Matthew Tkachuk said he is "sick of losing" and determined to help the Calgary Flames advance beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015.
"I'm sick of losing in these first rounds," the Flames forward said Friday. "I know a lot of guys are also sick of losing, who want redemption after last year. It's time for us to prove we're an elite hockey team."
The Flames are 1-10 in their past 11 postseason games, including a five-game loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the 2019 Western Conference First Round after their first 50-win season (50-25-7) since 1988-89 (54-17-9), when they won the Stanley Cup.
Calgary (36-27-7, .564 points percentage) enters the Stanley Cup Qualifiers as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. They will play the No. 9 seed, the Winnipeg Jets (37-28-6, .563), in one of four best-of-5 series at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the Western hub city, beginning Aug. 1. The winner will advance to the playoffs. The loser will have a chance at the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery, scheduled for Aug. 10.
"Not too many people are saying stuff about us," Tkachuk said. "But we know if we play the right way you get this momentum going. It's all momentum in the playoffs. We have to just keep the momentum going as long as we can."
The Flames have an exhibition game against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, NHL.TV).
"We have got to treat Tuesday like it's a playoff game," said Tkachuk, who led Calgary with 61 points (23 goals, 38 assists) in 69 games. "If we just go in with an easy mentality and not a playoff mentality, kind of like we have the past couple times going into the playoffs we let off the gas right before, we'll probably have a similar result."
The Flames were 20th in the NHL after scoring 204 goals and 2.91 goals per game when the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. To reach the playoffs, they will have to defeat the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy given to the best goalie in the NHL who went 31-21-5 with a 2.57 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and an NHL-high six shutouts.
"We've just got to get the momentum going as long as we can," Tkachuk said. "I feel our team looked pretty good coming out of the break. I'm very confident in this group and if we do the right things, I hope we have a chance to prove people wrong."
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