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CALGARY Womens Scott Darling Jersey , Alberta — The Calgary Flames hope to get back on track when they kick off a four-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.The Flames (10-7-1) began November with back-to-back wins on home ice before dropping two of three games during a road trip to California last week that ended with a 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.“I think we came off the road trip not feeling great about what we accomplished,” said goaltender Mike Smith, who played well against the Sharks but still suffered the loss after stopping 26 of 28 shots he faced. “We know we’re a better team than we played, so I think it’s nice to get back home, get some practice time in and we’re excited about another home game.”Article continues below ...Smith is also excited to get the start against the Canadiens (9-6-3) and is hoping to improve his sub-par 5-6-1 record along with his 3.51 goals against average and .877 save percentage.“Last game, an unfortunate result, but I felt like I was more like myself,” said Smith, who knows full well that he’s been outplayed by back-up goalie David Rittich (5-1-0, 1.91 goals against average, .935 save percentage) early in the season. “I made some big saves at key times (against San Jose) and tried to keep the team in there when it mattered the most.“At points in the season, it hasn’t been there, so I think it was nice to get in a game like that and keep it close as long as we could there Youth Sebastian Aho Jersey , and have a good couple days of practice and feel good still. It’s about going into (on Thursday) and just being myself and hopefully get a big win.”After scoring 11 goals in their first two games in November, the Flames have found the back of the net just four times in their past three outings.Calgary coach Bill Peters stressed the importance of getting off to a fast start against the Canadiens in hopes of getting their scoring touch back.“That’ll be a key for tomorrow is getting our feet going and getting them going early and we need it from all four lines,” Peters said.Meanwhile, the Canadiens will be looking to bounce back after suffering a disappointing 6-2 road loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.“Right now, we’re not playing our best hockey and we’re very loose in a lot of areas, so we’ve got to tighten things up a little bit,” said Montreal coach Claude Julien. “One of the other things is our puck management just hasn’t been that good. Our puck management has been real poor and because of that, even at times, decision making hasn’t been the best and we’re getting exposed right now because of two of those major situations.”Following a dismal outing against the Oilers, center Jonathan Drouin said that he and his fellow forwards have to do a better job of getting back to help out in the neutral and defensive zones when they face the Flames.“I think if our forwards come back a little quicker — more on top of guys — they’ll have less room to skate in the neutral zone and attack our Ds with full speed,” he said. Shandor Alphonso never envisioned his hockey career taking him to officiating. He didn’t have to look far to see it was possible.As a young, black player, all Alphonso had to do was watch ”Hockey Night in Canada” or the Stanley Cup Final and he saw fellow minority Jay Sharrers working as a linesman.”To be able to see someone who kind of looked like me working at the biggest stage of his job Authentic Teuvo Teravainen Jersey , it was unreal,” Alphonso said.The 34-year-old Alphonso is the NHL’s only African-American official, and Calgary Flames assistant Paul Jerrard is the league’s only black coach. With the sport’s expansion to some nontraditional markets across the United States, there are almost two dozen black players in the NHL, but Sharrers, Alphonso and Jerrard serve as inspiration for more to follow into positions of authority.”I think it’s an evolutionary process,” said Sharrers, who recently retired. ”It’s definitely moved slowly, but I think when you just look at the amount of black players that are now in the league and the fact that that has increased, it would stand to reason that hopefully the opportunity for officials would present itself.”Sixty years after Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins broke the color barrier as the NHL’s first black player, the league is still taking steps to increase its diversity. Alphonso is an ambassador for the ”Hockey is for Everyone” campaign this month, which is Black History Month.Sharrers acknowledged the expense of playing hockey has been a hurdle for minority children for years, but said he is optimistic that more will not only lace up their skates but move into other roles.”It just stands to reason that that would be a natural progression Womens Victor Rask Jersey , that there would more officials of color,” Sharrers said. ”The league has been very proactive since they partnered with Willie and created the diversity taskforce almost 20 years ago to expose and to present to people of color that hockey is a great game and it’s a viable opportunity.”Opportunities have existed for minorities to get into coaching and officiating, though the majority have ended up as goaltending coaches like former NHL goalie Fred Brathwaite. Jerrard played five games in the NHL and then went into coaching, where he’s a visible role model – even if that’s not a role he was looking for.”I’m just another coach who’s trying to do a good job in the league and stay in the league,” said Jerrard, 52, who has been an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Flames along with several American Hockey League teams. ”I guess I am now in a little bit of a position of a role model, but my drive to be a role model isn’t due to the color of my skin. It’s just the way I wanted carry myself as a human being, the way I want to be looked at: doing the right thing and working hard.”Jerrard hopes kids seeing minorities on the ice playing or officiating or behind the bench coaching shows that ”if they’re skilled, driven and passionate, there’s an opportunity for them.”That’s what happened for Alphonso, who knew he wasn’t going to make it to the NHL as a player and wanted to stay in the game. He thought to himself Alex DeBrincat Jersey , ”If Jay Sharrers can do it, I could do it” and followed him up the ranks.Now Alphonso is the one kids can look up to, and Sharrers – who became the NHL’s first black referee in 2001 – believes his younger counterpart can have an even bigger impact.”Being that his skin is a lot darker than mine and I’m very light-skinned, it wouldn’t register necessarily with someone unless they knew my background to know that I was a person of color,” Sharrers said. ”I think for him having both parents being black and being much more of a visible minority, if you will, I think that’s definitely a role that he will now assume.”Alphonso welcomes that position and would love to one day meet a fellow official he inspired to go that route.”It’s huge for younger kids to see there are way more things to hockey than just being a hockey player,” Alphonso said. ”That’s hopefully what we can inspire these kids to do and get them more involved with the game down the road.”—