1. Views From The Six
The Flames flew East Thursday morning in advance of a three-game, all-Canadian road swing that begins tonight in Toronto.
The road is about to become an awfully familiar place, too.
Seven of Calgary’s next nine contests will take place away from the friendly confines of the Scotiabank Saddledome, but tonight’s contest in the Big Smoke serves as a homecoming of sorts for a few Flames.
Andrew Mangiapane and Chris Tanev both call Toronto home; MacKenzie Weegar returns to his home province, as does Nazem Kadri, who spent parts of 10 seasons as a Maple Leaf.
Even Connor Zary, he of three NHL games played, has family ties in Canada’s most populous province.
“I’m really excited to be there, it’s a team that’s always been on TV as a kid growing up, a kind of media Mecca, the centre of the hockey world,” Zary told the *FlamesTV Podcast* earlier this week. “My brother’s out in Ontario, and I have some other friends and family, so I think it’ll be pretty cool to hopefully see them, and just be in Toronto.”
Head Coach Ryan Huska is also looking forward to taking in what Toronto has to offer, and he figures the Eastern Canadian players on his roster will rise to the occasion.
“The one thing, when you go back East, to these Canadian cities, there is a lot of family and friends around, but I feel like that brings the best out of of the players as well,” Huska said Wednesday. “Every time I’ve been to Toronto, or Montreal, we seem to get the best out of our players and I’m expecting that trend to continue.”
For Zary, tonight’s matchup offers a chance to build on an emerging camaraderie with Kadri. The rookie and the veteran have brought out the best in each other since Zary’s callup from the Calgary Wranglers.
Tonight’s contest, in Kadri’s old stomping grounds, will resonate with the 22-year-old.
“I can think of highlights of Naz playing in Toronto, even probably the first time I think back of him. I remember being a younger kid, coming into my teens, and just seeing Naz in Toronto, and how successful he was as a young guy,” Zary told the Flames TV Podcast.
“To have a guy like that in the middle is pretty special and something you don’t want to take for granted, it’s someone you can learn from every day.”
The all-Canadian swing might be coming at an ideal time, too, for Calgary.
Consecutive wins have the Flames on track again, though Huska offered a level-headed approach when asked this week about his team’s confidence level.
“Confidence is earned, that’s really what it comes down (to), for me and it’s the same within a team setting,” Huska said. “If you do things the right way, eventually, over time, it pays off, and you earn the confidence or you earn the result, or whatever’s going to come your direction, based on the work you’re putting into it.”
It’s an opportunity for this Flames group to build on momentum earned on the strength of two comeback wins over Seattle and Nashville.
An opportunity, too, to put on a show under the glow of hockey’s biggest spotlight.
In team news, the Flames recalled goalie Dustin Wolf from the AHL's Wranglers Thursday.
