Starting Strong

SEATTLE - The Flames are chasing history.

After Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, the club improved to 4-0-0 on the year, tying a Calgary record set by the 1993-94 and 2009-10 teams.

Tonight, a victory over the Seattle Kraken would push them into sole possession of a franchise record of 5-0-0 to kick off a campaign.

But that isn’t what the group has on their mind.

“It’s just the game,” Head Coach Ryan Huska said when asked if the record was a focal point for the group. “What’s happened the last couple of weeks or the last few games, that’s in the past. What happens tomorrow, doesn’t matter. It’s just today. That’s all we get them to focus on.”

When reflecting on the group’s start, which has Calgary standing alongside just the Winnipeg Jets as the league’s remaining undefeated teams, Huska sees a buoyed sense of self-belief in his team as the result of their strong opening handful of games.

“They feel better about themselves, for sure," he said. "You don’t squeeze your stick quite as tight when you get your first win out of the way. I think that’s one thing.

“The way we look at it, it’s every day is a new day. So, when you talk about starts, for us, that’s the first 10 minutes where we want to make sure we’re ready to play. For us, that’s really all the matters.”

The opening half of the first period has been a point the coaching staff has focused on with the group, looking to improve on setting the tone right from the drop of the puck.

“Just OK,” was Huska’s assessment of the team’s starts. “I mean, we’ve had stretches where I’ve liked the way we’ve played and then there’s stretches where I’ve thought we’ve taken on some water early. A lot of that comes down to preparation and making sure you’re (playing) simple, especially on the road. You don’t want to over-complicate anything.

“You want to make sure the approach that we take to the game is true to who we are and I feel that if we start that way, then we’ll give ourselves a chance.”

The Kraken have gotten off to a 3-2-0 start to their season and won their last two matchups. While the Flames have found success in Seattle with a 6-0-0 record at Climate Pledge Arena, they know they can’t be complacent with this gritty, deep Kraken roster.

“That's the strength of Seattle's team, is they have four forward lines that can all skate, they all play hard, they all play the same way,” said Huska.

“So, if you take a shift off on our side of things, we're not going to give ourselves an advantage in the game. We like that for us right now, because we feel like we've had four lines contributing. They've all played the same way.

"Because of that, we're expecting this to be a really good game tonight.”