1. Nothing Rhymes With Orange
Week 1 of this 14-day Flames road trip wraps up tonight with a date against the Ducks.
And even with temperatures north of 30 degrees Celsius, and the Angels opening their home slate this weekend across the street, there's still a big focus on hockey in Orange County.
Anaheim is pushing for the playoffs, and tonight, the task for the Flames is to do what they can to derail those plans.
The three prior meetings have resulted in three coin tosses, all requiring overtime or a shootout, so even after a pair of difficult defeats to start the trip, Calgary can take some solace in the fact they've played well against the Ducks this season.
One area that Head Coach Ryan Huska is insistent on cleaning up, though, is his team's discipline.
The Flames have surrendered 10 powerplay opportunities in the first two games of the trip, and for his team's fortunes to change, Huska knows full well that the trips to the sin bin have got to stop.
"We took a lot of penalties tonight again," he said after a 6-3 defeat Thursday that saw the Golden Knights earn a half-dozen man-advantage opportunities. "There's been a few games in a row where we're taking too many penalties.
"For us right now, you can't do that. You don't play the people in the right situations that we want guys in, and you overplay other people."
But two guys that can play in just about every situation right now are veterans Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. The duo helped drive a lot of the positive momentum two nights ago - Coleman potting a pair of goals - and against an Anaheim team that can dole out physicality, Huska is mindful that the pair (and linemate Joel Farabee) can withstand some hits, like they did against the Golden Knights.
"They were one of the lines that I thought, you know, they handled the heaviness of the game," Huska said in Vegas. "There was some heavy hockey tonight at times, and I thought that was one of our lines that was able to handle that."
The team flew from Las Vegas to Long Beach Friday afternoon and did not skate prior to the 90-minute flight.
It never rains in Southern California - so the Albert Hammond song goes - and no doubt, the Flames would like their final visit here to lead to sunny dispositions all 'round.
