To alleviate the loss of their most important player, the Calgary Flames altered how they deploy their stars.

Mikael Backlund’s absence on Friday night, his first in four years, fundamentally changed how head coach Ryan Huska managed his lineup in the team’s 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Huska said before the game that Backlund is his first choice for matchups against top opposition players. The captain is a mainstay on the penalty kill and protects late-game leads.

On Friday, Huska used his top line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and Matthew Coronato in that Backlund-esque shutdown role versus Nathan MacKinnon’s line with Artturi Lehkonen and Martin Necas – a deviation from his normal strategy of deploying that line versus third and fourth lines and the lion's share of offensive zone........

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