Their partnership lasted just half-a-dozen games before it was dissolved by Calgary Flames coach Jim Playfair, but both Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay know that in professional hockey, things can change in a hurry.
"I know, as players, the chemistry only comes when you both play well," said Tanguay, "and right now, I haven't been playing well, but Jarome is. So hopefully, I can start contributing a little more. That's been a little hard on me and a little frustrating, because I know I can be better."
The Flames made the much-ballyhooed trade for Tanguay last June to provide some scoring balance on a team that perennially struggles to find the back of the net. For reasons even they cannot explain, the chemistry between Iginla and Tanguay didn't develop at the start of the season. Of late, Tanguay plays mostly on a line with a couple of youngsters, Matt Lombardi and Chuck Kobasew, while Iginla patrols the right side alongside centre Daymond Langkow and either Jeff Friesen or Kristian Huselius on the wing.
Even without Tanguay, the perennially slow-starting Iginla is off to one of his best beginnings in years — and with eight goals in 13 games, is on pace to reach the 50-goal plateau for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when he won both the Art Ross trophy as the NHL's leading scorer and the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league's top goal producer.
Tanguay, meanwhile, has been better of late (and is up to eight points in 13 games), but not good enough yet to win promotion to the top line.
After spending his first six seasons in the Colorado Avalanche organization, Tanguay found the adjustment to Calgary — a different culture, a different coaching staff and a different city — to be more challenging than anticipated. A month in, is Tanguay's new life starting to feel normal yet?
"A little bit more," answered Tanguay. "It's the same for every job in the world, not just hockey. Mentally, if you're not there 100 per cent, it shows in your performance. I felt myself, over the course of the first month, thinking about some other things that were not related to hockey that maybe affected my game.
"But I'm not going to use those things as an excuse. I've got to be better myself. Like everybody else here, I'm a professional. I love what I do. It doesn't matter where you do it. Calgary's a great place to be, it's just a matter of me getting into a rhythm here and helping the team — because really, it's all about winning.
"It doesn't matter how many points you put on the board, if the team was in first place right now, I don't think anybody would be talking about me not scoring as much as perhaps I should."
No, then they'd be celebrating the fact that they were winning without Tanguay and how good might things be when he finally did hit his stride.
The Flames were approaching something of a crossroads, prior to Tuesday night's date with the visiting Dallas Stars. A year ago, they were off to an identical 4-7-2 start, but played themselves back into playoff contention by reeling off eight consecutive wins in November.
One of the myths that surround the NHL is that teams cannot dig themselves out of an early-season hole — that if they fall behind early, it's almost impossible to overcome that poor start.
Not only did the Flames disprove that theory — they were back in it by the end of the second month of the season — two other teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and San Jose Sharks also overcame poor performances in the first half and still qualified for the playoffs.
So it can be done — and it was done by three of the Western Conference's eight playoff teams last season. The trick, naturally, is to start winning.
"Our group is still very confident, not just that we can get it going a little bit, but that we can be a top team," said Iginla. "It's a long way looking up at the teams that got off to a good start, so we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. Right now, it's just finding ways to get on a bit of a streak, first off, by winning back-to-back games.
"But there's so much season left. You don't even need to win seven or eight in a row. It's enough to win three out of four."
Playfair, for his part, saw enough positives in the final five periods of their road trip to think a turnaround could be at hand. He's been pleased with Iginla's consistency, less so with that of the second line — Tanguay, Lombardi and Kobasew — of whom he said: "They've got to play with a lot of speed and urgency to win puck battles. When they don't win puck battles, they're really not an effective line."
Eventually, one would expect the Flames will go back to where they started —with Tanguay playing on a line with Iginla.
"Anybody can play with Alex," said Iginla. "He's a very, very good passer and a very smart, all-around player. Lines change quite a bit, especially when you're not having a lot of success early, so that's part of it. But I imagine we'll get another chance to play together again, and I look forward to it. I definitely think there's potential there."
