CALGARY — Blake Coleman believes his Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund can beat the franchise record for most games played. That means hitting the 1,219 currently held by former captain Jarome Iginla. Backlund is on his way after reaching 1,000.
CALGARY — Blake Coleman believes his Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund can beat the franchise record for most games played.
Asked to elaborate on the old man and young body combo, Coleman said"he's just an old soul. He likes to be in bed at nine and awake at six and walk his imaginary dog at seven. He is just very routine-oriented. He's very structured and scheduled, but he's still first in fitness testing every year, and in incredible shape and takes good care of himself."
"My wife tells me all the time too that I'm an old soul. I'm not a night person, except for game nights. In the off-season, I rarely go past 10 p.m. I don't know if it's an old-man thing to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee, but I like to do that as well."The 35-year-old from Vasteras, Sweden, became the 73rd player in NHL history to play each of their first 1,000 career regular-season games with one franchise, and just the second to do it in Calgary after Iginla.
"It means a lot," Backlund said Friday morning."It just means the world to me, my family, we're so proud to call ourselves Calgarians, and really it's our home. We're just really thankful that we got to live in one city so far in a whole NHL career. He’s the fourth active NHLer born in Sweden to reach 1,000 games, joining Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom, Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman, and Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson, and the 19th player of Swedish descent to achieve the milestone.Backlund credited his career longevity to "some luck, some good help teammates and coaches along the way, some good mentors and advice from people, and just a lot of good people around you.
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