DRAWING FROM EXPERIENCE
The Calgary Flames have been underdogs all season long.
They’ve been counted out. They’ve been written off. But they’re still around as the NHL post-season narrows to eight teams.
With six rookies on the roster, Calgary has an underwhelming amount of NHL playoff experience, especially when compared to teams like the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks, but that hasn’t fazed them. If anything, playing the dark horse has helped fan the Flames in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup.
“I think we’ve got some good leaders in this group and I think we’ve got young guys that maybe don’t know better,” said Flames alternate captain and former Medicine Hat Tiger Kris Russell. “They just play, regardless of the situation.”
While Russell has yet to see the second round of the NHL post-season, he went all the way to the end and won a WHL title as a member of the Tigers in 2007, and he did it alongside current Flames teammate David Schlemko.
It’s hard to compare the experience to that of the grueling NHL playoffs, but Russell says playing in pressure situations builds character and confidence, no matter what stage they’re on.
“I think each experience you have, whether it’s junior or World Juniors or college or whatever rank you came up in, you draw from those experiences in those big games you played in. You try to bring that out in these games,” said Russell, who put up two goals and two assists in Calgary’s six-game series victory over the Canucks. “Every experience you have, you use it. We have some guys who are getting their first NHL playoffs taste and we’re going to use this experience in the next round.”
“Any level you win at helps when you’re in the playoffs. Winning a championship in the Hat (in 2007) was huge,” added Schlemko, who went on to clinch a Central Hockey League championship with the Arizona Sundogs one year after taking the WHL title with the Tigers. “Winning that Central League championship my first year pro was good, and I got a little bit of playoff experience in Phoenix. So I was able to come into this with a little bit of confidence, and it’s obviously huge to get a series win.”
Lifting the Ed Chynoweth Cup in orange and black was arguably the biggest moment of their careers at the time, but Russell admits it pales in comparison to what lies ahead.
“It’s the NHL and we’ve got a chance to play for the Stanley Cup. It’s incredible,” said Russell, a native of Caroline, Alta. “For me especially, to do it in front of my friends and family as a hometown kid wearing a Flames jersey, it’s been special.”
Russell and Schlemko went from skating laps to lift the fog in the “loudest barn in the ‘Dub” during Game 7 against the Vancouver Giants in 2007, to hearing their names belted out in one of the loudest on the planet, with volume exceeding 110 decibels during Game 6 against the Vancouver Canucks at the Scotiabank Saddledome Saturday.
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