Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman’s Saturday Headlines on the Calgary Flames, and captain Mikael Backlund trying to help quiet the noise.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “Okay, so we’ll see. We’ll start we’ll start out in Calgary playing against the Islanders. And you know, everybody knows there’s been a lot of talk about Calgary’s defenseman in particular. Nothing imminent. I think, no doubt though they’re taking a lot of calls and there’s definitely been a lot of conversation about what they want to do and when they want to do it.
I think one of the things that’s going to develop here, that some of the teams interested in trading with want to know is, will we get to a point where the Flames allow these teams to talk to some of these players about extensions? That could improve the deal for Calgary.
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We’ll see where that goes over the next little while, but the other thing that happened in Calgary this week came from their Captain Mikael Backlund. From what I understand Backlund spoke to some of the players. I don’t know if it was in a group or if it was one-on-one, but he said we have to end the noise. There are too many distractions around the team to remember what happened last Friday night with Zadorov. He just said enough of that. we have to concentrate on playing if you don’t want to be here, let the general manager know, and we’ll figure it out. But for as long as you’re here, no more noise we have to play and it’s one of the reasons that Calgary had a pretty good week.”
Ron McLean: “Jen, what do you think of that?”
Jennifer Botterill: “Well, I mean, I think it’s great. Classy move by Backlund and just as a sign of respect for your teammates. If you’re part of that organization, I feel you got to focus on playing and playing the right way. So I think a great move by him.”
Kevin Bieksa: “It’s called being a professional, right? It’s part of being a professional hockey player and a professional athlete, is everyone has their own job to do but ultimately you’re part of a big team that’s trying to win hockey games.
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So, your personal agenda, whether you want more ice time, whether you want to move teams has to be set aside or kept quiet. great move by Backlund, who’s an early captain, but something that probably needs to be done in Calgary.