1. Knight Time
Another week, another daunting back-to-back scenario for the Flames.
But to a man, they’re ready to tackle the challenge head-on, as Calgary prepares to host Vegas Tuesday night (GET TICKETS) before jetting to Utah to face the Mammoth Wednesday.
Thanksgiving Sunday brought a (chilly) breath of fresh air, and after a brisk skate Monday, head coach Ryan Huska and his charges are back on task ahead of the first of two meetings this week versus the Golden Knights.
“We were in a stretch of three in four nights where I think the day off was earned for the players, or it was smart for them to have it, and now we’re in a tougher stretch again coming up,” the Flames bench boss explained post-practice. “So I feel like we accomplished a few things that we wanted to hit on, that we needed to correct from last game, and now it’s get ready for Vegas (Tuesday) night.”
Matt Coronato netted his first two goals of the season the last time out, a 4-2 setback to the Blues that saw Calgary generate 17 high-danger chances across all situations.
The Flames’ leading point-getter is optimistic those quality chances will start to fall in more frequently, but admits it’s up to he and his teammates to keep generating.
“I think it feels good always to contribute,” he said of his work Saturday afternoon. “I think as a group, we can probably – me included – do a better job around the net bearing down.
“I think that’s going to be an important part of the puzzle for us.”
Huska tinkered with his defence pairings (more on that in Lineup Notes below), but to summarize, rookie Zayne Parekh was placed on a pairing with Joel Hanley, while the MacKenzie Weegar – Daniil Miromanov duo that started the 2024-25 campaign is back together.
And for the head coach, positioning Parekh with a steady, no-nonsense defender like Hanley might well be a winning combination.
“We talk a lot about Joel being an easier guy to play with, because he’s always in the right spots,” Huska said. “He keeps his game very simple, and I think he’s very trustworthy and reliable.
“I think for a younger defenceman, having someone that he could lean on in a lot of different situations could possibly be a good thing. So we’re a big believer in Joel’s ability to play the game, and we think he might be a good fit there.”
Lineup fluidity has been a talking point since the first regular season practice, when the Flames were obligated to meet the NHL’s roster deadline.
And the blueline is perhaps the best example of that constant state of synthesis.
For Huska, the shuffling is all being done with a simple goal in mind: to find the proverbial third bowl of porridge, a combination that hits just right.
“We’re trying to put the best six on the ice at any given time, that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said. “We feel like we have a lot of depth on our back end right now where there’s a lot of guys that are capable of playing in a lot of situations, but ultimately, in my perfect world, there’s six guys that say ‘That’s it, I’m not coming out of the lineup.’
“That’s ideally what I’d like to see happen, now having said that, I think guys have given us good games and there’s not necessarily a reason why we’ve switched it around other than opponent, and trying to find something that really works for the group of three pairs.”
