Music: {allcanada} HARTLEY CONFIDENT IN STAJAN

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

{allcanada} HARTLEY CONFIDENT IN STAJAN

Just listen to Bob Hartley rave about Matt Stajan, begins The Calgary Herald.

"I love Matty," the Calgary Flames head coach was saying Monday morning as the players packed up for the charter flight to Minnesota. "I think he's a great student of the game. He's a great hard-worker. And it seems that he wants more.

"I have absolutely no problem with this. I'm very happy with him."

The resurgence of Matt Stajan has turned into one of the major storylines this season for this Flames team.

Seventeen games into this lockout-shortened season, Stajan looks, well, reborn.

"Obviously, confidence is a big thing," Stajan said, pointing out the very thing he has lacked in years past. "I know it's on the player to have confidence. But when a coach shows confidence in you the way this coaching staff has early this year, I think it speaks volumes to any player."

The incoming coach promised to carry no past biases into this season. He promised to make judgments on what he saw in front of him – as opposed to what might have happened in the past.

"It's no secret my first couple of years here didn't go the way I wanted them to," Stajan said. "You can point to a number of reasons why that was, but that's behind us.

"We move forward...I came in here with an open mind and to work hard and to embrace any role that I'd be given."