Rookie Sam Bennett, who made his NHL debut in the regular-season finale against the Winnipeg Jets, could see some postseason action. Hartley said he wouldn’t finalize his lineup until Tuesday night and wasn’t ruling anything out.John Woods/The Canadian Press
Only 16 points separated the best and worst teams that qualified for the 2015 NHL playoffs – the narrowest gap between top and bottom since the last years of the Original Six.
That speaks to parity, and suggests that if there was ever a year when every postseason team has a chance, this might be it. The team on the bottom playoff rung this year is Calgary, with 97 points in the regular season. It makes them an underdog to go on a deep playoff run, which is also exactly the status they want heading into postseason play.
Playing the part of an NHL long shot is a key tenet in Bob Hartley's coaching modus operandi, in which he tries to take pressure off his young, inexperienced team.
"At every party that has been organized at the NHL this year, we've always gotten the last invitation – and by the time we got there, all the sandwiches were gone," is how Hartley described the Flames' season, following their Monday practice at the Scotiabank Saddledome. "So we're used to this and we're okay with this. We'll come in and try to pick up the crumbs."
And just in case anyone missed the tone and implications, Hartley went on to describe the Canucks as "favourites in all departments. We feel just lucky to be here. But at the same time, we're not backing off from any challenges. That's not in our DNA. We'll try to prove ourselves right again. We know we're facing a team with basically no weaknesses. They have speed, size and great goaltending. I think it's going to be a great matchup."
Two of the Flames' most important players, centre Sean Monahan and defenceman Kris Russell, didn't practice Monday, but Hartley said not to read anything into that development, and that both would play when the series opens Wednesday in Vancouver.
Another possibility is that rookie Sam Bennett, who made his NHL debut in the regular-season finale against the Winnipeg Jets, could see some postseason action. Hartley said he wouldn't finalize his lineup until Tuesday night and wasn't ruling anything out.
Bennett's presence would further reduce the average age of a team that has only a handful of players with meaningful playoff experience, and only two – Jiri Hudler with the Detroit Red Wings and Brandon Bollig with the Chicago Blackhawks – who've won Stanley Cups.
Calgary's fortunes will depend heavily on how they handle the Canucks' dynamic offensive duo of Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
"Year after year, they're very offensively powered," Flames forward Mason Raymond said of the Sedins, with whom he played for the first six years of his NHL career. "The power play is definitely where they do a lot of their work, but all over the ice, they can be dangerous, so you've got to be aware of them, and make their lives as miserable as possible."
With team captain Mark Giordano still out indefinitely because of a biceps tendon injury, it will fall to Calgary's shutdown defence pair of Dennis Wideman and Russell to neutralize the Sedins.
Hartley put Wideman and Russell together as a defensive pair in the third game of the regular season and they've been lights-out good for Calgary ever since, developing the sort of chemistry that matters as much – or more – to defence pairs as it does to forward lines.
"With us, with D pairs, you have to know what the other guy is going to do and where he's going to be, especially if you're under pressure with the fore-check," said Wideman, who has previously played in 44 NHL playoff games. "A lot of times, I know where Russ is or where he's going to be, so I can just put a puck there and have confidence that he's going to get it out, or make a play."
Young teams that make playoff breakthroughs often falter in the opening round. On the night the Flames eliminated Los Angeles from playoff contention, Kings captain Dustin Brown compared the Flames to last year's Colorado Avalanche, a team that unexpectedly won the tough Central Division, but couldn't carry regular-season success into the playoffs.
But Vancouver can't take these Flames lightly. The 97 points they earned this season are the most by a lowest-ranked playoff team in NHL history. And in many ways, the Canucks represent the ideal first-round opponent, a long-time rival that Calgary matches up with reasonably well against. The key, according to Wideman, is to carry regular-season momentum into the playoffs.
"As the year went on, with every win, our confidence grew," he said. "You could feel it in the room as we started winning. We were starting to beat teams we shouldn't beat and it was like, 'Whoa, okay.' We felt like we could play with anyone, especially with our work ethic."
As for playing the underdog card, starting goalie Jonas Hiller – the oldest player on the team at 33 and someone with a sparkling career .933 playoff save percentage – says: "I still don't think we're the team that everybody believes is going to win the Cup, but we've proven we can play against most teams and win against most teams, and so you want to do it in the playoffs, too. At the same time, there are 16 teams that all found a way to make the playoffs. There are no bad teams, so it's going to be a battle every night, and we just have to be ready and leave everything out there."