Right Back At It

Whenever you get the call up to the big club, you want to play.

Right away, would be the obvious preference, but that rarely happens.

Dustin Wolf didn’t have to wait long to get between the pipes after being summoned to the Flames Tuesday afternoon, coming on in relief of Dan Vladar in the third period of a tilt with the Avalanche that night.

He saved all three shots he faced in the final frame in Calgary’s 6-2 loss to the visitors.

"Again, get the feet wet,” he replied of his outing following Wednesday’s practice.  “The team played pretty good in the third period so I didn’t have to do a whole lot. Again, I’ve been trying to just take it day by day, learn from the past experiences between being up here and some of the games down in the American League, and just work on becoming a better player every day."

If he got his feet wet Tuesday, Thursday marks another full jump into the pool as Wolf will get the start when the Flames host the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights at 7 p.m. (click for tickets).

“The same thing as we’ve always talked about,” said head coach Ryan Huska in his pregame morning presser of his decision in net. “Wolfie’s a really good goaltender. Danny’s had a couple of games lately where we haven’t been at our very best in front of him, so this is just a chance to give him a breather and he’ll get himself back in there right away.”

Wolf’s call-up was necessitated by an injury to Jacob Markstrom, who remains out and listed as day-to-day.

Meanwhile, Vladar has seen plenty of rubber in the team’s last two outings, part of a three-game run of losses they look to snap tonight.

While the team has seen their fair share of lineup changes due to recent trades, and have been hampered of late by injuries and illnesses, they remain focused on securing a playoff berth.

What’s done is done, what matters is what’s next.

“Obviously we’ve forgotten about those games, and we’ve done a great job this year of playing big teams the right way,” said MacKenzie Weegar. “Maybe it starts with the leadership group the last few games, not getting the energy in the right place or the mentality at the right place.

“Tonight’s a big game for everybody, I think the mood’s a bit different today, I think everybody had a bit of a reset yesterday. I expect the energy to be really high and at the end of the day, it’s mentality: how you come to the rink and how you’re prepared. Work ethic’s always been there for this team, and I thought we sort of got away from that; we gotta start working for each other again and playing for that crest on the front.”

Rasmus Andersson said the onus is on the team’s veterans to provide the critical leadership as this juncture.

“The bounce back is important, and I think it’s important for the guys that have been here for a while that we bounce back as a leadership group and just lead the team,” said. “I haven’t been playing my best lately, so I gotta step it up too; we’re playing another really good team.

“It’ll be a good night, and if we just stick to what we’re good at, work them down, it’ll be a good matchup.”

Chemistry and cohesion is key on any NHL team’s roster and there’s no doubt the shakeup in the room presents challenges to both those areas, however the team doesn’t have the luxury of, well, easing into that pool right now.

“It obviously takes a little bit of time, but we don’t have a lot of time, you’re getting to 17 games left in the season and we want to play our best every game,” said Weegar. “You find chemistry, of course, but working for one another is easy to find, you can do that at any given day for anybody, so I think that’s what we have to do for each other."