Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

CALGARY -- You don't get into this business to make friends. It is just something that happens along the way. It can't be helped.

The problem is, however, when you are on the reporter side of the relationship there is an inevitability.

No matter how may games of pool you play with that coach on the road, eventually the time is going to come when he loses his team.

Or that GM who returned your calls, and saved you from looking like a dummy when something you were about to write wasn't right. He is going to outlive the gig too, one day. They all do -- it is simply the nature of the game. Hell -- this is my third gig as a columnist.

I have known Darryl Sutter since he was a gritty winger for the Chicago Blackhawks. I have not enjoyed many coaches through a Stanley Cup run like we did Sutter back in 2004, when the Flames looked like a team that would be a powerhouse for years to come. He has always been more than fair, accessible and as honest as possible.

Now, 20-some years later, we've hit that fork in the road. The fork you hate to stick in your friend.

But alas, he is done.

The program has regressed here in Calgary. The Flames are getting worse, not better.

The Flames have had four different coaches in the past five seasons. They have been passed in their own conference by L.A., Colorado, Phoenix, Chicago and (gulp) Vancouver.

Like Flyers GMs Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren, who never figured out a way to get a goalie into Philly, Sutter has furnished his only first-line forward with a succession of No. 2 centres over the years. Now Jarome Iginla is turning 33, and he looks to his left to see Matt Stajan, about to begin a new four-year, $14-million contract next season.

The third defensive pairing of Steve Staios and Cory Sarich have a combined cap hit of $6.3 million.

Ales Kotalik, who just isn't a very good hockey player anymore yet has two more seasons at $3 million on his contract, was taken on by Calgary at the trading deadline. That allowed the Flames to ship Olli Jokinen -- another bust who cost Calgary a first-round draft pick, Matthew Lombardi and Brandon Prust -- to exit Calgary.

The problem was, Jokinen's contract is up after this season. Kotalik has two years left. It just doesn't make any sense.

Capped out and left out of the playoffs, the program doesn't work here anymore.

"Obviously if you don't make the playoffs, it's gone in the wrong direction," Flames veteran Craig Conroy said. "To be where we are right now? Yes, it's definitely gone in the wrong direction.

"It seemed like we were favourites a few years ago, now it's just about making the playoffs."

Now, it's about figuring out how this roster missed the post-season. How goaltending that was as good as any team in the NHL this season -- and far better than most -- wasn't enough, behind a starting six on defence that eats up nearly $19 million in cap space.

How a team that sits fourth in the NHL in goals against can sit 29th in goals scored. Worse even than (gasp) Edmonton, the worst team in the league.

How a powerplay that scored 10 goals in the season's first 10 games managed only 32 the rest of the season. How Calgary hit the four-goal plateau eight times in their first 10 games, but only nine times in 70 games since.

"We were one of the top defensive teams in the league, but we were one of the lowest scoring teams in the league," Iginla said. "We're still a good team. I don't think that we're that far away."

"We lost Bert and Cammy (Todd Bertuzzi and Mike Camalleri), a 40-goal scorer. We thought we'd try to do it by committee, and a lot of nights we weren't able to score," said Conroy. "When we were scoring three or four goals at the beginning of the year, it wasn't even close. Then we went dry, there was a lot of pressure on Jarome, the powerplay wasn't clicking like it was at the beginning of the year…"

And when it was all said and done, the Calgary Flames weren't good enough.

It turns out that 2004 Cup run, in Sutter's first year as GM, was as flukey as Edmonton's run in '06. There are problems here that just haven't been solved.

Sorry Darryl, and thanks for seven good years.

But if this were your truck, you'd hire a new mechanic.