A big part of the narrative surrounding the start of the Calgary Flames’ season revolves around how last year ended.
Emphasizing that point is the agenda surrounding the team-building retreat in Kananaskis, where the players spent Sunday and Monday bonding.
"We’ve brought in a company out of Vermont to do a team-building thing that’s sort of really dealing with what happened at the end of the year and how we deal with it," said Flames GM Brad Treliving, whose club followed up a 107-point season with a five-game playoff exit courtesy of Colorado.
"It’s the whole idea of how you hold each another accountable and how you push each other. The company has done work with the (New England) Patriots and Wardo (assistant coach Geoff Ward) used them for the Bruins. There’s a whole science and agenda put to it."
There was a big dinner Sunday night at the lodge, an inspirational video of the Stanley Cup-winning Flames team, breakout groups and plans for a memorable finale.
"It’s all safe, but it ends with you’re 70 feet in the air and you’re relying on your teammates," said Treliving of the weather-permitting exercise.
"They worked on the whole thing on it all summer. It’s pretty powerful."
In a wide-ranging interview, Treliving spoke openly of the storylines, challenges and expectations facing a talented team that will have observers wondering all season long if the group capable of playoff success.
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Here’s an edited transcript of his Q&A:
Sportsnet: Is it fair to say what happened in the playoffs last year is going to shape the approach of this team this year?
Treliving: I don’t put all the eggs in that basket. Everybody wants to focus on the end of last year. Last year at this time people didn’t know if we were going to be a playoff team. I know the narrative always changes. Last year is over with. No. 1 is we have to stay in the moment. Our worry is Game 1.
The focus on the playoffs and everything else, well, if you get worried about winning in the playoffs, then you don’t make the playoffs. The league is too good. We have to stay present. Our focus needs to be very clear on enjoying the process we’ve got to go through. We’re going to focus on getting better.
The only thing we talk about from last year is, ‘How do we use that experience that we’ve gone through?’
Other than the Las Vegas Golden Knights two years ago, when they were a first-year team and went to the final, go study any team that’s ever won anything in any league and there’s been a process to go through. Washington knocking on the door for a bunch of years, the Raptors… I was as big a Raptors fan as anybody and I don’t follow the sport. Really, I just saw the last chapter. It wasn’t an overnight success – there was a process there too.
We’ve got to park last year but learn from it. Sometimes you’ve got to be slapped across the face to learn. I got married and used to leave the cap off the toothpaste until I got slapped a bunch of times, but you learn to put the cap back on because it’s way better than getting slapped.
Q: You’ve always hated the term "window" to describe the team’s championship opportunity, but with so many core players locked up for the next three seasons, do you not look at your time being sometime in the next three years?
A: This is a good team, but now it’s up to us to make it better every day. We expect a lot of ourselves. Contractually, we are in a pretty good situation with our players. We all know the term that’s left on them. So, yeah, we can feel confident, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. You never know when it’s your time or not your time.
There are a lot of teams that can say they’re building for two years from now. Two years from now may never come. Next year never comes in pro sports is what I’ve learned. People can talk about windows and all that stuff but what we have in front of us is an opportunity.
I think we have a good team and our players believe that too, but you never know when that opportunity is going to come in your career. Everything in pro sports is so fluid – players move around so much.
They have come back and there’s a seriousness about it. That’s not to say they weren’t before. It’s a little bit because of what they went through. As much as we want to talk about the playoffs last year, it was a damn good team for 82 games. It’s a close-knit group. They believe in themselves and now they have to go out and prove it.
The fun part is ‘how good can we be.’
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Q: How do you respond when someone suggests this is basically the same team as last year and didn’t progress in the off-season from a team with 107 points.
A: Last year we made a lot of changes, so at some point you can’t keep changing and changing. The way I look at it, we’re not the same team as last year because Rasmus Andersson is a year older. Andrew Mangiapane is a year older. Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan are a year older and, in Johnny’s case, is now looked at as a true superstar in the league who was in the Hart Trophy discussion. David Rittich is a year older and has gone through a full year in which he played the most games he ever played. Matthew Tkachuk is just coming out of his entry level and just gone through another playoff series.
So we’re not the same team. How great teams improve is internal. There’s always a chance you can go and add from the outside but if you’re not growing from within…
Sam Bennett, Oliver Kylington and Noah Hanifin are another year older, and when I say that they’re not 33 going on 34. So they’ve got all these other experiences they’ve now garnered.
What I like is you’ve got within the group people competing for more. We’ve got a lot of depth, but now it’s not just competition to make the roster but guys that didn’t get as much power-play time or kill penalties want more, guys who played top nine want to be top six. Guys that were healthy-scratched at times want to be regulars. If you can make changes to help your team you do.
We’ve got a lot of guys entering, or are in, their prime, and we’re expecting growth there.
Q: It’s expected that because of your salary-cap squeeze, you will carry a player or two players less on a roster than traditionally.
A: I’ve been asked that a lot and the idea that you don’t have to have three guys sitting out every night. It pretty much guarantees we won’t be carrying the full amount. In some ways it’s not great having guys sitting out – I’d rather them be playing somewhere. We’re going to have to manage it obviously, but I don’t look at it as a big deal.
If you have 13 forwards instead of 14, I’m not worried about it. I can tell you this, every coach I’ve had hates having extra guys. They hate having to tell guys they aren’t playing. And guys that aren’t playing usually aren’t unbelievably happy so they’d rather have less guys sitting out too.
Q: What sort of effect has Milan Lucic had early on with the team?
A: What I’ve noticed so far is how hard he works and how serious he is. He’s a guy who knows how to prepare and knows what a grind the season is and I think in a short period of time he’s had a great effect on our guys. They love the guy. He’s become a very popular teammate very quickly.
Talking to him, he’s a very smart guy in terms of just the game. He’s a historian of the game and knows what’s going on with other teams. He’s a hockey junkie. I’ve been really happy with him.
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Q: What are a few developments from camp you are excited about?
A: I like the attitude the group has had – attentive and serious. I like Rasmus Andersson’s camp – there’s a maturity to his game. With the PTO guys, I think we may have found ourselves some players that add depth. (Tobias Rieder and Zac Rinaldo have been signed. Andrew MacDonald is still a possibility.) I liked Dillon Dube’s camp. He’s played well and what I’ve said to him is, ‘It’s like an exclusive club – it’s hard to get into. When your team is not that good it’s easy to get into the club. There are some areas he needs to continue to get batter at. For any young players they’ve got to earn their stripes.
Obviously, the (Matthew) Tkachuk signing. I like the depth and goaltending of our team. David (Rittich) has been good and Cam (Talbot) built throughout camp.
I like how camp has gone.
Q: Many see goaltending as the biggest question mark on your team in terms of having to prove itself. Do you agree?
A: We know them better than the people out there. We like the combo we’ve got. We like where David’s progression has gone and the summer he had. He had a worker summer and he knew he had to do that as part of his progression. The rigors of playing a lot of games means being in top condition.
I like how they’ve connected – you can see a bond forming there.
And Cam is pushing. He’s not coming in just to be David’s caddie. He wants the net. Coming off a down year, I like the professionalism and the getting to business sort of attitude he’s had.
We like our goaltending. If they both can play to their capabilities we think it will be a strength for us.
