"The good thing is they always say 'bye week' but it was really only four days. It is nice, though, not to have a couple days when you're not feeling you'd been hit by a truck.
"So my wife and I went back to our property, did a lot of ice-fishing, Ski-Doo-ing. Minus-40.
"My kind of break.
"It was welcome. But I'm ready for some hockey."
They all are.
In a rare matinee fixture Saturday, the Flames endeavour to extend a seven-game win streak when they face the Winnipeg Jets, also trying to scrape off a thin layer of the rust built up by a just-concluded break of their own.
A 4 p.m. practice Friday at the Scotiabank Saddledome helped Glen Gulutzan's surging crew to get back in the routine.
"When you're rolling the way we were, it's probably best to keep playing games." acknowledged centre Matt Stajan. "But, at the same time, we knew our schedule.
"The mindset was to go into the break feeling good about ourselves and playing well. We accomplished that. Now we've got to regroup.
"These are four big games before the all-star break. Before, we only had the Christmas and all-starbreaks. For years. So this is new for everybody.
"As players, the schedule's a grind. So when you can take a break, mental as much as physical - just to get away for a little while - it's important.
"Nobody's complaining. You take the time off when you can."
Rest the body, clear the mind.
To that end, pivot Mikael Backlund and fiancee Frida jetted south to Sonoma, Calif., to partake of a wine-tasting excursion.
"It was easier going into this break than the Christmas one, when we had the tough loss to Montreal,'' he said. "Of course, we hope to carry-over the feeling from the last seven games.
"The PK was great, we only gave up one goal. The goaltending was good, as it's been all year. We had all four lines rolling, producing.
"And you need some bounces. We were outshot in every game of the last road-trip and still found a way to win all four games.
"It's been an important stretch for us."
Recapturing the mojo doesn't worry the head coach in the slightest.
"It's there,'' reported Gulutzan post-practice. "The guys are happy to see each other, too, right? They're back. They've had their time in the sun or wherever they went.
"They're looking forward to getting back at it.
"I thought we had a good practice today, good energy and we kinda picked up right where we left off. Went through some video from Carolina (a 4-1 trip-ending conquest of the 'Canes) like any other day, as if we'd played yesterday.
"We've gotten good goaltending all year. During this last little stretch, the penalty kill's really come around, we've started to score a little bit easier and our powerplay's scored some timely goals, even though we think it can be better.
"At the end of the day, you add that to the goaltending and we've started to get wins out of it."
In piecing together the success streak - three Ws off the franchise record - the Flames pole-vaulted themselves into one of the 16 allotted playoff spots in a claustrophobic Western Conference.
Meaning from here on in, they control their own destiny.
"Exactly,'' said Backlund. "Now we've got to keep pushing each other. We'll see how long this streak goes on but no matter what, we've just got to keep focusing on what's in front of us."
