20. In Calgary’s road victories over Nashville, Tampa Bay, Florida and Carolina, Mikael Backlund took 71 faceoffs. Two were in the offensive zone. Glen Gulutzan’s security blanket.
21. On Monday’s edition of Hockey Central at Noon, Gulutzan was asked if his harsh words after a 5-1 loss in Montreal on Jan. 24 were a turning point: “Honestly, those words zero. If we fast-forward to after that game, we took the train from Montreal to Ottawa on the day off in-between…The players are in the front car and usually there is some beer. We took it off the car and everybody was mad. I walked up to the player car during that trip and saw that everybody had their headphones on, just staring forward, watching their movies or whatever they were doing. I talked to a couple of our veterans and said, ‘Do you guys need a beer here, or what?’ And they’re like, ‘Yup.’ So I went and got the beer tub and I set it down and said, ‘Take your headphones off, sit down and have a couple of beers, and let’s figure this thing out.’ Got them a little bit more lively. The next day was a day off. Following day was the game against Ottawa, we went around the room and not a rip session, but an honesty session of what we needed from each player and what the expectations were…To sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the guys was probably the biggest thing.”
The Flames beat the Senators 3-2 in a shootout and are in great post-season shape now.
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Sam "Beard" Bennett
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Funny thing here is that the biggest change to improve the top line was placing the one guy who you know wasn't drinking any of that beer on that line with them.
Friedman's 30 Thoughts: The story behind the Flames’ turnaround
