{"id":123218,"date":"2025-09-06T01:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123218\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T01:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:58:07","slug":"flames-weegar-finding-fuel-in-last-seasons-shortfall-olympic-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123218\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames’ Weegar finding fuel in last season’s shortfall, Olympic chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 When we last saw the Calgary Flames<\/a>, they carried a jumbo-sized chip on their shoulder to get within one point of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

The players\u2019 fury over being counted out by most prognosticators last fall fuelled the team to a shocking 96-point effort that left them two points back of Cup-winning Florida, and five better than two playoff teams in the East.<\/p>\n

A goal in the dying seconds of Minnesota\u2019s last game meant Calgary lost the tiebreaker for the West\u2019s final playoff spot, prompting Flames GM Craig Conroy to return almost the same up-and-coming team that finished 11-3-2 down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Optimism in camp will be high.<\/p>\n

Still, as MacKenzie Weegar<\/a> revealed in a long chat, you can expect the ol\u2019 us-against-the-world mentality as a chief motivator come puck drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things that pisses me off, because I know the kind of team we have, and I want those expectations to be higher,\u201d said Weegar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still that \u2018no respect\u2019 thing for Calgary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

And while you can bet some hockey experts will pick the Flames to continue their growth by ending a three-year playoff drought, the club has yet to move the needle down south, where the average fan will have a hard time finding them featured in higher-profile games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can still carry that little edge that we had last year that motivated us, that expectations are still low for this team,\u201d said Weegar, who returned to Calgary Tuesday, following a whirlwind summer that saw him get married several weeks before attending Hockey Canada\u2019s orientation camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be on the national stage representing Calgary, with other cities watching us. That\u2019s the recognition we deserve after a good season, and sometimes we still don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s going to be some experts out there who see our team improving, which I think we will. And I won\u2019t disagree with those experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s still those little things you notice. We still had 96 points, but lost due to a crappy tiebreaker. If not, we would have been in the playoffs, and maybe we would have got more (respect).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s internal, and it fires me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motivation won\u2019t be an issue for the 31-year-old, whose three-day Olympic confab with 41 other Canadian hopefuls should serve him well moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many times I got goosebumps during the whole camp, it was kind of just one thing to another,\u201d said Weegar, citing a video from the coaches featuring great Canadian sporting moments as a highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the moment I kind of felt it was surreal was when I was trying on the Lululemon gear. They were like, \u2018This jacket is for the opening ceremony, and this jacket is for the podium, and this one is for the closing ceremony,\u2019 and I was just trying all these clothes on and looking in the mirror and saying, \u2018Jeez, this is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there was breakfast with Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore one of the meetings about drug testing, I\u2019m sitting there having a coffee and then Sid sits next to me,\u201d said Weegar, who got to know Crosby a bit while playing at the world championships earlier in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThen Doughty sits next to me. I grew up idolizing Doughty. He\u2019s an absolute riot.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be in their presence, and sitting down with them, you\u2019re trying to eat your eggs, but you want to listen to everything they\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always remind myself I\u2019m there for a reason too. I\u2019m sure they have respect for me being there too, but for me it just goes so much further for those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former 20-goal scorer hopes to use his invite as one of 13 Canadian defencemen as a springboard of sorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left there so inspired and motivated to make that team that I think it\u2019s going to be a big year for me,\u201d said Weegar, who had 47 points and logged over 24 minutes a night last season while being considered for Canada\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel confident in myself, I feel confident in my training this summer, I feel confident in the group of guys we had last year returning. I think the focus is everybody giving five or 10 per cent extra, and we can certainly make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make that team super bad, and I think if I am the player I am to make that team, I think I\u2019m going to help out the Calgary Flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames will aim to start a tough opening month much the same way they finished last season, coming up big in close, must-win games. Weegar believes it is possible to continue riding the momentum they built.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of us, when we come back to camp, we will feel that same energy we had at the end of last year,\u201d said Weegar.<\/p>\n

And that will include having the same burning desire to prove people wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 When we last saw the Calgary Flames, they carried a jumbo-sized chip on their shoulder to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-123218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}