[Barnission]

National Post: Calgary Flames coming up short with Jiri Hudler

In terms of the size, I mean … we really feel that we have to up our skill level,’’ explained general manager Jay Feaster during a conference call introducing the new four-year, US$16-million Flame. “To the extent that you can upgrade your skill and if you can do with a guy 7-feet tall, that’s great. But more than worrying about how big we are, how tall we are, what our size measurement is, we want skilled players.
“We feel that skilled players, and particularly a player as dynamic as Jiri is, creates space. That’s one of the thing we talked about with Cervenka. He’s able to play in traffic and he does create space for himself.
“We recognize it’s not an overly intimidating group physically, but we’re not concerned about the size.’’

On the phone from Montreal, though, Calgary coach Bob Hartley doesn’t sound overly concerned about the current lack of heft in attack.
“Hey,’’ he points out, “we won the Stanley Cup in 2001 [in Colorado]. You look at the size of our forwards. We were a very, very small team. You look at Alex Tanguay, Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk on the top line. Then the Chris Drurys, Stephane Yelle, Shjon Podein, Eric Messier.
“I believe in team toughness. I don’t believe in stupid hockey. If some teams try to be stupid with us, Jiri Hudler makes our power play much better.’’