Barn Burner: How the Calgary Flames should measure success for the rest of the season

On Thursday’s episode of Barn Burner, Boomer, Pinder, and Rhett discussed what the Flames mentality should be with the season in the final stretch and their shot at playoffs dwindling.

“All Huska has talked about after three losses in a row is process. You can’t control all these other things but you can control your process.” said Pinder. “Are you in the right spot? Are you working hard? Skate hard back to the bench. It’s all just basics here. This group isn’t going to be measured on wins and losses the rest of the way… You want to avoid the greatest concern which is veterans kicking this thing into neutral.”

Boomer: “What is your message to this group in practice, at the end of practice, before games, intermissions?”

“I really think you have to find something to keep them together. Keep that team’s core concept together. It has to be an enjoyable thing.” Rhett suggested. “There has to be something else that’s galvanizing this group if you want them to compete and it’s got to be something fun and interesting… It almost has to be organically found.”

As the segment went on, Rhett, who finished his career with the Flames, pushed that the main focus of this current group is growing a culture that players around the league want to be a part of .

“We all recognize what it is. Is there a way to make some real positives come out of the last month? I don’t think that just playing it out and saying ‘well you’re getting paid and you’re a professional’ accomplishes that… I’m talking about creating a culture in this last month where guys are pumped to play here because we haven’t had that. They’ve played very well. I’m not questioning what they have done for the year. They’ve had some outstanding performances from individual players… Use this time as a positive to grow something. Word gets out in the league… It does matter. You have to make it a place where guys still want to come and play. We can say the bullshit ‘what a great city’ but it is on the lower end of desirable places to play. If you’re winning it makes it more desirable and if you’re having fun it makes it more desirable. You have to create something that makes these guys want to stay and be here. It can’t be just a pay cheque. ”

The journey down the stretch continues on Thursday night as Noah Hanifin and the Vegas Golden Knights visit the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Watch Wednesday’s episode in full here:

Make sure to tune in to the show live Monday to Friday at 10 a.m. MT.