Flames Get Spine From Sutter

A repulsive-looking, bright green hard hat, with the red and yellow Calgary Flame logo on it, sat in Dean McAmmond’s locker stall. An ugly symbol of a pretty picture.

The hat, awarded to a Flame player after every game, was the brainstorm of Craig Conroy, who as a player in St. Louis saw the Blues hand out a similar, although more aesthetically pleasing hat, after games.

McAmmond got it when Calgary rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Vancouver, 3-2, last Wednesday.

“It doesn’t go to one of the three stars of the game,” Conroy said. “It goes to someone who maybe did something that didn’t get noticed by fans or get on the stat sheet. Mac had a big fight that got us pumped up when we were down 2-0.”

Conroy added: “You don’t want to see it in one locker too often.”

There is a we’re-all-in-this-together feeling in the Calgary dressing room these days, as a consistent also-ran is back in the running, looking to snag a playoff spot for the first time since Jarome Iginla was a minor league player.

The reason is quite simple: Darryl Sutter.

The Flames have not reached the playoffs in eight seasons. They have not won a playoff series since defeating Montreal to win the Stanley Cup in 1989. Since Sutter was hired as coach and general manager on Dec. 28, 2003, he has reworked a franchise that seemed locked in a loop of perpetual mediocrity.

He has brought in players that have made a difference, most noticeably goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, who leads in the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage. Sutter also has reworked the attitudes in the dressing room, most noticeably team captain Iginla’s.

The bounce has been dramatic. The Flames are fifth in the Western Conference and charging, with four consecutive victories since the All-Star break to move within six points of Vancouver. A playoff berth would allow the Flames to break even financially this season.

All of which will get Sutter coach-of-the-year votes and executive-of-the-year consideration.

“There were a lot issues that had to be resolved when I got here,” Sutter said. “Leadership and accountability are the keys to every successful organization. That was lacking.

“I think it was more the roles for everyone throughout the organization weren’t clear enough. It easy to talk about accountability, it’s another thing to do something about it.”

Sutter was held accountable in San Jose last season, at first anyway. But he has gone from scapegoat to genius in quick time. He was fired by San Jose after the Sharks collapsed. But by the end of the season, it was clear that the Sharks’ implosion wasn’t Sutter’s fault.

He was out of work less than a month when Calgary came calling.

Sutter took time to appreciate the situation, then went to work. There are nine players on the Flame roster that weren’t in the organization when Sutter took over.

That group includes Shean Donovan, who has 17 goals, and Andrew Ference, a key player on a defense that has only one player older than 27. Sutter also has given rookies a chance, such as Matthew Lombardi, whose 12 goals are the most by a Flame rookie since Iginla scored 21 in 1996-97.

But Sutter’s best move was getting Kiprusoff, who was the odd-goalie-out in San Jose. Despite missing 19 games because of a knee injury, Kiprusoff has a 1.46 goals-against average and .941 save percentage. He has allowed no more than one goal in 13 of his 19 starts.

The most important addition, players say, came from Sutter himself.

“He brought an attitude,” defenseman Denis Gauthier said. “There are times when we’ve won two or three games in a row and we’ve felt like we’ve lost five. That because he is not going to let us be satisfied with those wins. He’s not going to let us relax. It’s new and it’s different.”

And effective.

“Our slumps used to be 10-game winless streaks,” Gauthier said. “Now a slump is when we play .500.”

That has taken pressure off Iginla, who suffered from expectations on a team that leaned on his stardom and little else.

“When I got here, it was all based on whether Jarome scored or not,” Sutter said. “It was, ‘If he doesn’t score, we can’t win,’ and, ‘If Jarome scores, we should win.’ That doesn’t work in this league. It was unfair to him.”

Iginla had only 12 goals through December, yet made greater contributions off the ice. He has been on a tear since, with 11 goals in his last 10 games and 29 overall.

“Jarome’s development as a leader is something he wanted,” said Sutter, who has indicated he will hand over the coaching duties to someone else next season. “He is learning how to do it. It’s not you wearing the ‘C.’ You have to learn how to use it.”

Iginla seems to have learned. He has even won that ugly green hard hat once.

Buddy, Can You Spare a Salary Cap?

It was a busy week for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He preached labor doom and gloom at the All-Star game, saw his general managers propose some controversial rule changes and then had Arthur Levitt, author of a yearlong study of NHL finances, drop some heavy-handed comments on how the league has been managed.

In the background, there is a less-than-subtle mandate from owners, according to one league official: Get a cap or get a new job.

After years of voodoo economics -- Levitt’s report said that 19 of 30 NHL teams had operating losses totaling $273 million in 2002-03 -- the owners need a victory in the collective bargaining agreement.

That has left Bettman stuck between a cap and a hard place, needing either to get tough or brush up his resume. Even Bettman sees that, saying that if problems aren’t fixed, he should be held accountable.

The players, meanwhile, remain skeptical of any financial report that is underwritten by the league. Levitt’s study was paid for by the NHL.

“We know things need to change,” Vancouver’s Brendan Morrison said after the report came out. “But the owners want the players to take all the responsibility for that.”

Feeling the Blues

Chaos seems to be the standing order in St. Louis, where the longest playoff streak in professional sports is in danger of ending. The Blues have not missed a Stanley Cup playoff in 25 seasons and have failed to get to postseason play only three times in their 36-year history.

The Blues, used to soaring with the likes of Detroit and Colorado, wallowed in ninth before Monday’s victory pushed them into a tie with Dallas for seventh. Panic has set in. Coach Joel Quenneville is in the final season of his contract and General Manager Larry Pleau has yet to offer even lip service in the form of a vote of confidence.

“It’s not a concern,” Quenneville told reporters last week. “It’s out of my control. The bottom line is we have to win. Everyone gets scrutinized. We all have to be sharp.”

The Blues haven’t been. Despite winning their last two, they are 3-9-1 in their last 13 games, which include back-to-back losses to Ottawa and Colorado late last week. Those two defeats seemed to indicate that the Blues couldn’t compete against the elite teams.

“You’d like not to think so,” defenseman Chris Pronger said in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But we’ve shown in the last couple games we can’t.”

Still, there are those in the Blues’ dressing room clinging to their former reputation.

Asked if the Blues couldn’t compete with the NHL’s best forward Keith Tkachuk said: “I don’t agree with that at all. We’re in the same class as them. We’re not getting it done. It’s a tough, difficult stretch. But I resent that question.”

One-Timers

Jeremy Roenick, who suffered a broken jaw when struck by the puck during a game against the New York Rangers last week, is considering retirement. Roenick suffered his ninth concussion on the play. “I’m mulling over a lot of things right now, and I’m not ruling out retirement,” the 34-year old Roenick told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I have a lot to weigh. This is nine concussions, and that does something to you.”

Chicago may now have a market for veteran center Alexei Zhamnov. Blackhawk officials have been trying to unload Zhamnov much of the season, but interest has picked up because of injuries around the league. Ottawa, which will be without Radek Bonk (broken leg) until at least the last week of the season, is reported to be interested. Philadelphia is expected to shop for a quality center after losing Jeremy Roenick and Keith Primeau (possible concussion) last week.