Julien was talking about his surprising team as a whole, but there’s one player who will face an added challenge this weekend — rookie centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Julien insisted he wasn’t cutting back Kotkaniemi’s ice time, but did admit that he hesitated to send the youngster out when Calgary used some of its heavyweights. It will be a different matter on the road, starting with Thursday’s game against the improved Sabres (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS. And then there’s Saturday night, when Kotkaniemi will no doubt be introduced to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. “I liked his game last night, there was a good intensity to his game,” Julien said.

Source: National Post October 24, 2018 23:26 UTC