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Wednesday, October 20, 1999
Embarrassed
Apparently, the food must have been pretty bad.
Fuhr was abandoned by his teammates in a crushing 7-1 loss to the Blues last night.
"That's embarrassing," said Fuhr after the loss.
In the team's worst performance of this young season, a Blues team missing Al MacInnis and Geoff Courtnall exposed the Flames as a very bad team.
Outhustled, out-hit, and flat-out outplayed, there must be serious questions raised from the humiliation in the Kiel Centre.
How bad was it?
Some veteran Blues observers said they'd never seen Fuhr play better.
Until he was mercifully pulled in the third period after the Blues' sixth goal, Fuhr had been at times spectacular.
His heroics were only good enough to keep the Blues from double digits.
"Good things aren't happening yet," said Fuhr.
"Tonight was a little frustrating. We are obviously a better hockey club than we were tonight. We didn't make it hard on them. When you get a skilled team like that, and you let them play, obviously they are going to embarrass you.
"I'm going to have to bear down and steal one -- simple as that. If I can steal one or two, maybe the guys get their confidence and that will turn things around."
There are doubts even a future Hall of Famer can steal one for this team.
Calgary's first-period blues continued as they fell behind early when Lubos Bartecko beat Fuhr on a powerplay.
A total breakdown in the Flames' discipline gave the Blues almost eight minutes in powerplay time in the first period alone, and Fuhr was the only reason they went into the second period still in the game.
Scott Young gave the Blues the lead 2-0 in the second but Valeri Bure put the Flames back into the game with his sixth goal of the season.
Calgary had no reason, other than Fuhr, to still be in the game at that point.
But when the Blues' Bartecko took a major penalty for hitting Denis Gauthier from behind, the Flames squandered the ensuing opportunity on the five-minute powerplay. Gauthier left the game with an injured knee and did not return.
When the major penalty was over, St. Louis was up 4-1 thanks to a four-on-four goal and one shorthanded, and the floodgates opened.
"We got an old fashioned butt-kicking," said Flames coach Brian Sutter. "You can write what you want and I can say what I want, but they got the opportunities and the puck ended up in the net. Penalties had a lot to do with the hockey game. You can't continually do that and get away with that."
It was the Flames' worst loss of this season and presented an ominous sign for the six-game road trip.
"They were a dominant team and we deserved the fate we got," said veteran Steve Smith.
"I think we have to remain positive and know the only way we are going to get out of this is from within our own room. "
Their goalie bought some teammates dinner to get their help in an important game.
He got nothing but the bill.
Fuhr should have invested his money in some defensive help. This team needs it.
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