"He's trying to make people accountable," said veteran centre Craig Conroy of the captain. "Definitely, I've seen a change in Jarome over the past four or five days. He's talked more in the meetings. He's pulled guys aside and said stuff to them.
"That's what captains do. He's trying to right the ship, too."
"You could look at the schedule before the year, halfway through, and say it's probably a good chance these nine games are going to be pretty important," said captain Jarome Iginla.
"As a team, you look at it as a great challenge and a fun thing. They're going to be packed buildings. The energy is gonna be huge. Each game is going to have some huge implications.
"The best part about it is you don't have to watch the standings or the highlights, you have a direct result.
"We're looking forward to it."
Only seven points separated first-place Minnesota and last-place Edmonton prior to the Wild's game against San Jose on Wednesday.
The three teams in the middle -- Vancouver, Calgary and Colorado -- were tied with 84 points.
Calgary hosts the Avalanche on Thursday and the Wild on Saturday. The Flames face those teams again after that, the Canucks twice and the Oilers three times before the season ends.
But after that? Unless they're hiding another gear, they'll have big trouble with Anaheim, Detroit or the charging San Jose Sharks. And where does that leave them? A new coach, a third of the roster new this season, a bevy of generous contracts . . . yet it appears nothing has really changed in Calgary's dressing room.
"These last nine games, it's not so much about work or Xs and Os,'' said a tight-lipped Jarome Iginla. "It's about how bad you want it.
"It's about competing.
"It's about passion.''
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Beating the Avs has been difficult for the Flames. Three of their six contests have gone to overtime, but the Avalanche have come away with the extra point each time. The Flames hold a 2-1-3 record with two more to play in the season series.
"These next nine games are not going to be (about) work or X's and O's," Iginla said. "It's going to be about passion and how bad we want it. This is the playoffs before the playoffs."
Calgary will compete for the crown against Colorado, which won five straight Northwest titles from 1999-2003, and seeks to reach the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 seasons after missing out last year.
Spotlight on Miikka Kiprusoff: Calgary signed veteran Curtis Joseph in January, hoping to give the goalie a proven backup and maybe more relief. But after "Cujo" gave up five goals in a loss at Atlanta last week, it seems likely that the workhorse, Kiprusoff, will play all the remaining gamesif they all matter.
That broken record article is brutal though. Go to any NHL city and their players are saying the exact same thing. Is it really newsworthy that most NHL players just spit out cliche after cliche in post-game interviews?
That broken record article is brutal though. Go to any NHL city and their players are saying the exact same thing. Is it really newsworthy that most NHL players just spit out cliche after cliche in post-game interviews?
we need less cliche talk and more controversial interviews in the NHL....it gets boring hearing the same ol' thing all the time...more Regehr please!
I read that article yesterday, and it seems to me he neglected to do his research as to why Phaneuf had "off" postseasons. He probably had a deadline to meet for that article, and just glanced at our top player's reg. season/post season stats. That said, Phaneuf needs to step it up.
I think he had one in 05/06, after the 06/07 he was mentioned to be injured, but that could have happened when Cleary rung his bell.
Either way, he hasn't been a force. I'm encouraged though because apparently Scott Nied. was less than spectacular his first two years of post season.
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