The trio was Calgary’s most consistent line two nights ago in Minnesota. They outshot their opponents at 5-on-5 by a 15-3 margin, outchancing the Wild 6-1 (according to Natural Stat Trick).
Encouraging signs for the bench boss, and Huska is certainly optimistic that unit will cash in again soon.
“They do things right, and I think that’s important when you have a line that you know you can trust to put on the ice, when maybe a momentum isn’t on your side, that you know they’ll go out and they’ll shift it for you,” Huska explained after Tuesday’s morning skate. “They’ve always kind of been that way – Mikael and Blake – whoever plays with them, and now, I think with the pace that Sam plays at and his size and his skating ability, it allows him to kind of fit in seamlessly and up the tempo that line is capable of playing at.
“So I think they’ve done a really good job with the zone time, now it’s about doing something with the zone time. So finding a way, to generate more off of their possession time will be important for that line.”
Coleman, Huska, and the rest of the Flames traveling party would love nothing more than to walk out of Enterprise Center with two points at about 10 p.m. Central Time this evening.
And there’s a good chance Coleman’s line will be front and centre, trying to make that happen.
Trying to be catalysts on the ice.
“A line, a player, whatever it may be, it’s important that the team builds off of something like that,” said Huska. “So when you have a line that’s giving you offensive zone time, a lot of possession time, like Mikael’s line, that next line over the boards has to be committed to doing the same thing, and that’s how you build.
“That’s how you continue to go in the right direction.”
