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  The Flames haven’t generated, or had, much love lately but on the eve of Valentine’s Day they look change that before going to the NHL Olympic Break.

  Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff and Niklas Hagman will head to Vancouver after the game while the remainder of the team take an Olympic Honeymoon.

  The regardless of where they jet off to, all the Flames would like to depart with cheers ringing in their collective ears. That didn’t happen Thursday in the 3-1 loss to Dallas.

  Now its the Anaheim Ducks providing the opposition for Brent Sutter’s crew as they endeavour to end a 3-game winning streak and finally win their 30th game of the season.

  It’s somewhat amazing that the Flames are still looking for that 30th triumph considering when they won their 25th game on Jan. 5 it was the club’s 47th game marking the 3rd fastest to 25 wins in club history. Nineteen games have passed with only 4 wins.

  Since the Flames have added 7 new players, the team has compiled a 2-2-1 record. They could easily could have won all 5 but couldn’t produce in the most important area — scoring goals.

  In the 5 games the Flames have scored an average 2 goals per. They have averaged 33.6 shots on goal, so the opportunities have presented themselves.  On the other side of the ice, the Flames have a 1.8 GAA in the 5 games while permitting an average of 23.6 on Kiprusoff. Hard work has produced the solid defensive record.

  Players love to score. Saturday the Flames look outscore the Ducks to re-gain the hearts of their fans.

   Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow will be in the spotlight prior to Thursday’s Flame-Dallas clash as they are honored by the Flames for playing their 1000th NHL games last week in Florida on consecutive nights.

   The Flame plan was to salute both veteran forwards on separate evenings, but Iginla and Langkow wanted a joint ceremony.

   …And it makes sense.  Both players played in the Western Hockey League. They were both drafted in the first round of the 1995 and both have been Flames teammates now for oiver 4-and-half years.

  After the celebration is over and the commerative 1000-game silver sticks put away, Flames coach Brent Sutter has a couple of numbers he wants.

  The coach needs 100-for-60 from all of his players against the Stars.  Translated that 100% for 60 minutes.  Coach Sutter feels if he gets that tonight his team will be on the winning side.

  The Flames final game before the Olympic Break is Saturday at home against Anaheim.  A pair of wins over the Stars and Ducks would assure Sutter’s crew of a playoff position for the 2-week respite.

  The Flames are sequested well away from the House of Commons but Tuesday night they face the hockey team from our nation’s capital.

  …And the Ottawa Senators are doing much better than our governing fathers these days.

  On Saturday, the Sens were blown away in Toronto, 5-0, ending their club record 11-game win streak.

  Now the Sens endeavour to start a new win streak against a Flame team that looks to increase its point streak to 4 games.

  The Flames, since Sunday afternoon, have been staying at a hotel in Kanata. Closer to Scotiabank Place than Capital Hill.

  At Monday’s practice it was obvious the 7 new players were becoming much more familiar with their new teammates.  It was a serious one-hour session but the new guys were giving and taking good-natured barbs on and off the ice.

  Backup goalie Curtis McElhinney hasn’t played in a while but he won’t the Super Bowl board pool and rubbed that in.

  The mood is most positive thanks to gaining 5 points of a possible 6 since the 7 hit the ice last Wednesday.

   Now they face their toughest test yet against the sizzling Senators.

   Rene Bourque will miss the game with an injury that hasn’t been officially revealed, but he’s been seen wearing a sling.  Nigel Dawes, who has been out since Jan. 21 with a leg injury, joined the team in Ottawa and skated with a yellow caution jersey on Monday.  Based on am skate on Tuesday, Jamie Lundmark looked like he’d take Bourque’s place in the line-up on a line with Curtis Glencross and Mikael Backlund.

  On Saturday night, the Flames and the team they are aiming to catch, the Vancouver Canucks, found themselves at the same Tampa hotel.

  On Sunday morning, while the Flames travelled to Ottawa, some Canuck players took advantage of a day off to make the 3-and-a-half trek to Miami for the Super Bowl Game.  The Canucks play in Tampa on Tuesday.

  Since inserting 7 new players into the line-up (2 ex-Rangers, 4 ex-Leafs and rookie centre Mikael Backlund), the Flames have amassed 5 out of a possible 6 points at the expense of three teams in the Southeast Division.

   It might have been 6 out of 6 had fatigue not set in the 3rd period on Saturday in Tampa. After having their 1-0 lead taken away in the opening minute of the last period, the Flames lost 2-1 in OT.  Playing for the second time in as many nights and then losing forwards Rene Bourque (injury) and Ales Kotalik (game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down in a fight) in the first period, the Flames finished the game with 10 forwards.  After holding the Lightning to only 10 shots over the first 2 periods, the Flames didn’t have enough left to push back in the 3rd.

   The Flames ended the week back in 7th place in the Western Conference with a 3pt edge over #9 Detroit, still Coach Brent Sutter has is eye on finishing #1 in the NW Division.

   The Canucks started their 14-game road trip off with one win and two losses last week, allowing the Flames to gain ground in the Division pennant scramble.  The Canucks lead with 72pt. Colorado is second with 70. The Flames having played 2 games more than their rivals, have 67pt.

   Tuesday night, here in Ottawa, the Flames conclude their 3-game trip against a Senator team, which had its club record 11-game win streak come to an end on Saturday losing 5-0 at Toronto.

   Bourque figures to miss the game due to his injury, which means either Brian McGrattan will get to play against his old Senator teammates or Jamie Lundmark will draw in. The Flames round out play before the Olympic break with home games on Thursday and Saturday vs Dallas and Anaheim, respectively.

   The Canucks, meanwhile play 4 times this week. Tuesday in Tampa, Thursday in Florida against the Panthers, Friday in Columbus and Sunday at Minnesota.

   I was in the Philadelphia hotel lobby the evening Ollie Jokinen joined the Flames last March.

   …And late Monday night I was at the backdoor of the Saddledome as the centreman from Finland left the Flames.

   He started with a flourish and ended with the whimper in his 11 months with the Flames.

   Lending further evidence, that just like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a trade on its first game.

   Jokinen had 2 goals in his Flames debut on March 5 in Philly — a 5-1 win.  In his last game, also against he Flyers, Jokinen was a -1 in just better of 15 minutes of ice time in a 3-0 loss to the Flyers.  Jokinen played knowing all the while he likely to be traded by evenings end.

   The very public trade rumbles Sunday night and all day Monday that Jokinen and Brandon Prust would go to the NY Rangers in exchange for Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins became official an hour after the game. 

   In his exit media availability, Jokinen had no answer as to why things didn’t good better for him with the Flames and why he and captain Jarome Iginla didn’t have the chemistry anticipated when the deal with Phoenix was made.

  Right now the Flames, themselves, have little chemistry as a group.  With the 4 new players from Toronto debuting, the Flames managed just 18 shots on goal as Ray Emery notched the shutout. The 4, not surprisingly, didn’t have the type of start Jokinen had last March. Maybe, that’s a good thing.

   It takes time for players to blend together and now the Flames have 2 more forwards to initiate. Kotalik and Higgins are slated to make their debuts on Wednesday at home against Carolina.

   Like Jokinen a year ago, Kotalik and Higgins, not only have new teammates to adjust to but the Flames need them to get back to performances they had early in their careers.

   Kotalik, now with his 4th team in less than a year, has had four seasons of 20 goals including the last 2 campaigns but had stuggled with the Rangers after signing a 3-year contract at 3M per during the summer.  The 31-year-old was benched for 8 of the last 9 games he was eligible to play for the Rangers.

   Higgins, who is 26 and on the final year of his contract, put together seasons of 23, 22 and 27 goals in his last 3 campaigns in Montreal before going to the Rangers in the Scott Gomez transaction in the summer of 2008.

   Bringing 6 news players into the fold from trades the first week of February-or-later is a first for the Flames in their 30 years in Calgary.  It tells you how much GM Darryl Sutter felt his club has under-achieved to this point of the season.

   They need to make it the opposite performance now to save the season.

   Comparing this 7-player Flame-Toronto deal with the 10-player transaction as the TV sports network did yesterday isn’t close to accurate.

   The only similarities is the teams making the big player transaction are the same.

   In Jan. 2,1992 the Flames ripped the heart of their team dealing Doug Gilmour to the Maple Leafs as well as 3 intrical character players — defensemen Jamie Macoun and Ric Nattress plus backup goalie Rick Wamsley. All 4 players were Stanley Cup winners here.

   True, the Leafs did get the best player in the transaction, again, but Dion Phaneuf was not the heart of the Flame roster. Not close.  Plus, the Flames got a much better return in Sunday’s deal.

   The trade more reminds me of the 1988 deal when Brett Hull was moved to St. Louis after scoring 26 goals in 52 games as a Flame rookie.  Then GM Cliff Fletcher knew Hull was going to be a scoring star, but he made the deal to fill some holes in a bid to win the Cup.  Defenseman Rob Ramage and Wamsley joined the Flames in the deal and both played roles in the 1989 Cup title. If the Flames hadn’t won the Cup then it could be called a bad deal since Hull starred for years with the Blues and others.

   Phaneuf, who is only age 24, is still not in his prime and figures to excel in the NHL for a long time. As it is, in his 4-and-a-half season he has produced the best league scoring numbers among defensemen over that time.  

   Defense is a Flame strength and Phaneuf was their best bet to get a good return in a barter. Amazingly, many of the same Flames fans who have been calling for Phaneuf to be traded, now say the team didn’t get enough for him in this deal.

   The trade makes the Flames a better team today. They have more scoring depth with Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman. Stajan will get the chance to see if he can mesh with Jarome Iginla. Hagman adds a scorer to the 2nd line.  Jamal Mayers bring grit, size, experience and some scoring ability. A bigger, more experienced and better scorer than Fredrik Sjostrom, who is now a Leaf. Defenseman Ian White isn’t going to replace Phaneuf but he’s a solid number 5 or 6 if not better.

    Ten years from now who knows who will have gotten the best of this trade. If the Flames get a big, big return soon, then they’ll get the edge regardless.