LAS VEGAS \u2014 For a while, Mikael Backlund didn\u2019t even have anyone in the Flames dressing room to speak Swedish with.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s changed with the arrival of countryman Victor Olofsson last month, but the Calgary captain is looking forward to going up against fellow Swede – and good friend – Rasmus Andersson tonight, when the Flames continue this season-long six-game road trip against the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first meeting between the two teams since General Managers Craig Conroy and Kelly McCrimmon completed a five-piece deal that saw Andersson fly south in exchange for Zach Whitecloud, Abram Wiebe and a pair of draft picks.<\/p>\n
And if Backlund knows anything about his buddy and longtime Calgary teammate, it\u2019s that the on-ice chatter will be at another level once the puck hits the playing surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s gonna have some fun with it for sure,\u201d Backlund said of the verbose Andersson. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be weird, obviously, but it’s exciting to get to play against him, too, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully I can score when he’s on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’ll probably chirp our bench or something,\u201d Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska added when asked about squaring off against Andersson for the first time. \u201cHe\u2019s a special player to a lot of us, right? He’s been around our organization for a long period of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish him nothing but the best, except for tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Backlund, this three-night stay in Sin City has afforded him the opportunity to catch up with his old friend and his family. Andersson hosted Backlund for a visit Tuesday and the pair were part of a Calgary-oriented dinner gathering last night as well.<\/p>\n
The same has rung true for Whitecloud this week. He got the chance to meet up with some of his former Vegas teammates during this stop on the six-game trip, and Backlund figures tonight will be a special night for his new alternate captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to come back for him, and to be part of his return here; it’s for sure going to be a special night for him,\u201d said Backlund. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to play against a former team on the road, but to come back into the building and where he won the Stanley Cup, it’s gonna be, I’m sure, an emotional night for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as for whether Backlund will return the favour tonight, when those inevitable barbs come flying from No. 4 in gold?<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m mic\u2019d up (tonight),\u201d Backlund smiled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I gotta come up with something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 For a while, Mikael Backlund didn\u2019t even have anyone in the Flames dressing room to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-578112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578112","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=578112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}