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Friday, November 19, 1999
Flickering Flames look for answers
They straggled home from Los Angeles at 4 a.m. yesterday, weighed down by questions but stumped for answers.
"Nobody out there is going to be shedding tears because the Calgary Flames are losing hockey games," said assistant coach Al MacNeil. "It seems we come up half a buck short most nights.
"The guys in this room, all of us, have put this team in this situation. Now it's time to get us out."
It's a familiar, hackneyed refrain, of course. But really, there is nowhere else to turn.
"It's not as if any messiah is going to fall out of the sky to save us," said centre Jeff Shantz.
No. Given the club's frugal fiscal policy, another Poly-Fila player is about the only lifeline likely to be tossed their way. Hark! Isn't that the feisty Martin St. Louis arriving from Saint John for yet another audition?
For starters, throw this 'Young Guns' thing directly into the ashcan. Three years into the spiel, there is still no definite sign it is the way to the hallowed land. Or even lower-middle-class respectability.
Yes, everyone understands patience. No, it's understood that success isn't built, or bought, overnight. Still, growing pains are one thing, but are these guys trying to top out at 10 ft. tall or something?
Oh sure, maybe there's more to be pried out of an Iginla here or a Stillman there but, on the whole, what's available out of this bunch has already been mined. Which begs the question: Where can they go from here?
These last two losses have only served to accentuate the problems facing this team. A relentless work ethic but not nearly enough natural 'touch' around the net.
Losers of four of five, now a full nine points out of a playoff position and steeling themselves to face up to the might of the 12-4-3-1 Detroit Red Wings, one of the NHL's elite, tonight, the Flames are in grave danger of being trodden underfoot.
Four of their last six losses have been by 2-1 scores. They play for such tight, nervy games, of course, insist they thrive on them, yet show no reasons to think they can actually win enough of them to make a difference.
"We haven't won a game in regulation yet and that's weighing on our minds," says Shantz. "I mean, we can't just play to keep it close and hope to go into overtime.
"We've just go to stick together. I know it's a cliche but tough times make tough people.
"When things go like this, every time something bad happens to you you're thinking 'Oh God, not again ...' It's only human nature."
And it's only human nature to wonder when, if ever, things can improve dramatically around here. Unless there is effort for reward, the way Brian Sutter demands they play, the one he feels is the only way to go in the situation, uncertainty and suspicion begin to creep in, and then all is lost.
"We can't veer away from our style," lectures MacNeil.
"We've got to be good in our own end, wait for our chances and assume our luck's going to change.
"Because if we get involved in a wide-open game, boom!, we are going to get hammered."
They won't admit it, but the insidious doubt that can rot an entire foundation is present, if not already ingrained, then precariously close to the surface.
"We work hard," said Shantz. "We keep it close. But it's been such a struggle that I think at times, subconciously, we play not to lose instead of to win.
"You look at the chances we generate, the way we can hold teams down and you think to yourself 'It's just gotta change ...' "
But when he said it, it seemed more a hopeful assumption than a definitive statement.
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