'WE FEEL GOOD'

Five games, four wins.
Pretty darn good to start a season.
Not to mention that the wins came against stiff competition in Colorado, Edmonton, Vegas and Carolina.
Sure, it's still a work in progress but all in all, beats the alternative.
"I think I've always said it's better to learn from wins than losses," said Blake Coleman.
He makes a good point.

"We feel good," Coleman said Monday, a day before the Flames will host Sidney Crosby and the Penguins (
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). "We've had a pretty tough schedule to start the year and I think that if you looked at it before the season started that we would be 4-1, we'd all be happy with that start. With that said, we all feel like there are areas we can improve still with one of them being 5-on-5 play and producing a bit more 5-on-5. That's was the focus of practice today, something we'll continue to build chemistry and work on.
"You don't want to have weak spot in your game. You don't want to be trading anything, you want to have everything strong but we could be talking in a few weeks and our 5-on-5 is going be rock solid and our special teams could have a rough game or whatever it is. That stuff happens in an 82-game season but over the course of it you want to be as confident as possible. We're still going to continue to focus on special teams and try to keep that strong. Five-on-five is something that could be a chemistry thing, sometimes it takes time."

The Flames powerplay has been deadly, clicking at 30% - good for sixth in the league - while the penalty-kill has been just as impressive with an 85.7% kill rate, tied for eighth.
Look no further than Saturday's win over the Hurricanes, tied up late in the game and the penalty-killers came up massive killing a four-minute 'Canes man advantage, offering little to no opportunities.
And in the end proved to be a difference maker, with Tyler Toffoli then scoring the overtime winner.
"It was great hearing the crowd cheering us on," Mikael Backlund said. "Creating a buzz in the rink. It always feels good killing off penalties especially late in games, in tie games, and especially in the four minute or two-minute mark. It felt great, and was huge to get that extra point in OT, big goal for us.
"You can't overlook the fact that our special teams have been solid and a big reason why we are where we are," Coleman added. "We have a lot off familiar faces on the kill from last year, and obviously the new guys coming have been big keys on the power play. Been great and that's why we are 4-1.
"So while 5-on-5 hasn't, maybe not been where we want it, a lot of the other things have been good and there are a lot of important parts to the game too. You look toward how teams win in the playoffs and special teams make or break that time of year."

With new faces and new look lines and pairings from a season ago, the chemistry is still a work in progress. It tends to take a bit of time and as Coleman pointed out, something that every team deals with.
"I don't know if there's a formula for how long it takes," he said. "It's different, some guys you click with almost immediately. I've had lines like that in my career where right from game one you just feel comfortable playing with the guys and you learn quick. Some guys it's different skill sets it just take a little bit longer to figure out the way they play and what makes them successful and how you can ease each other to be successful.
"Not an exact formula, obviously. Sooner better than later here, you don't want to be learning the whole season here. You want to get to the game you need to be playing. Right now we're giving it that time to marinate it and see how it shakes out."