No complaints about more fights from Lucic
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Author of the article:
Daniel Austin 
Calgary Flames forward Milan Lucic battles the Montreal Canadiens’ Josh Anderson in second-period action at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday night. Photo by DARREN MAKOWICHUK /Postmedia Article content
There have been lots of times when it feels like Milan Lucic couldn’t find a fight partner no matter how badly he wanted to.
In the past couple weeks, though, that’s changed for some reason. Opponents have wanted to fight him, and Lucic has been happy to indulge them.
In the last six games the Calgary Flames have played, Lucic has dropped the gloves three times with willing partners.
On Thursday night, it was the Montreal Canadiens Josh Anderson who fancied himself a willing dance partner.
As tends to happen for opponents when Lucic fights, it didn’t go particularly well for Anderson – although he did land a few nice shots early in the scrap.
Lucic isn’t going out and actively pursuing more fights. He’s also not turning them down, though, and he figures it’s just the time on the schedule when the game is tightening up and guys are starting to get sick of one another.
Everyone’s a little grumpy, basically.
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“I think a little bit of that and also when you play the same teams over and over again, those things are bound to happen,” Lucic said. “That’s probably why, and games mean so much more as far as trying to win the games and move up in the standings. Every game’s a divisional game, so that’s part of it, as well.”
It might be tempting to draw some sort of parallel between Lucic fighting more and the Flames trying to get tougher now that Darryl Sutter has taken over as head coach. There’s not much evidence to support that, though.
Lucic’s first fight of the year came Feb. 21 against the Ottawa Senators when he beat-up on Austin Watson. Geoff Ward was head coach for that game.
His second came last Saturday when he won a one-sided decision over Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. Ryan Huska was officially the bench boss for that game while the Flames awaited Sutter’s arrival.
Sutter was behind the bench Thursday for the fight with Anderson, but Lucic wasn’t trying to show the boss what he’s capable of.
It was notable, though, that Lucic and his linemates were aggressively mixing it up around the Canadiens’ net. Andrew Mangiapane, in particular, seemed to be finding himself getting in Habs goalie Jake Allen’s face on more occasions than normal.
“It’s kind of how the game went and I think that’s where you have to go if you want to score goals,” Mangiapane said. “They were doing a pretty good job of boxing out, so you’re just tying to battle for ice and sometimes it might get heated and all that, but just going to the net hard and looking for garbage goals and stuff like that.”
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If that created a little tension between the Lucic-Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund line and the Canadiens on Thursday night, then so be it. If that spills over into Saturday night’s rematch, that’s fine, too.
The Flames have talked repeatedly about trying to become harder to play against, and having a third-line that gets their opponents a little irritated certainly doesn’t hurt with that.
For Lucic’s part, he’s definitely happy to have Mangiapane’s back if his smaller teammate wants to get under his opponent’s skin and go digging for loose pucks around the crease.
”I like when he mixes it up and gets in there,” Lucic said. “That means he’s emotionally engaged and that’s good to see. Sometimes, it gets you engaged, as well, when guys are stirring it up.”
THEY’RE STILL AROUND
During Friday’s media call, Lucic was asked who he thought could still be considered heavyweight fighters in the league.
His list was pretty consistent with what most people would have – Las Vegas Golden Knights tough-guy Ryan Reaves, the Los Angeles Kings’ Kurtis MacDermid — but he did give his dance-partner on Thursday night some respect.
“There’s a lot less (fighters) than there was when I first came into the league,” Lucic said. “Everyone talks about Reaves or MacDermid in L.A., I know (the San Jose Sharks’ Kurtis Gabriel) had a good fight with Reaves the other day.
“Gotta give Anderson credit, too. He’s a big boy. I remember a couple years ago he squared off with Big Z (Zdeno Chara), which is a pretty scary thing, especially knowing Big Z the way I do. You’ve got Tom Wilson. There’s still some big boys in the league.”
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IMPRESSED BOSS
The Flames did a lot of good things on Thursday night against the Canadiens.
Saturday night may provide a better litmus test of how the teams truly stack up, though.
It’s worth remembering the Habs had played Wednesday night in Vancouver and are reported to have arrived in Calgary at 4 a.m. local-time on Thursday morning.
That’s not ideal, and the Flames seem to fully understand their opponent will likely be better-rested and more prepared for Saturday’s game.
“They’re going to come out harder. They’re going to be more fresh,” Flames forward Sam Bennett said. “We’re expecting that. Obviously, we know it’s tough sometimes on a back-to-back so we’re definitely expecting a harder game tomorrow and we’re prepared for it.”
daustin@postmedia.com
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