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Calgary Flames head coach Brent Sutter likes rookie centre Roman Horak s hockey smarts. More times than not, he s going to do the right thing, says Sutter. In case you were wondering how far up the ladder Calgary Flames rookie centre Roman Horak(notes) has climbed, Brent Sutter put a definitive answer to it following Monday s practice at the Saddledome. He s obviously one of our top three cen fox sports tre icemen, said the coach, after making several glowing remarks about the 20-year-old Czech.Horak has steadily been building confidence with each outing and, of late, has made a couple of big offensive contributions to go along with his solid defensive play.So besides his skill set, what s the one thing that really has made Sutter a fan of the former Chilliwack Bruin and New York Ranger prospect fox sports ? He s smart, was the answer. More times than not, he s going to do the right thing. As a coach, that s what you want in your players and the other thing with him is he s tremendously coachable. There s going to be mistakes that he makes that young players make, but what separates him from some of the other young players is you don t have to remind him when he comes to the bench about what he di fox sports d wrong #8230; he already knows. That s what smart players are like #8230; that s what smart young players are like. Horak had a little laugh when it was suggested now that he s popped two points in each of his past two games, the Calgary faithful might expect that from him time and again. I guess the expectations are higher now, he conceded. I m just going to try to do the same thing every ga fox sports me. I m still young and it s going to be hard #8230; I m still a rookie, but I feel more confident for sure. Seven weeks into the season, Horak admits the one place he s learning a lot of lessons is in the faceoff circle.His toughest foe to cover so far? Evgeni Malkin(notes). His most difficult faceoff opponent? Jason Arnott(notes).His trickiest faceoff counterpart? Tomas Plekanec(notes). Th fox sports ey re all good, all great players, said Horak. I go in there with respect and honour. Every time I m out there, I m learning something new and every faceoff against those guys is something new, a new experience. It s great for me. As great as things have been going, however, Horak is still keeping house in a city hotel. As far as that goes, defenceman Derek Smith(notes) is in the same boat.Until fox sports they get the green light to move into permanent digs, the jury remains out.Butler rakes it inDiehard St. Louis Cardinals fan Chris Butler(notes) (hey, he grew up in St. Louis) wasn t about to rub it into some of his teammates too much after the Cards took out the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series. There were some bets made, of course. Let s just say I ll be eating well for the next hand fox sports ful of weeks, smiled the first-year Flames defenceman. There s a lot of sports fans in here and a few guys who really enjoy baseball. It was fun. A lot of us watch games together. It was a lot of fun. Butler picked up a souvenir during Monday s practice when he deflected a puck up into his chin that required a couple of stitches and a large bandage.Flame loves CanucksTim Jackman(notes) was asked fox sports if he knew who the Flames leading scorer was against Vancouver last season.He didn t know that he was the man with four goals. Well I ve had success against those guys, he admitted. I know how I like to play against them and am looking forward to it. Those four represents 40 per cent of his goal total last season. Why so much success against the Canucks? I don t know. I guess it was the way th fox sports e games played out and it just worked out that way. But I do like playing in Vancouver, I like their building #8230; I hope that s what happens again this year because we play yhem six times. It s good to have a team you enjoy playing against so hopefully I can score against these guys. Hagman readyWinger Niklas Hagman(notes), not to mention centre Matt Stajan(notes), have been the regular roster fox sports players sitting while Sutter has gone with the 7-11 (seven defencemen, 11 forwards) attack the past couple of games.Sutter wasn t tipping his hand Monday if he d stick with that format tonight against Vancouver, but Hagman had on an orange jersey at practice and that means he s highly unlikely to be skating in the finale to the six-game homestand.Is he frustrated? The coach decides who plays and fox sports I m keeping myself in shape and ready to go when I get the chance, he said. It s pretty simple. THIS AND THAT: Sophomore centre Mikael Backlund(notes) (broken finger) and D Brett Carson(notes) (back) skated long and hard prior to Monday s practice. Backlund is about another week away from being ready while it s anyone s guess when Carson might be ready. He missed training camp and the pre-season fox sports before suffering a minor setback in his rehab from an off-season training injury #8230; Much ado emanating out of Phoenix following the team s Halloween party on Sunday night. Seems Raffe Torres elected to go as a black rapper and, apparently, that isn t the politically correct thing to do these days. Seriously? Play Fantasy Hockey, now with Pro Leagues! And follow Yahoo! Sports' NHL coverage fox sports on Twitter. Updated Nov 1, 3:09 am EDT fox sports
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