In the end, Calgary's talent and work ethic were not enough to overcome their fatal flaws.

If you think I'm going to gloat, you couldn't be more wrong.

If you think I'm going to say "told you so", well, it's not going to happen.

People take it personally when I point out flaws in a team or in the management or coaching of a team, but that's not what this business is supposed to be all about.

My job is to inform in the best way I know how and when I mentioned at the start of the season and again at the trade deadline that there were flaws in the Calgary Flames as a team and in the way it was constructed that was true. That they looked very much like yet another edition of the one-and-out Flames was an opinion to be sure, but it was an opinion rooted in observation of fact.

It's also true that several of the Flames' flaws were not just exposed but exploited by the Chicago Blackhawks in the now ended season for the Flames. Chicago was the better team, they were a faster team and a better balanced team and, yes, they were healthier and they had the better goaltending but this won't be a column about the Hawks or about what I've seen all season in the Flames.

This is about the Flames that played the game Monday night and those Flames were marvelous in defeat.

In the end, when the Flames lined up for their biggest game of the season, they had next to nothing left. Their blueline was in tatters, their power play, well it simply wasn't happening. Their physical game, sometimes resembling a tank or at least an oversized Hummer, was running on fumes and yet they brought the very best of whatever they had left.

The Flames came after the Hawks in waves, they seldom took a backward step and all they got for their effort was a loss. It may have been predictable, but their effort was commendable none the less and that should not go unmentioned. But at the same time it was also somewhat sad.

The greatness that was, and hopefully still is, Jarome Iginla was almost completely neutered in this series. A standup guy, Iginla acknowledged that with a statement that he needed to do more and that he failed.

It's a harsh evaluation, but it's also true.

Iginla and the Flames kept coming at goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and what might have been considered an inexperienced Chicago defence, but they produced nothing more than shots. As Iginla said, the Flames "had their chances" but they didn't beat their now No.1 nemesis. That was the case in the 2004 Cup final series when Khabibulin tended goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was the case again Monday night in the Saddledome.

Iginla had all of four points and was a minus-four in the series.

It's understandable that he takes that hard, it's a hard stat to look at, but there's something else going on here.

There's always been a " let Iggy do it" approach in the really big games the Flames played over the years, but the game is changing, Iginla, like a lot of his teammates, is getting old. If there was ever a season when he could have used a bit more support, a bit more from his linemates and his supporting lines, this was the time.

They tried, they pushed the Hawks as hard as they knew how, but they simply weren't able to get it done. When Khabibulin wasn't stopping shots, his defence, quicker at most every turn, was gobbling up loose pucks and moving them out of harm's way. Chicago's balanced scoring, and on this night at least, its out-of-the-gate-first scoring was also a factor.

The Flames are a team built to try and manufacture goals, but the parts were either missing or broken. They kept the production line going as best they could, but they simply couldn't manufacture the offence they needed. The Hawks didn't exactly score at will, but they scored on the best chances they had and those chances came off their speed and by exploiting the breakdown of the Calgary defence.

You could also argue that the Hawks had better coaching. In this game at least, Joel Quennville seemed to have an answer for everything Mike Keenan did or tried to do. That wasn't the case in the first two games in Calgary when the Hawks always seemed a bit behind, but a long series takes a toll on an older team and this time Quennville had his charges flying.

He also had his shutdown lines performing superbly. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook did a heck of a job on Iginla's line in Game 6 and Keenan had no answer for that. It's not because he didn't want to try and get a different matchup, especially on home ice, he did try, but Quennville is no one's fool and he made the appropriate adjustments.

That was pivotal because Calgary didn't have much else to offer. The Flames tried to bring offence from the back end, but simply couldn't: Too many injuries, not enough skill. They tried even harder to control the play in the Chicago end and they did a very good job of that, but they couldn't beat the goalie and they couldn't get to the rebounds fast enough to get those all important second and third chances.

In the end effort wasn't enough. A too-many men on the ice penalty certainly didn't help and Todd Bertuzzi's attempt to "set the tone" as analysts like to say was as foolish as it was ineffective what with the early elbowing penalty that lead to Chicago's first goal.

Mike Cammalleri's performance was also lacking and even less can be said of Oli Jokinen's contributions and Daymond Langkow, issues that will no doubt be addressed in the offseason, but that's for another time.

The best that can be said about these Flames is something that should not be ignored. They played to win. That it didn't happen is regrettable but they weren't routed, they were just beaten and they were beaten while giving a noble effort.

Pros are supposed to try, that's a given, but pros that try in the face of odds that, at this point in the series appeared overwhelming, should still be acknowledged.

What was left of this Calgary team acquitted itself well in defeat.

It won't ease the pain for the players or their amazingly devoted fans. It won't reverse the sting of a loss that Iginla noted was "the hardest", but they didn't go out like the San Jose Sharks, meekly and with now never-ending questions about their character. They didn't self destruct on ice and behind the bench like the New York Rangers appear to be doing and they didn't make themselves pitiful like the Montreal Canadiens.

They left the way they came in, a flawed team, but a proud one that gave what it had right down to the final minute of their final game.

Whatever their future and that of their coach and perhaps even their general manager, they deserve to be commended for that.