Tough guy Prout Beefs up flames
Flames’ fortunes depend in part on better home-ice effort,
They must be better at home and the Calgary Flames know it.
It has to start Saturday night with the Vancouver Canucks in town for the Saddledome opener. It’s an opportunity for the Flames to avenge a 5-2 loss in Wednesday’s curtain-raiser on the West Coast.
Even more specific than that, it has to start right after the national anthem and not when many fans are already drowning a third pint or digesting a second Pocket Dawg.
“I think it all starts with the first 10 minutes,” said Flames sparkplug Matthew Tkachuk. “I remember a lot of times last year we weren’t bad at starting, but we would just never get that one goal that would maybe ...
“Timely goals are something we didn’t get at all last year. I think timely goals will be the difference in making this a hard place to play.”
Statistically speaking, the Saddledome was hardest on the hosts last season.
Among their many undoings during an underachieving campaign, the Flames struggled to a 17-20-4 record in front of the C of Red.
It’s hardly a coincidence that each of the 16 playoff invitees posted a winning mark in their own buildings.
“Whatever happened in the past is gone and we can’t change that. All we can do is worry about Saturday and make this a hard place to play and that will be our goal,” said starting goalie Mike Smith, who will be rocking a Mike Vernon-inspired mask as the Flames wear their retro uniforms for the back half of this home-and-home set against the Canucks (8 p.m., CBC/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
“I know from our talk after (Wednesday) that we weren’t happy with obviously the outcome, but just the way we started the game. So I think our start will be very important, to come out on our toes and ready to play from the drop of the puck. If we do that, that will carry us through the rest of the game.”
And, hopefully, beyond.
You could argue there’s not as much of a home-ice advantage as there once was in the NHL.
Long gone are the days of commercial travel with road teams now skipping from city to city on charter flights.
They study the science of body recovery and it’s not like their mattresses at home can be that much more comfortable than whatever Fairmont, Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton they’re staying in.
(On Saturday, the Canucks should be especially well rested since they can’t stay up late playing Fortnite. Or something like that.)
Still, it’s crucial for a team to have success in their cosy confines and not simply to keep their ticket holders happy.
Consider this: The Flames collected 46 road points in each of the last two campaigns. When they were 24-17-0 at their own address in 2016-17, they were playoff bound. Last season, with 10 fewer points to show for their Saddledome dates, they started their vacations in early April.
“We just need to play competitive hockey here,” said Flames defenceman Michael Stone, now skating on the second pairing after Friday’s announcement that Travis Hamonic is out week to week with a facial fracture. “Don’t try to do the fancy thing just to please everyone. We need to play road hockey, essentially. There should be no difference, but there is. We just need to play the right way. And I know it’s such a cliché answer, but that’s what needs to happen. When guys are trying to do too much, that’s when we get into trouble.
“I think we need to carry the momentum from what the building gives you as well. And if things aren’t going well, we need to find a way to turn that around and build that momentum back up.”
To Stone’s point, the Saddledome faithful will cheer every tally for the gents in red, whether it’s a dazzling deke on a breakaway, a top-shelf howitzer or a deflection off a rump in front.
Really, they just want to see wins.
During Darryl Sutter’s reign, the home strategy was for the lunch-bucket crew to muck it up at every opportunity, to wear down its out-of-town guests.
That’s not the case anymore, but a squad that piles up points in its own arena is intimidating in a totally different way.
“Obviously, it’s a different team now. It’s more skill, so you have to score and play fast and still play hard,” said Craig Conroy, a focal point for the Flames for much of the 2000s and still around as an assistant general manager. “If you let teams come in and dictate what they want to do, then they’re going to have success. So we want to set the tone early and make it a place where we’re dictating what’s going on.
“For us, one-third of the team is new. We have a new coaching staff. So we really want to set the tone and build an identity here of what this team is going to be. But you have to earn that. You don’t say what (your identity) is. You earn it.”
That has to start Saturday, right from the opening faceoff.