Flames seek home improvement vs. skidding Isles

CALGARY, Alberta -- The Calgary Flames have been mediocre at best at home this season, but they know they have to be better than that now.

With 13 games remaining in the regular season and a playoff spot hanging in the balance, the Flames are back home for three games this week starting Sunday against the New York Islanders.

Calgary captured five of a possible six points on a three-game trip that concluded with a 2-1 win in Ottawa.

"Five out of six points, that's pretty good," Flames winger Curtis Lazar said. "For us, we have to press the reset button and go home. Obviously, home ice has been tough for us this season, but there's no better time than right now to turn things around. We don't have a choice."

Calgary (34-25-10) is just 14-15-4 at home and two points back of the second wild-card spot held by Colorado in the tightly bunched Western Conference.

The Flames have to sort out their home woes somehow or the playoffs won't happen.

"We put ourselves in this position and we don't have a choice," coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We haven't earned the right to dictate how we're going to play depending on who we're playing; what position they are in the standings and whether they are back-to-back. We haven't earned the luxury to say 'we're going to play hard tonight.'

"We have to play hard every night no matter what building we are in what the situation is, what the team is. That's what we've kind of embraced here in the last week."

The Flames remain without No. 1 goalie Mike Smith, who has been out for the past three weeks because of a groin injury. He did practice earlier this week but there is no timetable for his return. In the meantime, David Rittich mans the Calgary goal. He had a strong trip and starred in the win in Ottawa.

"I think these games have helped us feel good about ourselves on the ice," Rittich said.

The Islanders (29-29-10) are in a bad place right now and come to Calgary having lost eight straight, the last at Edmonton on Wednesday when they blew a late lead and lost in a shootout.

New York is sitting in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and talk is now starting to turn to whether captain John Tavares will be re-signing. He becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and his comments after a loss in Vancouver earlier this week became a hot topic of whether he's no longer happy on Long Island.

Tavares addressed it after practice Friday in Banff, Alberta.

"I'm sure when people look at the way our team's going, they want to speculate," he told Newsday. "They speculate on teams that have won eight in a row, too. I just control what I control. It's just other people talking."

Tavares said he remains committed to the Islanders.

"I'm sure there's interest, but I can't worry about that," he said. "That doesn't have really much to do with me, what other people think or what they think what I say means. I have always said how committed I am to this team, this organization, the guys in the locker room. I mean, losing eight in a row isn't very much fun."

The losing streak has included two overtime losses and two in shootouts.