Sometimes things aren’t exactly what they seem.
The Colorado Avalanche, for instance, lead the NHL’s Northwest Division with four wins in five games. The young Avs are full measure for their astounding start, but can anyone among us really say they are convinced this team will have a playoff spot secured when the final week of the season rolls around?
The Detroit Red Wings, meanwhile, have stumbled out of the gate. Will having played in the past two Stanley Cup Finals, coupled with the loss of scoring and injuries finally drag this team down? A little, perhaps, but any team with Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Dan Cleary will, in all likelihood, be right in the thick of things next spring.
Then there’s the Calgary Flames. This is a team many experts are suggesting have what it takes to represent the Western Conference. Four straight wins to start the season had folks in Calgary planning May parties on the Red Mile, although it’s a little too chilly now to think about raising cups.
If you looked closely at the first four wins, not all was well with the Flames. Their 5-on-5 play was horrible and the Big Three on defence, Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr along with newcomer Jay Bouwmeester weren’t holding opposing shooters at bay.
Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen, expected to lead the team in scoring, were having trouble finding the net and new coach Brent Sutter wasn’t having an immediate positive impact on the team.
Then comes three straight losses.
Oh no!
The Dallas Stars had little trouble beating the Flames 5-2 before one of the biggest implosions in NHL history when Calgary built a 5-0 lead on the Chicago Blackhawks only to surrender six straight goals in an overtime loss. Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets was a good game that could have gone either way.
So will the real Calgary Flames please stand up?
Truth be told, it’s going to take a while for this team to find its way. And that is a good thing.
Sutter is a highly-regarded coach with a long track record of leading teams to the promised land. He has a game plan and the backing of his boss, general manager and brother Darryl. The Sutters aim high, but are very realistic when considering the journey that lies ahead. They are, after all, a family that plants seeds and knows things don’t grow overnight.
The thing about the Flames is, regardless of the early negatives – like centre Daymond Langkow having just one goal and two points to go with a minus-9, or Phaneuf being minus-five despite scoring three goals and six points, or goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff ranking 38th in goals-against average (3.31) and 28th in save percentage (.903), there’s a much greater chance of the concerns improving than the positives going into the tank.
By the end of the season there is a very good chance everything will be in synch and the Flames will be primed for a long playoff run.
The trick is translating what is a perfectly good team on paper to the ice.
Somehow it’s hard to imagine Iginla not being in the Top 10 in scoring when all is said and done. Or Kiprusoff being among the NHL’s goaltending leaders in victories, or Jokinen not being in the 70-80 point neighborhood, or the troika of Phaneuf, Regehr and Bouwmeester not being the leaders of one of the best defences in the league.
There will be growing pains along the way and Brent Sutter may have to have a meltdown or two before finally getting his message across.
Right now it seems like too many players are trying to do too much to impress the new boss. When things started to go off the rail against Chicago the other night, Iginla took matters into his own hands by starting a fight, hoping to inspire his teammates, with Troy Brouwer. Problem is, his team needed him on the ice, not sitting in the penalty box.
That said, Iginla served notice as leader of the hockey team he was not going down without a fight. In this case, with so many games still to be played, I’ll take that kind of leadership any day.
As the season progresses, some teams that started quickly will fade while others that stumbled early will get better.
My money is on the Flames progressively getting better to the point where they meet pre-season expectations.