MORNING SKATE NOTES<\/p>\n
Head coach Andr\u00e9 Tourigny said there are some game time decisions for the lineup.<\/p>\n
Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar returns to Calgary for the first time since he was traded to the Mammoth in March.<\/p>\n
Welcome Back<\/p>\n
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, MacKenzie Weegar has called Calgary home. However, ahead of the 2026 Trade Deadline, the veteran defenseman waived his no trade clause and was traded to the Utah Mammoth. Tonight, Weegar will make his return to Calgary for the first time since the trade. It\u2019ll be his first time as a visiting team player since 2022.<\/p>\n
His fellow blueliner, Nate Schmidt, discussed what it\u2019s like to return to a former team ahead of tonight\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotion for him,\u201d Schmidt shared. \u201cIt\u2019s fun, it\u2019s tough sometimes playing against guys that you\u2019ve been grinding with for the last couple of years. But he\u2019s a pro. He\u2019s a veteran. He understands the notion behind it all and he chose to come to us for a reason and we\u2019re happy to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stingy Defensively<\/p>\n
The Flames have allowed the fewest goals against at home in the NHL this season (101). Schmidt discussed facing strong goaltending at the Saddledome and what the Mammoth need to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir goaltending\u2019s really good,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201c\u2026just getting in front of (Calgary\u2019s goaltenders). I\u2019m not sure who\u2019s playing tonight but both times I think we have played (Dustin) Wolf. Did a really good job of seeing the puck, but we have to do a little bit better job of getting there and making it a little bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tourigny gave an overview of Calgary\u2019s threats as well including their strong neutral zone play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to keep building our habits,\u201d Tourigny explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a few topics we did address with the team this morning and that will be our focus. Our net front battle. Calgary\u2019s a team that transitions really well. They\u2019re good in the neutral zone. They cut a lot of plays. It\u2019s one of the teams that cuts a lot of plays in the neutral zone. We want to be smart with the puck in the neutral zone and defend the net front well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORNING SKATE NOTES Head coach Andr\u00e9 Tourigny said there are some game time decisions for the lineup. Defenseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5,4,51,5290,232,5291,5289],"class_list":{"0":"post-551490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-hockey-club","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-utah","11":"tag-utah-hc","12":"tag-utah-hockey-club","13":"tag-utahhc","14":"tag-utahhockeyclub"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116395215688701849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}