Doors to NHL locker rooms are to be opened to media "no later" than five minutes after the end of a game, by order of the commissioner Gary Bettman, a league rule posted at arenas around North America.
Sunday night in Vancouver, five minutes came and went, and the door to Calgary's likely very dour locker room remained shuttered. General manager Jay Feaster passed through without a word some five minutes later. A couple more minutes later it opened, and reporters arrived to a mostly empty room, with the likes of Jarome Iginla not in sight. Asked if the Flames captain had a few minutes, a PR person said, "No Iginla tonight," shrugging that No. 12 usually had to do the what-went-wrong explaining.
So it was left to other Flames to explain the team's implosion against Vancouver in a 5-1 loss, a game in which Calgary needed a win, and opened strong, 1-0, before failing. Coach Brent Sutter said the first was "as good a period as we played all year." Thereafter? Winger Lee Stempniak put it plainly: "We completely turned off the switch. Really struggled, embarrassed ourselves."
So as Vancouver shook off a loss against Nashville, and rose to 5th in the Western Conference standings, solidly in the playoff hunt, Calgary solidified its hold on last place in the northwest division, fixed at 13th in the conference – and is looking at its third-successive season golfing in April.
With three games at home in five nights, starting Tuesday against Colorado, the Flames season hangs in the balance, as the team tries to notch wins ahead of a 13-game stretch into 2012 where the team is on the road for 11 matches.
"Obviously those are big games [at home]" said defenceman Jay Bouwmeester. "And then we're on the road a lot. Yeah, it is a big stretch, going home."
Feaster, speaking to reporters at the Saddledome Friday, when he spent time fending off numerous rumours (Iginla absolutely is not going anywhere), pointed a bright spotlight on this stretch for Calgary. He called it "critical." The Flames, Saturday night in Edmonton, demonstrated tremendous character in a game some Calgary fans thought could mark the official eclipse of the Flames by the long-lowly, young and sometimes-spectacular Oilers. The Oil opened 2-0 in three minutes – but the Flames bashed backed, winning 5-3.
Calgary carried it over for the most of the first frame against Vancouver and then promptly vacated Rogers Arena (and badly missed injured key D-man Mark Giordano, out indefinitely after going down against Nashville last week).
"We stopped moving our feet," Sutter said after the game. "We allowed them to take it to us."
The 'them' doing most of the taking was Vancouver's second line. Who needs Swedes, when you have Americans? When David Booth arrived in Vancouver from Florida in late October, after the surprise among locals faded, there was talk of an American Express line, featuring Booth and fellow Yanks Chris Higgins and Ryan Kesler. But the scoring assault was slow to emerge, and for several weeks Booth often looked confused as he tried to fit in, Kesler was slower than usual as he recovered from hip surgery in the summer, and Higgins didn't have the full-flight partners he has now.
After falling behind 1-0, the Canucks demolished their visiting rivals, as the American Express card cashed in three consecutive pucks in the visitors net to tie, take the lead and extend it, en route to the 5-1 win – the second time this season Vancouver has beat up on Calgary 5-1 (in Calgary, Nov. 1, was the previous drubbing).
"The points came for us," Higgins said after the game. "Hopefully, we keep it going."
Vancouver's victory was backstopped by the official return of Roberto Luongo, who hadn't started since he beat the New York Islanders Nov. 13. Luongo didn't have much trouble stopping 21 of 22 shots. The one that got by him was trickery from Alex Tanguay, who banked a puck off the back of Luongo's legs from behind the goal line in the first.
"Bobby played solid," said Higgins, citing Luongo's blocker side in particular. "He made some big saves."
Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault agreed: "He played the way we expect him to play."
For Luongo, the win should at least somewhat quiet the loud questions about goaltending in Vancouver, where the starter himself floated the weird suggestion that he and backup Cory Schneider were "both No 1s." Luongo historically triumphs against Calgary, winning about two-thirds of all encounters, and before the match on Sunday was all standard-issue "just play my game" talk. He gave no suggestion he'd been rattled in the past several weeks, saying all the chatter – Schneider's hot hand, the backup's place in the city's goaltending hierarchy, and his benching – was "nothing to be upset about."
Vancouver, with the Sunday win, upped its record against Calgary since the start of 2010-11 to 7-0-1 (the Flames are 1-6-1 versus the Canucks). Bouwmeester acknowledged that never beating a division rival that is faced six times a season doesn't help matters. "Well, it's one of those things, if you knew you'd just wave the magic wand and fix it."
For Calgary, while backs are on the wall, the words of Vigneault on NHL parity this season – "so much" of it – may be heartening. Three strong showings in three games at home could change how 2011-12 unfolds for the 2004 Cup-final team.
Given the parity, goaltenders make a bigger difference than usual, Vigneault noted. "It's so competitive this year," he said.
Hot Higgins Higgins is one of various Vancouver Canucks who has found his form in recent games, in part because his linemates are now clicking. Higgins played much of last spring's playoff with a broken foot and has notched points in each of the past four games, including three on Sunday night; linemate Booth also had three points.
Higgins' goal gave the Canucks the lead near the end of the second and the night's showing gave him eight goals and nine assists- 17 points – for the season. The 2002 first-round draft choice, 14th overall to Montreal, is on pace to book 54 points, which would be his best-ever season, ahead of 27 goals and 52 points in 2007-08 with the Canadiens. His stock thereafter sank in Montreal, as his scoring vanished, and he bounced around, first to the New York Rangers, briefly to Calgary (12 games to end 2009-10, two goals, one assist) and then Florida Panthers (he came to Vancouver during last season, and Booth joined him from Florida in October).
Flames doused Although the Flames opened the scoring on Sunday, numerous statistics suggested Calgary fans' hope for a weekend to remember was perhaps a little too hopeful. The Flames' O can barely be described as okay. The team entered the game with an average of 2.36 goals a game, No 23 in the league, and 27.9 shots per game, 24th- which was a factor in the second frame on Sunday when the Flames blew the 1-0 lead and went down 2-1, notching all of four shots on Luongo. The fact the Flames blew a lead isn't shocking either, as Calgary was No 20 in the NHL with a lead after one, winning 71.4 per cent before last night's loss.
In the circle Calgary outdid itself, delivering an absolutely terrible showing at puck drops Sunday night. The team was already the worst in the NHL, winning just 44.8 per cent of draw this season. Vancouver, which prides itself at winning faceoffs, stood at No 5, with 52.2 per cent. Calgary, perhaps pragmatically ceding faceoffs to Vancouver, won an abysmal 16 of 55 draws, not even 30 per cent.