Flames unfazed by looming trade deadline
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DALLAS – The Calgary Flames are unfazed by Friday’s looming trade deadline, a stark contrast to a season ago when the club was subject of plenty of speculation surrounding its free agents and No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom.
A year later, sitting in the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, the mood around the group is entirely different.
“This year, totally different than other years,” head coach Ryan Huska said after the team’s morning skate in Dallas. “It doesn’t even feel like it’s happening for our team, which I quite like.”
Captain Mikael Backlund admitted that last season’s noise took its toll on the club.
“It was hard last year, all year,” he said. “Especially after Christmas, with all the rumours and everything going on. It was tough and after the deadline last year too. We lost a lot of good teammates and players. It was tough around the deadline and after. It feels a lot better this year.”
Stars head coach Pete DeBoer called it the hardest time of the year for the players.
“You can’t waste energy on stuff you can’t control, and we can’t control any of those things where I’m standing right now,” he said. “Your life potentially is getting upended, and it’s hard to mentally park that and play this week. I think everyone’s dealing with a bit of that.”
The Flames have spoken often about how healthy the team’s locker room is now without those distractions.
Huska has leaned heavily on a group of six veterans to set the right tone for a club that many thought could finish in draft lottery territory.
General manager Craig Conroy made his big move at the end of January, adding Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flames are 4-5-2 since the deal and have continued to struggle scoring goals. But the veterans on the team feel they’ve earned help and can sustain a push for a playoff spot.
“We sure have,” Nazem Kadri said. “Just fighting and clawing our way through the standings since, really, the start of the season non-stop. The guys have done a great job trying to rally…a little bit of help wouldn’t hurt.”
Winger Blake Coleman told a story of how early in his career with the New Jersey Devils, the team was scheduled to fly out around the deadline but delayed their flight by two hours so they could watch deadline coverage before leaving the airport. One of his teammates ended up getting dealt and had to get off the plane.
Similar to Kadri, he’s optimistic about the position they’ve worked themselves into.
“We feel good that we’ve put ourselves in a spot to compete,” Coleman said. “Management seems to be backing us and wants to give us tools to help us…we’ve got a lot of guys here that are built for playoff-style hockey and I feel like we could do some damage if we do get in.”
The Stars, meanwhile, embrace the fact that general manager Jim Nill habitually bolsters their roster during trade season. Forward Jason Robertson said knowing that management believes in the team season after season gives the players a jolt.
“Every year, we do something,” he said. “That gives you confidence, but we also put him in a position to do that. It goes both ways. Every year I’ve been here, he’s done something like this.”
While the Flames are enjoying the lack of noise, Stars goalie Jake Oettinger brought up the Dallas Mavericks’ shocking trade of Luka Doncic last month to the Los Angeles Lakers as an example of what a massive trade can do for a league.
Oettinger feels that the NHL could benefit from more of the in-season drama the NBA is known for.
“NBA, I feel like there’s always huge trades,” he said. “That’s what makes the league interesting. It seems like there’s been some bigger trades this season than in the past. It’s good for the sport. It makes it exciting. It gives everyone stuff to talk about.”
Flames projected lineup
Huberdeau-Kadri-Coronato
Coleman-Backlund-Farabee
Sharangovich-Frost-Pospisil
Lomberg-Rooney-Zary
Hanley-Weegar
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Pachal
Vladar
Wolf