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ALSO ON SLAM!
Tuesday, December 14, 1999
Get out yardstick!
FLAMES MUST MEASURE UP TO THE BLUES TO PROVE A POINT
ST LOUIS -- This is where it all began.
The pain, the humiliation.
Rock bottom.
And now the Calgary Flames return to see just how far they've come.
As the team plane landed yesterday, no one needed to remind the players or coaches of the horror that transpired on the ice here two months ago.
Humiliated 7-1 by the Blues, the head coach unleashed a verbal barrage on a team that showed little signs of being able to compete. Barely a pulse.
Since that loss Oct. 19, it has been a different Flames team. They left here last time with a 1-5-2 record and no confidence.
Today, they return 11-10-1 since that sour Blues note -- 4-1-1 in their last five games. Six of those 10 losses have been by one goal.
But this game, this rematch, will tell much about how far the Flames have really come.
It will tell us if they are for real, or once again teasing a Calgary fan base as the Great Playoff Pretenders -- an act that is wearing dangerously thin at home.
The confidence is at a season high, particularly after the way the team rebounded from a late game letdown to win the first installment of this three-game road trip at Chicago.
"Since that 7-1 bootlicking in St. Louis, we have been a good hockey team every night," said head coach Brian Sutter.
"The things we had been talking about in terms of what we needed to do to win, we just didn't do that night. It was everybody who let down and that hit home what we had to do.
"It was a wake up call that we have to play a certain way.
"In just about every game since then we have been responsible on the ice.
"The key since then is the goaltending being good, special teams being good and other people scoring some goals."
Sutter chose that post-game here last time to publicly dress down his team. It was brutal but it was honest and much deserved. No one was spared.
"I didn't mean to be critical, just honest," said Sutter. "Our job as coaches is to find the right buttons to push. Everyone in that room knew what the problem was. They just had to look in the mirror, and if you are honest you will accept it.
"But the people who still think we are down and out, well I just kind of laugh. We've stayed together as a team and we are (five) points out of a playoff spot. The difference is our first homestand, 0-3-2, and we are going to make up for that too."
Until then, tonight's rematch is an opportunity to make up for that humiliation of the last visit to the Kiel Centre.
"It felt like a wake-up call the last time we were here. We had been close but not good enough up until then, but then they totally kicked our butts and we realized if we kept playing like that we weren't going anywhere," said winger Val Bure.
"It was one of the turning points of this season for us.
"It's important we prove to the whole league, and not just St. Louis, that we are a real team and it will be tough to play against us.
"After one team beats you 7-1 it is pretty embarrassing, so (tonight) we hope to put in a good effort and prove them wrong."
Goalie Grant Fuhr went into that last game with something to prove against his former team, but he ended up getting chased after six Blues goals.
"It was a little bit of a slap in the face for us to realize that for us to be good, we have to play hard every night," said Fuhr.
"After that night everyone has buckled down a little bit, and this team is starting to grow a little bit and see the confidence come out. Once it gets confident, it's going to be a good hockey team."
Now it is certainly a better team. But it may still not be good enough.
Much of the team's success has come with Freddie Brathwaite in net. You know Fuhr would love the opportunity to play and win against the team that gave up on him and traded him to Calgary. And also avenge that 7-1 loss, which was, to those who witnessed it, clearly no fault of Fuhr's.
"You're always disappointed when things like that happen," said Fuhr. "The bottom line is I'd like us to go in there and win. It doesn't matter if Freddie or myself plays, the biggest thing is if we can go in and come out with a couple points."
Fuhr's selfless attitude is a big reason why Brathwaite is having success. He knows he has the support of Fuhr and he is benefiting from that tutelage.
Sutter isn't about to toy with Brathwaite's success. But neither is he about to give up on Fuhr.
"If they are winning, the goalies know they are going to stay in there," said Sutter.
"I know Grant came in and got a big point for us in Montreal and we're not going to hesitate in using him, but the schedule will and how they are playing will dictate who plays.
"But I know one thing, we are going to need them both before it's all said and done."
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