1. Last Stop, Music City
The Flames landed at Nashville International Airport Monday afternoon, arriving at the final stop in their 11-day, five-city tour. It's a journey that's seen the team lay eyes on both coasts, but here in the home of country music, they'll seek to play a melody in a happy key to end the trip.
Sunday's 1-0 overtime loss in Carolina was a tight-checking affair, one that could have been decided just as fairly on the flip of a coin, but in Raleigh, Calgary collected its fifth of eight available points thus far on the away swing. The defensive commitment was there - the Flames blocked 25 shots and held the high shot-volume Carolina club to just over half of their 33.2 shots per game average - enough good things to make the effort laudable, even if the result was a frustrating one.
"I don't think there were too many chances either way," forward Matt Coronato reflected Monday. "And when they did have some, Cools (Devin Cooley) made some big-time saves.
"So I think we played a hard game. We had a few chances, just look to capitalize moving forward."
Coronato was the author of a couple of those Sunday opportunities, too, notably late in the second period when he accepted a long-distance pass from MacKenzie Weegar and was sprung in alone, only to see his snapshot strike iron behind Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi.
And if the script had been flipped with respect to the final score, we might be discussing a good road win, rather than one that slipped away.
"I think we're a team that can be effective on the road, play hard road games and battle, kind of in low scoring games like we saw last night," Coronato added. "I think we're kind of proud to play with that effort and play in those types of games.
"Moving forward, we got one more game on this trip. I think if we could come out of there with a win, it'd be a great finish to this trip."
Coronato is one of three New York state products on the roster, and the newest addition to that trio is starting to find his feet as a Flame.
It's been non-stop travel for forward John Beecher, acquired off waivers from the Bruins in mid-November. He went from making his Calgary debut close to home in Buffalo, only to spend three days in his new home before embarking on this long road trip.
"It's been quite a whirlwind, but being on the road, it's honestly nice," he offered Monday. "You get to go to a couple more dinners with the guys and hang out a little bit more, so, I mean, it was nice for me, from the standpoint of just kind of getting to know the guys a little bit better."
He's starting to find a home on the Flames penalty-kill, too. Since joining the team, Beecher ranks third among Calgary forwards with 11:15 of short-handed ice-time, a figure that represents about 35% of his time on ice per game.
Learning on the fly, while flying a lot.
"(It's) definitely getting a lot more comfortable now, just getting the systems down," Beecher explained. "It's kind of just starting to become muscle memory for me, which is nice; (I'm) not out there just thinking about everything.
"You can kind of just go out there and play."
