Flames fans hot under collar over recent slide

Faithful seem to think sky is falling for franchise as well

Let’s just straight. No, the Calgary Flames aren’t firing their coach anytime soon.

No, the Flames aren’t on the verge of relocating to Seattle.

And no, the team’s defence is nowhere near as good as expected.

The Flames lost the third of four games in a homestand that wrapped up Monday, prompting a sizable portion of the fan base to subsequently lose its mind.

Late in the 5-2 loss, a podcaster in Kelowna, B.C., pressed send on a tweet, telling his 1,300 followers he’s “hearing now that tonight could be Glen Gulutzan’s last game in charge of the Flames.”

He went on to list Darryl Sutter, Dave Tippett and Ryan Huska as potential replacements. Apparently Mike Keenan is busy. The firing didn’t come to pass, yet the sorry state of the world’s (social) media prompted locals to walk around Tuesday saying they heard Gulutzan was about to get whacked.

Untrue. Baseless. Laughable — and sad — it gained any traction.

While we look west, let’s ponder the Seattle situation, which got a whole lot more exciting for the coffee capital when city council approved a US$600-million privately funded renovation of KeyArena with an eye on attracting NHL and NBA tenants.

A Seattle Times scribe took a sizable leap of faith, suggesting “the NHL is expected to make a franchise announcement by July regarding the addition of either an expansion or a relocated team to this market.”

It won’t be the Flames. Of course, that assurance isn’t going to prevent Calgarians from being inundated with rumours to the get a few things contrary.

We’ll also be hearing plenty of innuendo surrounding a potential Flames sale to Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta.

We’ll likely be spared Quebec City connections as hothead separatist Pierre Karl Peladeau is unlikely to ever be seen favourably in NHL circles as a potential NHL team owner.

Still, those two cities are ready to take an NHL team right away, whereas the renovations in Seattle still need to be approved by the mayor and wouldn’t be done until October 2020 at the earliest.

By then we’ll know much more about how (im)possible a new public/private arena deal in Calgary is.

There’s absolutely no denying the fact that every single day the Flames and City of Calgary officials aren’t sitting down to discuss a possible solution to their stalemate brings the team another day closer to being sold.

Make no mistake, none of the three possible destinations are better hockey markets than Calgary, which is irrelevant.

The transaction would be a sale, not a relocation.

Flames owners frustrated by the anti-business leadership at all three levels of government would simply come to the conclusion this is no longer a city worth trying to do business in and would cash out to the tune of somewhere near the $500 million the league charges for expansion teams.

For those who think such talk is pure folly or an offensive, baseless threat do so at the city’s peril, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who is loathe to see franchises move, is also convinced Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is incapable of seeing the value of spending tax dollars to keep an NHL team here.

Nenshi is here for another four years.

The team’s fate will be sealed — one way or the other — long before his term ends.

Both sides in this battle have failed on numerous fronts, prompting the Flames to call the mayor’s bluff and walk away from arena discussions.

And so the rumours will swirl and conversations will be had between the Flames and all three prospective owners. The Flames can’t stay in Calgary long term without a new arena.

As far as the team goes, goalie Mike Smith and the top line have taken turns carrying the Flames this season.

The defensive unit — dubbed by some last summer as the league’s best — has failed to solidify itself as what was supposed to be the strength of the team.

The team has allowed the seventh most goals in the league for an average of 3.26 a game. That’s considerably more than they allowed last year (2.88) when Dennis Wideman skated in Travis Hamonic’s spot and Brian Elliott was the netminder.

The last three home losses saw the Flames allow 16 goals while coughing up endless odd-man rushes and exposed shoddy defensive zone coverage.

The coach suggested the team has a tendency to freeze up on games played on big stages, which sets up a terrifying trip to hockey meccas Toronto and Montreal Wednesday and Thursday.

Yes, plenty of things to fill postgame call-in shows by fans who fear the sky is falling for their local heroes. That’s Calgary. Sure, the Oilers have embarrassed the Flames in six straight games and are just five points back despite their horrific start.

Sure, the team’s fourth line has just one goal all year thanks to Troy Brouwer’s marker in Game 27 on Monday.

Perhaps with Christmas on the horizon now would be a good time to remind the doomsayers and naysayers it’s early December and the Flames are still over .500 at 14-12-1.

Focus on all the warts, point lots of fingers and worry endlessly about the future if you choose.

But try to take solace in the fact Calgary still has a team. For now, anyway. Taking that for granted would be a fan’s biggest mistake.