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Monday, January 17, 2000
Can it, Pat!
Pat's flap fell on deaf ears.
"The schedule," maintained Brian Sutter yesterday, "is like a bad relative. As much as you might want to change it or dismiss it or give it to someone else, it's yours.
"You're stuck with it.
"Think anybody's happy with their schedule? Do you think we were happy going on the road for eight out of nine, with one game at home stuck in the middle, earlier this season?"
Sutter's eyes were like two drill-bits boring into a piece of hard wood. "The only thing I can say to people who don't like the schedule is this:
"Live with it."
Following Saturday's 4-0 downer at the 'Dome, Leaf coach Pat Quinn, while grudgingly giving the Flames a semblance of credit for the outcome, couldn't resist getting in a dig or two about unfair scheduling. The Leafs had won in overtime at Skyreach and, due to Hockey Night In Canada, were obliged to regroup for a 5 p.m. start the next night.
"They get a lot of tired teams in here, who don't have a full day between games," he harrumphed. "And the league does nothing about it."
Quinn then, tongue half-in-cheek, wondered if such a transgression was even allowable within the collective bargaining agreement between the Players Association and the league.
A lot of Irish blarney, claim the Flames.
"Pat's team lost, which is why he said it, I guess," Sutter rebutted. "It's an excuse. Every team plays back-to-back games. And how can you go in and tell your players 'You've got to give me more!' after you've given them an out, blaming what happened on playing back-to-back games? It just lets them off the hook.
"You don't hear us or our players whining about the schedule. What good does it do?"
For the record, Calgary has played seven back-to-backers, the Leafs six.
"It's a bunch of crap," challenged defenceman Denis Gauthier. "Just sour grapes. Eastern teams should never complain about travel. Teams out here do a lot more of it than them. They go out on what, one or two long trips? We're always gone eight, 10, 12 days. If there's anybody who should be complaining about the schedule, it's us. But we don't.
"Toronto is one of the top offensive teams in the league. We shut them out, held Sundin without a shot, Hoglund to one and Thomas to two. We wanted to go hard at their skilled players right off the bat and did that. They got frustrated, started to retaliate and do a lot of talking.
"Face facts ... the better team on the night won the game. I don't understand why that's hard for some people to grasp.
"We're playing some pretty good hockey against some pretty good hockey teams at the moment."
Which is a nice segue into tomorrow's date against the Detroit Red Wings. A win would mean a superlative hat-trick for these Flames, having already knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champions and (according to the Toronto media) the heir-apparents.
The Wings just might be the most well-rounded team in the game at the moment. This will be a battle between the league's highest-scoring team and the Western Conference's lowest-scoring team. A whopping 53 goals separate Detroit's attack from Calgary's.
But the locals are riding a five-game winning streak at home, having given up only six goals during that span; and when they awoke yesterday morning, Freddie and the Dreamers were tied in points for seventh place in the conference and only four points out of sixth.
"We're not stupid. We know who's up next," said Sutter. "But that can't change the way we play. Everybody said 'Oh, it's only Tampa Bay' ... when we played them. Well, we had to play every bit as hard against Tampa as we did against Dallas or Toronto."
NOTES: Defenceman Tommy Albelin (shoulder) should play tomorrow, while centre Marc Savard (concussion) might be ready to go.
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