Flames in thick of playoff battle
CALGARY — Getting four points out of six on the road, he knows, is nothing to sneer at. Yet Calgary Flames head coach Brent Sutter is also keenly aware this is hardly the time for any King Kong- style self- congratulatory chest- pounding.
So he chooses to dwell on those points left on the table.
“Well, you know it’s a battle,” the Flames’ skipper was saying ( carping would be too strong a word) on Thursday night following the agonizing 2- 1 overtime loss at the weirdly named Jobing. com Arena in Glendale, Ariz. “It’s trying to get over that hump. When you look at the two points that we didn’t get on this trip, when you have four chances to win in a shootout in Anaheim and you don’t get it done. ...
“[ Thursday], you’re right here to maybe get two points in the game, and you take a penalty in overtime. ...
“We’ve got to keep pushing here. We’ve got to keep finding a way. We’ve closed the gap since the trip first started. But you’ve got to make up some ground. You’ve got to get over that hump. You have to find a way to get over and above that line.
“Because the games dwindle down very quickly, and teams are playing each other.”
Two points shy. Twenty- six dates left on the dance card. Hardly seems insurmountable, even if the local populace has been conditioned to brace for the worst.
The main ally Sutter and Co. have in this edition of the annual playoff push is, in fact, the distinct class system of the conference.
Last year at this time, when the Flames were running perilously short of petrol in making up a miraculous amount of ground from a time- zone or two off the pace, their direct competition for a spot in the top 8 was infinitely more daunting: A very fine Chicago team, the defending Stanley Cup champs, no less, that had for various reasons lost its way and a perennially lethargic- starting Anaheim squad armed with two solid scoring lines, including soon- to- be Hart Trophy recipient Corey Perry.
None of the surrounding contenders this go- round — Dallas, Phoenix, Colorado, Minnesota — can be considered appreciably better than the Flames.
Only the Wild can count on as many home dates from here to the finish.
And certainly none can match Miikka Kiprusoff’s prowess between the pipes, with goaltending counting for more now than ever.
The inherent danger involved with merely hanging around the Western Conference equator until the witching hour — as we’ve discovered the past two springtimes — is that on competitive and PR levels, it negates a lot of moves GM Jay Feaster might wish to make or is stonewalled in completing on cosmetic grounds by higherups.
So if your playoff proximity dictates you’re going to delay the re- do anyway, might as well actually qualify, pocket a few bucks on the home dates, placate at least momentarily the braying masses and save yourself a lot of invasive questioning. Two points. Twenty- six games. “It’s all right there for whoever wants to take it,” said Brent Sutter, without exaggeration.