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   There was little chatter on the Flames’ 3-and-a-half hour flight to Dallas and it may have been because chatterbox Craig Conroy wasn’t on board.

   Conroy normally the most positive guy on the team even in the lowest of times. Likely wasn’t in such a good mood learning that he is going to be sidelined for a while due to injury (perhaps an ankle). He joins David Moss (shoulder) and Nigel Dawes (leg) on the sidelines.  Its the most injured forwards have had at one time this season.

   Mikael Backlund is replacing Conroy in the lineup.  The Flames #1 pick from 2007 comes up from Abbotsford on a bit of a scoring hot streak.  He’s on a 3-game point streak with a goal and 3 assists.  He’s also notched points in 4 of the last 5 games with the Heat. Overall the native of Sweden has 10 goals and 22pts in 47 games.  He’ll centre a line with Curtis Glencross and Eric Nystrom.

  The match against the Stars is Backlund’s 2nd NHL encounter. He played last Jan. before moving on to Kelowna where he helped them to the WHL title.

   Given the 7-game losing streak and the Flames lack of scoring confidence with only 9 goals over that time, scoring early against the Stars could be imparative to end the slump.

   The Flames haven’t scored a first period goal in the last 3 games plus 4 of the last 5 contests.

   Darryl Sutter proclaimed during the weekend that he has no plans to pull off a major trade to shakeup his Flame team which has lost 5-straight games (winless in 6, including extra time loss).

   The GM put the team together and says, “We have no intention of breaking any of it up. You don’t have to shake it up. We have the intention of getting the most out of what we’ve got. You know those guys can play better.”

   Regarding the club’s lack of scoring, Sutter felt the top players and forwards were all at, or before, their primes so they should at least be matching their career scoring numbers.

   Fact is, none of them are and, for the most part, are away off pace.

   None of Ollie Jokinen, Jarome Iginla, Daymond Langkow, Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester are on pace to be within 10 points of their point averages over the past 4 seasons.  Bouwmeester is the closest.  The defenseman with 18pts in 51 games is on pace to finish with 29pts — that’s 13pts from his 4-season average of 42.

   Goal-wise, Jokinen is on pace to have 19 less.  Langkow and Bouwmeester both 9 less.  The team’s all-time leader, Iginla, is on pace for 34 goals his lowest total since 2000-01. His average is 40 goals, so a good late-season surge could get him to 40.  Phaneuf is on pace for 13 goals which would be 3 less than his average.   

   Reverting to strong defensive play with the team ranking 7th in NHL goals against average after being 21st last season, could be accounting for the reduced scoring heading into Monday’s game against St. Louis. 

   I’ll let you decide.  Here’s the breakdown:

   GOALS                   Ave last 4yr         Current Total      Projection      Diff from Ave

Bouwmeester                  12                               2                      3                       -9

Iginla                                40                             21                      34                    -6

Jokinen                            35                             10                      16                     -19

Lawgkow                         27                             11                       18                     -9

Phaneuf                           16                               8                       13                     -3 

——————– 

  POINTS

Bouwmeester                 42                            18                      29                       -13

Iginla                               89                            43                      69                       -16

Jokinen                           77                            32                       51                       -26

Langkow                        63                            30                       48                       -15  

Phaneuf                         52                             19                       30                       -22                                   

   In the aftermath of the 9-1 drubbing in San Jose on Monday, coach Brent Sutter exclaimed, “Enough is enough.”

The coach was again frustrated after Thursday 3-1 setback to Chicago.

Sutter can only hope that over the 3 days before the next game that his players adopt the cry, “6 is enough.”

Thursday’s defeat was the 6th in succession with the last 5 being in reg-time. A low the Flames haven’t experienced since the 2002-03 season.

Miikka Kiprusoff  was at his best against the Blackhawks and it was 1-1 with 5:30 minutes to go when the Hawks got a fluke goal from Ben Eager.  The Flames pressed the Hawks to almost the very end, Craig Conroy hit a goal post then the Hawks got an ENG from Duncan Keith with 37 seconds left.

By the end of the night, it became a season low point for the Flames.  Not only the 6-consecutive losses but for the first time all year the team is out of a playoff spot. Plus an even scarier thought came during the post-game Pat Steinberg Overtime Show on the Fan 960 when a caller pointed out that if you reverse the 5 wins the Flames gained over Edmonton, the Alberta rivals would have the same number of points. That quickly got me looking at the standing and the guy was “bang on”. Take 10 points from the Flames and add 10 to the Oilers, they both have 48 pts.

That stated, perhaps its time for the Flames to take a positive posture for the time leading up the clash with the Blues.  Go back and reflect on the good times when the club  went through a stretch from Nov.  4 to Dec. 11 when the club ran off a 12-4-2 stretch to grab first place in the NW Div.  Look at what was happening then and get back to playing in that manner.

This team has too much potential to be sitting in 9th place.

  Color me wrong.

  In my third last blog, after the Flames were shutout 1-0 by Nashville at the Saddledome on  Jan. 15 in the headline, which I wrote, screamed “After Hitting ‘Rock Bottom’ …What Next?”

  The blog suggested that after have their goal production in successive games regress from 3,2,1,0 the Flames had bottomed out. Wrong.  The next game was a 5-4 loss at Anaheim then trounced 9-1 in San Jose.

   The shutout to the Preds aside, Monday marked the 4th time the Flames had been badly humbled in a game.

   What next?  The team which humbled them in 2 of those, Chicago Blackhawks.

   Depending which day it is the Hawks are either the NHL’s #1 or #2 team.  Almost daily they reverse with San Jose.

    Checking out the Flames game-by-game log this season, it shows that the Flames have rebounded well from the earlier embarrassments, but not long term.

    On Oct. 12 in Chicago it was the infamous game when the Flames grabbed a 5-0 lead 1st period lead only to loss 6-5 in OT, Still smarting, the Flames played the next night in Columbus losing 2-1. After getting the next 2 days off Brent Sutter’s skaters ran off a 3-game winning streak pus wins in 8 of 11.

   On Nov. 19, this time at home, the Flames faced the Hawks again and were hammered 7-1, the worst loss of the season until Monday.  Calgary would then win 5 of the next 6.

   In the first assignment after Xmas, at home against Vancouver in a big division battle, a 5-1 battering.  

   Again the Flames, dried themselves off, got up and won the next 5 games, their longest winning streak of the season.  Again a slip – 1 win in the last 8 games.

   Now, a shot at redemption again. Can the Flames rebound as they down the last 3 times after being trambled or will it be a 3rd embarrassment at the hands of the Hawks?

   The legion of Flames followers await the answer.  With 32 games remaining a winning consistentcy is necessary.

The Flames are too good a team to lose a game 9-1 as they did in San Jose on Monday.

But, then, so was the last Flame team allow 9 goals in a game.

In fact, for the 1987-88 Flame squad it happened twice in a span of 6 games. Feb 2 9-0 at Winnipeg and Feb 15 it was 9-3 at the NY Islanders.

The up side to those disasters 22 year ago is that the ‘87-88 Flames ended up winning the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s #1 reg-season team.

This Flame club is now 14pt behind the Sharks and their next opponent, Chicago, for #1 overall.

However, with 32 games left a first place NW Div pennant is possible even with a 4-point current deficit.

It was 9-1 but still just one game and maybe precisely what the team needs to get jumped started.

Clearly now the coaching staff should have the full attention of all hands on deck.

If a team has to hit rock bottom before it rebounds, Brett Sutter’s skaters are clearly there.
Another positive historic note from Monday. The last Flame team to lose a game, 9-1 was the ‘85-86 club, which would go to the Stanley Cup finals.

   It wasn’t requested or wanted, but it seemed like a natural progression for the scoring challenged Flames.

   After counting it down scoring 3 goals last Saturday in Vancouver, then 2 on Monday and 1 on Wednesday, none on Friday the Flames hit bottom in the 1-0 loss to Nashville.

   Now it’s back-to-back on the road in California for a team that has scored just 8 times in 6 games producing just one win.

   Sunday its two teams coming off shutout setbacks in Anaheim.  The Ducks were blanked 4-0 in Los Angeles on Thursday.

   Unlike the Flames, though, the Ducks won their preceding 5 games while scoring 18 goals.

   During the off-season there were Flame fan concerns about where the scoring would come from beyond Iginla, Jokinen, Langkow, Bouwmeester and Phaneuf.  Fact is, up until lately the Flame secondary scoring has been good accounting for 72 of the team’s 122 goals — 56%. 

   The issue is that aforementioned 5 players are all below expectation after 48 games with only Iginla close and he hasn’t turned the red light on in 7 games.

    The Flames haven’t been shutout in back-to-back games since last March.  They don’t want a re-do on Sunday before heading to San Jose for a clash with the NHL’s #1 team on Monday. 

      At Wednesday’s am skate a young fan wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey with #87 was sitting behind the Pens players’ bench.

   He said he was a Crosby and Penguin fan #1. An Iginla and Flame fan #2. For that night he hoped Crosby would score,  the Pens win and Iginla score a goal. 

   The focus of that fan, and most others, excitement got there satisfaction early when the Pittsburgh captain scored his first NHL goal in Western Canada at 3:53 of the first period. 

   Iginla didn’t score and the Penguins went on to win, 3-1.

   But as fans exited the Saddledome, the raves, or frustration depending on your perception, were for Team Canada’s #1 Olympic goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury.

   Entering the game, the word was that Fleury had been off his game since he was named with Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo to backstop the Canadian squad next month. He’d lost 5 of his last 6 starts.  Fleury’s game was back on the beam Wednesday. Again the Flames, for a 3rd straight game, had great chances but were repeatedly robbed by the opposing goalkeeper.

   The result. In 3 games where the Flames completely dominated opponents they came away with only 3 of 6 points.

   It started in Vancouver where the Flames won, 3-2 in a shootout, Roberto Luongo stole a point for the Canucks facing 40 shots.  On Monday, Craig Anderson stole 2 points for Colorado as his 46 saves gained the Avs a 3-2 shootout triumph.  Wednesday, Fleury made 36 stops for the Pens.

   Although a lack of scoring has cost the Flames in their last 2 games particularly, they have played the style Brent Sutter wants with determination and passion.  The big challenge heading into another run of 3 games in 4 nights starting Friday at home vs Nashville is getting the players to stick with it.  The type of play exhibited by the Flames in the past 3 matches will garner wins in a big way.  The scoring will eventually come.

  Obviously, the sooner the better.

  To think Craig Anderson could have been a Flame.

  But as long as it took him to develop into a #1 goalie at the NHL level, Miikka Kiprusoff still likely would have been needed here.

  In June of 1999, at a time when the goalie insisted on spelling his last name with two ’s’s, as in Andersson, the Flames selected the 18-year old in the 3rd round of the NHL draft.

  Then GM Al Coates couldn’t sign him and Anderson went back in the draft two years later and was taken by Chicago, where he lived in the suburbs while playing in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

  Coates was at the Saddledome Monday witnessing Anderson’s 44-save performance plus 2 more in the shootout as Colorado won, 3-2. It was Anderson 4th straight win over the Flames this season leaving the teams tied for first place in the NW Division with 58 points.

  Anderson was the lone reason the Avs won the game and the main reason they are at such as lofty standing when most predicted a last place division spot at the outset of the season.

  Anderson is a classic late bloomer. This season at the age of 30 he’s finally a #1 after years as #2 or in the minors.  Most likely if he had signed with the Flames. He would have been gone from the organization long before now and likely before Kiprusoff was acquired in 2003.

  The Flames didn’t play quite as good as they did in Saturday’s 3-2 shootout win in Vancouver but very close to it. Clearly deserving the 2 points rather than 1.

  There were a couple of blemishes. The first came in the 2nd period when the Avs scored 2 goals in 3:01 wiping out a 2-0 Flame lead on goals by Dustin Boyd and Rene Bourque.  The Flame PP also faltered going 0-for-4 including a big 5-on-3 advance in OT.

  Jamie Lundmark hasn’t kept track of how many times he’s gotten the call to come up to the NHL after a stint in the minors.

  …And while the 9-year pro players knows its likely to happen again, he hopes he can remain in the NHL for the balance of his career.

   If every game went like Saturday’s for the winger, who will be 29 this Saturday, he’d likely get his wish of full-time NHL employment.

  48 hours after getting after getting the call to fly from Abbotsford to Calgary, Lundmark was back in B.C. but instead of playing in the Abbotsford Arena, he was in GM PLace in Vancouver leading the Flames to a 3-2 shootout victory.

  Lundmark scored the winning goal as the final shooter in the shootout. Prior to that, he tied the game at 2-2 with a tally midway in the 2nd period.  It was the 2nd time Lundmark has notched the decisive shootout marker for the Flames this season. He did it in Columbus during his first callup of this season in Nov.

  Lundmark admits he’s used to the comings and going but reveals it usually takes him 2-or-3 shifts to re-adjust to the NHL speed, which is “much quicker”.

  Too bad because in Lundmark’s very first shift on Friday in the Saddledome against Columbus, he hit the goal post.  If he had scored on that endeavor and given the Flames a 1-0 lead, who knows where that game may have gone.  As it was, the Flames lost 3-2 to the lowly Bluejackets in a lacklustre performance that brought on a tongue-lashing both behind closed doors and publicly from coach Brent Sutter.

  The Flames responded well Saturday with their best performance of the season to re-gain sole possession of first place in the NW Div.  They are one point ahead of the Canucks and Colorado, who they face Monday in the Saddledome with top spot again on the line.  

  Ollie Jokinen takes a 2-game goal scoring streak into Friday’s Saddledome date with Columbus. History suggests, he won’t extend it to three but could start another scoring steak on Saturday at Vancouver.

  The big centreman from Finland notched one goal each at Nashville and Minnesota earlier this week as the Flames split the encounters.

  Scoring on-the-road has been Jokinen’s forte since he joined the Flames last March 4 in a trade with Phoenix.

  Jokinen has now played 62 games with the Flames. He collected a total of 43 points — 31 of them have come away from Calgary.

  Last season over the final 19 regular-season games, Jokinen had 14ts — 12 of them on the road including all 8 goals.  This campaign in the centre has 20 of his 29 points as a visiting player where he’s a +6. In the ‘Dome he has 9 of his 29pt and is a -7.

  It’s a most unusual scoring breakdown. Many players have better stats at home than on the road, but if its the other way around the percentage split is greatly lower than the 72% swing Jokinen has.  If he had as many points at home this season as he did on the road, he’d be on pace to match his 75-point average in his last 5 seasons with Florida.  That would make him the Flames #2 scorer and the team likely would have a few points in standing.

  The other Flame player this season with much more production away from home is David Moss. The winger has 10 of his 13 points on the road including 6 of his 7 goals.  Last season it was the opposite for Moss where he had 12 of his 20 goals at home.