ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Knock the Calgary Flames down, they get back up.

Punch them in the mouth, they smile.

Kick them in the shins, they ask for another.

It is part of their DNA.

And in the wake of a 6-1 drubbing to start their second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks, the Flames are once again being dogged by the naysayers and skeptics who believe that, in spite of all their bounce-backs (or maybe because of them), this represent the end of the road so many have been predicting for so long.

“We need more and I really believe that we have more,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said Saturday.

“It has been the trademark of this hockey club since the start of the season. We’re not going to change.”

Certainly there was a lightness to Hartley’s demeanor and that of his players. The coach joked about the ice conditions -- too much water on the surface -- that led to his request for a new flood from the ice resurfacing machine.

“You know California’s beautiful. You get to get a swimming lesson and then you get to practice,” Hartley joked. “That’s why you come to California. But there were no sharks here.”

He asked a Swiss television crew asking about netminder Jonas Hiller whether they had brought him any chocolates.

But after an optional practice on Friday, it was all business on the ice Saturday.

“I know our group way too well to even have a doubt on my team," Hartley said. "Those guys have worked so hard all year. We faced adversity so many times. We lost eight games in a row and we rolled our sleeves back and we went on. We lost our captain. We kept going. This team has no quit. This team has no quit and I love my players. I love the way that they compete, and they’ll be there for us.”

The Flames will go with Karri Ramo in goal in place of Hiller, who was yanked in the second period of Game 1 after allowing three goals. They are also expecting to have Jiri Hudler and Micheal Ferland in the lineup even though both were injured and played little in Game 1.

Ferland did not skate Saturday; Hudler did and looked none the worse for wear.

Defenseman Raphael Diaz also skated Saturday, and Hartley said he’s a possibility for Game 2.

It is, of course, unwise to judge a playoff series after one game, even if it was a lopsided affair. And it is exponentially unwise to be counting out the Flames given their history this season of following up the bad with the good, no matter how bad things might have been.

"Obviously you don’t want the bad, you know, ever, but that’s going to happen," said Flames forward Joe Colborne. "When you’re playing a top team like this, it’s going to be a battle, and they won the first [game] pretty handily, but like you said, it doesn’t matter how you win it, it’s 1-0 only. We have a chance to go tie up the series and go home, and that’s our approach."

The narrative after Game 1 was that this Anaheim team is too much for the Flames -- too big, too physical, too skilled and perhaps even too speedy for a speedy Flames team.

The Flames need to prove they are not at the end of the road, have not hit the wall -- that will be the key narrative of Game 2.

“I can’t control perception. If we have listened to or read or go by everyone’s perception from the start of this year, we wouldn’t have been an NHL hockey club. I don’t know in which league we would have played, but we wouldn’t have competed in the NHL,” Hartley quipped.

“We learn to control what’s on the inside. I have full trust in my players. ... We’re all one, and if we’re too small, as much as we can stretch Johnny Gaudreau until Sunday night he’s not going to be [6-foot-1] by Sunday night. He is who he is and all our players are who they are and we learn to battle as a team. We’re going to show up same players, same size, same weight.”

Longtime NHL netminder and broadcast analyst Kelly Hrudey has watched the Flames closely all season, and he's repeatedly seen them overcome adversity.

He saw firsthand the Flames morph from a feel-good story that seemed destined to go away at some point to a legitimate playoff team with legitimate playoff dreams. He recalled a game against Boston in which they trailed 3-0 and then came back to win it in the final seconds of overtime on a T.J. Brodie goal. Hrudey called his wife and said, "I’m a believer; these guys are for real."

“They just believe in themselves,” Hrudey said.

That belief system is going to be put to the test, and it would seem imperative that the Flames show more in Game 2 to prevent this series from turning into a rout.

Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said Saturday he’s expecting a much different, better Calgary team in Game 2.

“I’m sure [Hartley's] got a few tricks up his sleeve,” Boudreau said.

It will all come down to the Flames getting pucks on net and using their speed to disrupt the Ducks’ defenders.

“We aren’t happy with the way that as a team we came out, so there’s going to be some individuals looking in the mirror and trying to figure out how we can come out and bring our best effort,” Colborne said.

Teammate Brandon Bollig insisted that the loss in Game 1 has in no way dulled this team’s enthusiasm.

“We’re still excited," Bollig said. "We’re still happy to be here. We’re still pumped that we’re in the postseason. We’re still pumped that we’re in the second round. We’re not satisfied, we’re still looking to make it to the third round. We know what we need to do to do that.”

Former NHLer Mike Johnson admitted he was among the many who counted Calgary out at various points in the season, and the national broadcast analyst is waiting to see what the Flames show in Game 2 before casting judgment again.

“Calgary was really not good. Anaheim was excellent. And their goaltending wasn’t great. So you get a really lopsided game. We’ll see what happens in Game 2, what adjustments are made,” Johnson told ESPN.com.

Johnson is expecting a better performance from the Flames but noted that it won’t be an easy task at this point of the playoffs.

"This is the second round of the playoffs," he said. "They’re going against the best team in the West. It should be harder to come back and to think, 'oh we can assert our will and have these miraculous late-game heroics and thousands of goals in the third period and just figure out ways to win games and get points when maybe most teams wouldn’t.'

“Calgary scored more goals in the regular season, they gave up fewer, they have a better power play. There are several things that Calgary did during the regular season that are much better than Anaheim.”

Johnson believes, in theory, that the gap between these two teams isn't that great, certainly not as great as Game 1 suggested. Of course, if Game 2 is another blowout in favor of the Ducks, well, that changes everything.

“If it happens again. Come talk to me then,” Johnson said.