DALLAS – Mikael Backlund has been in this position before, as have most of his teammates.
Heck, so have most Calgary Flames fans, as the team has lost Game 2 an incredible 12 times in a row dating back to 2004.
Whether you call Thursday’s 2-0 loss to the Dallas Stars a setback, adversity or simply the playoffs, the focus now, in a room full of battle-scarred Flames, is to learn from the past by taking it all in stride.
“Yeah, I felt in the past, 2018-19, we got really high off the first game and really low off the second game and just could never really recover from that loss at home against Colorado,” said Backlund of the ill-fated, five-game faceplant that was as educational and motivating as it was painful.
“It feels way different now going into Dallas. You learn from your past mistakes. For me personally, yeah, that’s how I go about life. I’m just really excited about (Saturday). Better feeling than a few years ago.”
Sure, goals have been hard to come by against a club with a long history of stinginess.
But the sound defensive structure of Darryl Sutter’s team has made it equally as hard on the Stars to find the net, in a 1-1 series with just three goals.
The only thing tougher to watch than a Stars game is trying to penetrate the forcefield Rick Bowness’s bunch has built around goalie Jake Oettinger.
Breaking through that will be key.
However, now that Dallas has stolen home-ice advantage, what matters most is the reaction from a Flames group that was bolstered last summer with Stanley Cup-winning experience for just this moment.
The mantra from past winners like Blake Coleman, Trevor Lewis, Tyler Toffoli and Milan Lucic is simple — stay the course.
“We’re a playoff experienced group this year,” said Backlund, before jumping on a charter for Dallas where Game 3 goes Saturday.
“A lot of guys have played a lot of playoffs and have had some tight series, so they know what it’s like. For us who have been here for a lot of years now, we’ve learned from the past. We know you just have to bounce back the next game and keep that energy and keep that confidence that we’re the better team and we want to go out and show it.”
As confident as the Pacific Division champs were coming into the series, they were pretty sure they weren’t going to win 16 in a row.
“Yeah, that’s very true — I don’t think that has ever happened in the NHL,” smiled Backlund, one of the better Flames in Thursday’s loss, which saw the Stars push back physically, forcing more turnovers.
“It’s a very tight league. You look at all the other series. Pretty much everyone’s tied, except for two. It’s a close league. We weren’t expecting to win 16 in a row. We’re still hoping we will win those 16, but we’ve got to take it day-by-day and shift-by-shift.”
The key moving forward will be to bear down on the limited chances Calgary is able to generate through the clutter in the Stars’ zone.
“You’re not going to get a whole bunch (of scoring chances) — we’re getting the same amount we get in the regular season and we’re giving up fewer,” pointed out Sutter.
“You have to have a real shooting mindset. You can’t get frustrated. That’s what they said after Game 1, ‘you can’t try to pass through four guys.’ You’re better off playing a little bit more of a direct game. That’s playoff hockey, for the people who haven’t watched it live for a while.”
Whispers suggesting Calgary’s top line is disappearing again are premature, as the trio pressed well against an experienced core of Stars checkers who clogged lanes, blocked shots, forced misses and pressured intensely.
When pressed, Oettinger was ready.
The Flames simply haven’t finished — yet — in the type of tight series they’re comfortable playing.
It’s reasonable to believe that with Sutter at the helm, the Flames will find ways to better adapt than they did against Dallas two years ago in the playoff bubble.
“There’s going to be ups and downs during a playoff series,” said Andrew Mangiapane, whose club had the league’s second-best road record this season.
“It’s never going to be easy to beat a team four games. We didn’t think it was going to be easy coming into it, so just gotta go out there and continue to play our game.
“We’ve been good on the road. We’re a good team. Have a team dinner tonight and start feeling good about ourselves, get that team bonding and everything back up and just go out there and just play our game. I still don’t think we’ve done that yet this series for a full 60.
“And I think it’s about time that we show them how we play.”
