Life is about to come fast and furious for the Calgary Flames.
Between Tuesday and Sunday afternoon, the Flames are going to be taking the ice against the Dallas Stars four times in their first-round playoff series. That’s a minimum of 240 minutes of post-season hockey, sandwiched into less than six days.
Either the Stars or Flames could see their season end in less than a week from now if their series winds up being a sweep.
“When you say it like that, you do realize you’re about to play a bunch of games in not too many days,” said Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk when asked about the schedule. “Just stay on top of it and make sure you’re taking care of yourself away from the ice. But yeah, four playoff games in (five-and-a-half days), that’s crazy.
“Hopefully, just get off to an early lead in the playoffs and that puts a lot of pressure on the other team and if you’re playing your best hockey you can probably put the team you’re playing against behind the eight-ball pretty quick.”
In a normal year, NHL teams play every two nights in the first round of the playoffs, but the disruption to the season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the league’s schedule-makers to condense things this summer.
That means rest and recovery between games are going to be even more important than usual.
The Flames and Stars start their series on Tuesday afternoon with a 3:30 p.m. MT start, before playing back-to-back 8:30 p.m. games on Thursday and Friday and finishing off the weekend with a noon start on Sunday.
That’s a lot of hockey in a short stretch, and the only thing making it easier is that neither team will have to bounce back and forth between Calgary and Dallas.
“The fact that we don’t have to put travel in between those game times, I think makes it way easier for both teams,” said Flames head coach Geoff Ward. “It will be interesting to see how both teams adjust to the differing game times and the back-to-backs, because certainly at this time of year everybody’s trying to get their team as much rest as possible so they can give everything they have in-game.
“I think you’re going to see the training staffs on both sides giving the best they can to make sure the players are recovering properly for the next game. The one issue, the travel, it’s not a factor, but maybe now the other issue may come into focus more than maybe it normally would with a two-week, every-other-day scenario with travel.”
The speed with which the games are going to come at the Flames and Stars will present challenges. Every coach emphasizes the need to focus on the shift and the game ahead of you and leave mistakes in the past, and that’s going to be even more important with so few games in such a short stretch. There’s no time to sit around and feel sorry for yourself if you make a mistake, and there’s just as little to celebrate a strong performance.
At least there’s no travel, though. Both teams agree that will help.
“It’s easier. It’s four games in five-and-a-half days, but you take the travel out and that ‘s a lot easier on both teams,” said Stars head coach Rick Bowness. “The back-to-backs are always hard, regardless, but its’s the same for both teams. When you just have to walk across the street to play, it’s a lot easier than getting on buses and planes and travelling until two in the morning. As coaches, it gives us a little more time to prepare. It gives our players more time to rest. There’s a lot of benefits to staying right here for both sides.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
