The pieces are all here for a great Flames squad. So why is the puzzle so patchy?

What strikes you when you examine the Calgary Flames from afar, is how good the pieces look when they’re laid out before you.

Could GM Darryl Sutter have poured the foundation of his team more wisely, with long-term deals for his four pillars: Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff, and defencemen Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr?

And the culture seems perfect in Calgary, with Mike Keenan’s exceedingly high expectation overseen by the arched eyebrow of Sutter, the last man we could think of to be fooled by half a performance.

It’s all there, augmented by smart, hard working pick-ups like Curtis Glencross, Daymond Langkow, Rene Bourque and David Moss.

So why, then, are the Flames playing so poorly, with the season at its most crucial juncture?

Two months ago the Vancouver Canucks were 13 points behind the Flames and in second place in the Northwest Division. On Wednesday morning the Flames awoke in second place, one game back and with a far less favourable schedule over the last six games

They’ve won four just of their last 12, and the Olli Jokinen acquisition that looked like pure gold back on March 4 has picked up rust faster than a Skoda on the salt flats.

What’s happened?

Well, we’ve got some ideas.

What I really liked about Jokinen’s arrival in Calgary was that, in that Sutter-charged atmosphere, we were going to learn once and for all about this guy.

Was he the no-try, devoid-of-leadership player some people in Florida and Phoenix talked about? Or had he simply been unfortunate to have never played for a club with a roster that could be lead anywhere?

Thus far in Calgary, he has not answered those questions yet. Jokinen worked with Jarome Iginla for a handful of games, but for the pat seven games that duo has stopped producing.

So, now that the Flames have succumbed to Vancouver, let’s watch this Jokinen fellow. He’s had his honeymoon, and now some hard times.

School is in on the big Finn. Let’s see if he is there to help lead the Flames out of this skid, or if Jokinen is willing to settle for the mediocrity that has thus far enveloped his National Hockey League career.

It seems impossible to think that a group of Top 6 forwards including Iginla, Jokinen, Langkow, Mike Cammalleri, Todd Bertuzzi and the speedy Curtis Glencross would go through as prolonged an offensive slump as the Flames are in.

The pieces are here. So why does the puzzle look so patchy?

Go back to the four pillars.

At times like these the leaders have to lead. That means you, Jarome.

Even though you’ve got 32 goals and 85 points, it is time to take over a hockey game the way you can. The way you used to.

Iginla can be better, and he has to be, lest the Flames — a team that has advanced past the first round only once since winning the Cup way back in 1989 — will have another one-and-out this spring.

Ditto Phaneuf, who appears to have regressed in his fourth NHL season. Phaneuf has never been a minus player — not even in junior — yet sits at minus-13 today. With 11 goals and 45 points, he might post career lows in both those categories as well.

Then there is Kiprusoff, upon whose back the whole thing will rest come April 15th, when the playoffs begin.

Kiprusoff leads the NHL in wins (43) and is second in games played (71). But if you want to find the stats that will tell you how well Turku Broda is really playing, you need to move to the second page of NHL goaltenders.

There, Kiprusoff ranks 34th among NHL goalies in both goals against average (2.85) and saves percentage (.903). Say what you want about how the Flames are playing in front of Kiprusoff, those numbers — over nearly an entire campaign — smell of entirely average goaltending on too many nights.

Too many nights for a goaler of Kiprusoff’s vintage, to be sure.

Can he, like Iginla, find another level?

Did Keenan ride his goalie too hard?

Did Sutter err in not bringing in a backup goalie who could be trusted with more starts than the Flames apparently were willing to entrust to Curtis McElhinney?

Yes, there are plenty of questions in Calgary.

Answers? Now those are in short supply.