'Have To Be Ready'

The Flames enter Thursday’s home date with the Bruins having something in common with only three other Western Conference clubs.

A win this season against Boston.

Calgary goes in search of a series sweep at the Scotiabank Saddledome with the knowledge that nothing less than a 60 (or more) minute effort will do. Get tickets

The Bruins arrive in town having opened a four-game Western road swing with a wild 6-5 overtime triumph over the Oilers last night, meaning both teams bring a bit of momentum into tonight’s matchup.

But Flames head coach Ryan Huska downplayed the importance of catching the Bruins on a back-to-back, when asked following Thursday’s morning skate:

“I think it’s more to do with Boston’s a very good first-period team,” he said. “I think they’ve scored 60 or so, they’ve only given up 36 in the first period, so they come to play.

“So whether or not it’s back-to-back, I don’t think that necessarily matters, we have to be ready to start.”

The Bruins know all about late starts - after all, they dropped the puck on their contest in Edmonton last night at 8:22 p.m. local time - but the first meeting between these two sides this season marked one of the lone times Boston didn’t start on time.

On that Tuesday evening, Calgary got first-period goals from Andrei Kuzmenko and Connor Zary en route to a 4-1 win.

Forward Nazem Kadri had three assists in the victory; he figures the Bruins will have that setback top of mind, with an eye on redemption tonight.

“They’re obviously a great team and they’re not going to forget, but at the same time, games can unfold a bunch of different ways,” Kadri said. “Each and every game you play; that’s the great thing about hockey, they’re always different variables, no shift is ever the same.

“We’ve done our homework, I’m sure they have too, it should be a great game.”

Huska said Thursday morning there’s a bit of familiarity between the two sides, given the quick turnaround time between legs in the season series.

And he’s looking for a similar type of effort from his group tonight against the Eastern Conference leaders.

“I thought we played as a team that night, and that was the big thing for me,” he noted. “There was a lot of skating and a lot of work by our players to make sure they didn’t have a lot of room to get their game going.

“That’s kind of a recipe that we’ll need to see again tonight.”