Pressure’s on as club realizes gravity of situation

Even with February barely out of the carton, this stands as their playoffs. Already.

And this isn’t to turn up the heat on the local heroes, no. Because this happens to be their take on things, too.

The Calgary Flames know exactly where they’ve settled on the National Hockey League table. Their plight, being marooned somewhere south of the eighth rung in the Western Conference, is kind of obvious.

So, too, is the remedy. Just win.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s fun pressure,” said Alex Tanguay. “It’s like playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final — it’s a tremendous amount of pressure. You hardly get any sleep. But it’s the pressure you want to have. We’ve got a bunch of Game 7s coming . . . we’ve got to make sure we do use that pressure — where it feeds us, where it gives us motivation — to be that much better.”

Chris Butler was asked if there’s a danger of building up one night, any night, too much. At this stage, with 62 points still up for grabs, why would you turn single games into do-or-die situations?

Because if you die, like, what’s your rally cry next week?

“Well, we should have a lot of excitement going into these games and put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” replied Butler, whose crew’s record is a whisker above .500, at 23-22-6. “Because we’re the guys in here who want to get it done. Obviously, you want to play extremely well for the fans, for the people that support the organization. It’s up to the guys in here to take care of business.”

The magnitude of the 31-game task ahead of them isn’t dimming their spirits.

So far, anyway.

“If you’re playing this game for a living,” said Butler, “and you don’t come in here every day — whether it’s right now or at the beginning of the season — with that excitement, with that joy, with that love for playing the game, you shouldn’t be doing it. This is definitely a fun time of year, and we’re working real hard to get ourselves into a good spot going forward.”

Appropriately enough, the Flames’ most recent playoff opponents — the Chicago Blackhawks — are dropping in on this very evening. That final post-season taste — April 27, 2009 — saw the Flames tumble 4-1. Since then, the Blackhawks have made a habit of treating shabbily the Calgarians, breezing to an 8-3-0 record.

“Look at their top four forwards,” coach Brent Sutter said of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane. “Around the National Hockey League, those are four pretty talented guys. Look at their back end, with (Duncan) Keith and (Brent) Seabrook. Obviously, they’re a very good hockey team.

“To be quite honest, at this time of the year, every team is a tough opponent.”

Making the Flames’ situation all the more dire is their distinct lack of pop. They’ve scored only 12 times in the past seven dates — and that paltry output includes a six-spot hung on the sad-sack Edmonton Oilers. But Butler insists this a leaguewide trend, not just a dryspell particular to southern Alberta.

“If you look at the start of the season, there’s always more goals scored,” he said. “Then teams get their defensive-zone coverage down, teams really focus on their neutral zone. Everyone plays defence. Whereas at the start of the year, you might have some guys — and I’m not talking about anyone on our team — looking for offensive chances. Now? You buckle down defensively, first and foremost. And that seems to be everyone’s mindset.

“Goals are tough to come by. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing.”

When the Flames awoke Thursday morning, they were wedged into 11th spot in the conference.

Despite two straight losses, though, eighth place is still sitting there.

“It’s easy to look at the standings and say, ‘We’re chasing this team,’ or, ‘We’re chasing that team,’ ” said Butler. “But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what they do. If we’re not taking care of winning games . . . then it’s our own fault. We can’t count on teams to lose. We’ve got to put some games together . . . and start playing a playoff-style game down the stretch.”

C-NOTES: RW Lee Stempniak, after getting tangled up Tuesday with Detroit D Brad Stuart, is out with a high-ankle sprain for six weeks.