After Game 1, the Flames had a number of notable standouts: an old goalie, a rookie, a shutdown centre and his trouble-making winger. Possibly shutdown centre aside – because we’ve seen him at this before – everyone is still, to an extent, kind of an unknown. You praise the first game, while wondering if they can bring it for the second. And that has to be the goal: there’s no time for resting on any laurels, they’ve got to bring it for the second.
That’s not to say Game 2 will fall on the shoulders of Mike Smith, Andrew Mangiapane, Mikael Backlund, and Matthew Tkachuk.