Flames Are Rising From Ashes of Last Season

Calgary goaltender Rick Tabaracci had no trouble looking at things from the Mighty Ducks’ perspective.

A top scorer out injured. A defense that crumbled easily. A general lack of confidence. All of which led to digging a deep hole to start the season.

The Mighty Ducks in 1996? Nope, the Calgary Flames in 1995.

Tabaracci could certainly empathize with the Ducks’ 1-8-2 start.

“We were the Anaheim Mighty Ducks last year,” said Tabaracci, who stopped 32 shots in the Flames’ 4-1 victory over the Ducks Sunday at the Pond. “They have to look for ways to win a few games now.”

It was much easier for Tabaracci to talk about such things as a mere observer. This was someone else’s problem.

This season, the Flames are 7-4-1 after overwhelming the Ducks and have moved into first place in the Pacific Division. Calgary is 4-0-1 in its last five games and leads defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado by two points.

This from a team that has 10 new players, nine of whom are rookies. And it has helped put last season’s difficulties to rest.

“It wasn’t like we thought about it constantly over the summer, but it was there,” Tabaracci said. “With so many rookies, we weren’t sure how things would go. But we’re getting strong play from all those guys. It’s just snowballed.”

The new faces were prominent Sunday. Dave Gagner, who was picked up from Toronto over the summer, broke a 1-1 tie with a second-period goal. Rookies Jarome Iginla, obtained last season from Dallas for Joe Nieuwendyk, and Todd Simpson assisted.

Defensemen Simpson, Joel Bouchard, Chris O’Sullivan and Cale Hulse--all rookies--played strong in front of Tabaracci. Hulse also had an assist.

“We finally have some depth in this organization,” said Theoren Fleury, whose goal gave the Flames a 1-0 lead. “You’d think these young guys would be a little nervous, a little intimidated. But they have all contributed. It can be contagious to us old guys.”

A year ago, a neck injury sidelined top scorer Gary Roberts. Another top scorer, Nieuwendyk, was a holdout and battling General Manager Doug Risebrough for a trade or new contract. They also spent the first two weeks on the road because work was being done on the Saddledome.

By the end of October, they had given up 16 more goals than they had scored. By November, Risebrough was out as GM. By December, the Flames had shipped Nieuwendyk to Dallas. Iginla remained in junior hockey to mature as a player.

The Flames were winless through the first 10 games and were 5-17-6 in early December. From there, they went 29-10-5 and made the playoffs. Coach Pierre Page, in his first season with the Flames, changed the team system to emphasize defense. Roberts, now retired, returned and scored 22 goals in 35 games. Even though Chicago swept the Flames in the first round, they had established a foundation for this season.

“We had a lot of controversies and Gary was out injured a year ago,” Page said. “There was still some bad blood from the lockout. The coaches were all new. So we wrote off the first two months of the season.

“We were the fifth-best team in the league in the second half. That was the building block for this season. We had the best training camp I’ve been involved with in 16 years in the NHL.”

The Flames are 4-1 at home. They have given up 26 goals, the fewest from among teams in their division.

Tabaracci and No. 1 goaltender Trevor Kidd rank fifth in the league, giving up 2.26 goals per game, and are fourth in save percentage (.919).

“We’ve done this with hard work,” Page said. “But the problem with that is you have to keep working. We have had a good start. But if we stop to pat ourselves on the back, the work stops.”