Neal aims to instill winning attitude with Flames

CALGARY -- James Neal is hoping to help turn the Calgary Flames into contenders.

The 31-year-old forward, who signed a five-year, $28.75 million contract (average annual value $5.75 million) with the Flames on July 2, has a grasp on the process after advancing to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons.
"It's the belief that you can win, and a belief that you can go out every night and win a hockey game, no matter if you're down by two goals or up by three … you know you're going to win the game," he said after an informal practice with the Flames on Wednesday. "I think when you are on teams like that, you build a belief in your locker room that you're not going to be beat. You go out every night with a winning mindset. Losing never crosses your mind.
"I think we'll start to build that. We're going to build something special here. I know that. We've got the right guys here to do that. We haven't scratched the top of the surface here. We're getting there, and hopefully I'm a guy who can come in and help us get to the next level."
Calgary has qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs once, in 2017, in the past three seasons and twice in the past nine seasons.
Neal, who had had 44 points (25 goals, 19 assists) in 71 games with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18, has gone to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons. He played with the Nashville Predators in the 2016 Final, won by the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games, and with the Golden Knights in the 2017 Final, won by the Washington Capitals in five games.

His experience is a welcome addition for the Flames.
"[Neal] is just a winner," goaltender Mike Smith said. "To be in two Stanley Cup Finals in two different years with two different teams is pretty impressive, and probably not been done too many times. Hopefully he can make it a turkey this year and we can help him out with finishing it off. He's just a solid veteran player throughout the course of his career that is relied upon to score, but he's a good leader also. He brings that aspect too."
Neal will help on another front, too; he has scored at least 21 goals in each of his first 10 NHL seasons, and will add to a Flames offense that ranked 27th in goals scored in 2017-18 with 216.
"I've watched [Neal] for a while now," said center Sean Monahan, 23, who had a Flames-high 31 goals last season and has scored at least 22 goals in each of his first five NHL seasons. "He plays a different style of game than a lot of guys in the League. He puts the puck in the net. He plays tough. He's hard to play against. He makes plays. He cares about winning. I think to add a guy like that to our team, it's going to be a big difference."
Neal will begin that task with the Flames at the 2018 O.R.G. NHL China Games, a pair of preseason exhibition games in Shenzhen and Beijing, China, on Sept. 13 and 17, against the Boston Bruins.
"It's going to be good," he said. "I haven't been to China before, so it'll be quite the time-change, maybe a bit of a culture shock, for sure. That's OK. We'll enjoy each other and have some good practice over there, get a couple games under our belt.
"You get to know each other pretty quick, for sure."
The bonding will help erase some of the disappointment from a season ago that prompted plenty of change in Calgary. The Flames were 37-35-10 last season and finished 11 points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
That led to Calgary firing Glen Gulutzan as coach on April 17 and replacing him with Bill Peters six days later. On June 23, the Flames acquired forward Elias Lindholm and defenseman Noah Hanifin in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes for defenseman Dougie Hamilton, forward Micheal Ferland and defenseman prospect Adam Fox.
Along with the addition of Neal, Calgary signed forward Derek Ryan to a three-year, $9.375 million contract (AAV: $3.125 million) and forward Austin Czarnik to a two-year, $2.5 million contract (AAV: $1.25 million), each on July 1.
Neal could play on the Flames' first line with Monahan and 25-year-old forward Johnny Gaudreau, who had an NHL career-high 84 points (24 goals, 60 assists) in 80 games last season.

"It's a great young core of players they have here, up front and on the back end, and a great goaltender in [Smith]," Neal said. "This is a team that's got a lot of potential and I think for me coming in here, I'm going to add some leadership, add some experience and bring what I can do to this team and do everything I can to get us back in the playoffs."