Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

After losing Dany Heatley to trade, Cory Clouston squeezed a max effort out of Jason Spezza and Mike Fisher.

Ahem!

I suspect there are a great many of you out there - especially those of you kind enough to send some of the most vicious hate mail in the history of this web site -- who are expecting the "I told you so" column regarding Calgary, its failed playoff run and its failed general manager Darryl Sutter.

Sorry to disappoint.

The problems of the Flames and Sutter's management style need no additional comment from me. First off, colleague Mark Spector has it pretty much all right in his last two offerings from the West. Secondly, what's the point of covering old, well-fertilized ground?

I will say this: there's a price for failure in the National Hockey League and Flames president Ken King and the owners of the franchise ignore it at their peril. The histrionics of a failed playoff run will wear off over time (though one could legitimately ask if missing the playoffs is all that much worse than going out in the first round season after season) and when the heat comes down a notch they have a decision to make. If it were me, I'd tell both Darryl and coach Brent Sutter that they have the opportunity to resign and spend more time with their family. It's the right thing for them and it's the right thing for the Flames, who need to start over with new people and a different perspective.

Darryl, in particular, deserves that. There is a lot of truth in what's been written about his condescending attitude, his penchant for twisting the truth to his own benefit (that line about the Sabres wanting to re-sign Ales Kotalik, well I won't call it a lie, but it does stretch the boundaries of truth to Mars and back again) and his total mishandling of trades, the roster and the salary cap in recent seasons. But Darryl did help right a failing franchise when he arrived on the scene way back when, giving the team an identity and helped rebuild the hope in a fan base that had lost faith.

He's earned the right to leave with some dignity.

Now let's move on to an area where I wasn't quite so insightful: the Ottawa Senators. A colleague in Calgary recently wrote that one would have to be on the far side of crazy to not vote the Jack Adams Award to either Dave Tippett of the Phoenix Coyotes or Joe Sacco of the Colorado Avalanche. I have no doubt that one of those two will win it (though I will also say I tire easily of coach-of-the-year winners who step into a new situation with teams that are already good enough to succeed), but if I had a vote it wouldn't be a slam dunk for either one.

I'd give a world of consideration to Barry Trotz in Nashville, who year after year gets a team that looks like a sure playoff miss -- largely because of budget and ownership issues -- into the post-season. I'd take a long look at Claude Julien and Craig Ramsay of the Boston Bruins and declare that keeping the Bruins competitive for a playoff spot after losing Phil Kessel to a questionable trade, a slew of long-term injuries and the near complete collapse of Vezina Trophy-winning Tim Thomas in goal is truly an Adams' moment. I'd also consider Terry Murray, widely considered a retread, for his magnificent work in guiding a still-young Los Angeles Kings team to a playoff berth in the ultracompetitive West.

But I'd likely mark my ballot for Ottawa's Cory Clouston. The Senators, at the start of the season, were a flawed team marked by controversy, old age and questionable goaltending. They appeared to be a likely candidate to miss the postseason even in a weak Eastern Conference, but Clouston didn't let that happen.

The second-year man in Ottawa survived the preseason Dany Heatley debacle and the poorly considered acquisition of Pascal Leclaire in goal to guide the remnants of a once great -- but aging -- team to within a breath of winning the Northeast Division crown. Clouston didn't just hope that goalie Brian Elliott would step up in place of the always injured and usually unsuccessful Leclaire, but he and his coaching staff did the necessary work to make Elliott a better, more mature goalie and the players in front of him better at overall team defence.

Furthermore, Clouston and company adapted to their surroundings to institute a system that made up for the loss of Heatley's goal production. It started by making Jason Spezza a better player, goal-scorer and playmaker by making the supporting cast better. Under Clouston, role players were given more prominence and they responded in kind.

There were stumbles along the way and a post-Olympic falloff hurt the race to overtake Buffalo in the division, but Clouston worked miracles with the lousy hand he was dealt. Not only did he get the Sens into the playoffs with room to spare, he likely saved general manager Bryan Murray's job in the process.

He won't win Jack when everyone gets to Vegas, but he deserves an accolade and some respect.