now we're trying to work to try to find different ways to get back.

"Worst case scenario, hopefully we can get him into San Jose, 'cause things are a mess back East right now."