NHL Playoffs: The Finals: Calgary Flames versus Tampa Bay Lightning

[Wezil]

Hey, it's sport and anything can happen. I just like the looks of the Flames. Not b/c I'm from Calgary (or even the west), not b/c they are a 'Canadian' team (my fave team is US based), but b/c I think they have the undefinable extra that it takes to win the Cup.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Asher

You don't know a thing about good hockey, Sava.

oh you're just mad because you're a Flames fanboy and I think they are a crap franchise. :P

But don't worry; they aren't on my list of contraction franchises.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Sava
Wow... last year's Conn Smythe selection really signaled the beginning of a crapfest in the NHL.

who between both of them, don't have a single player worth watching.

Oh Sava, how I love it when you troll.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Sava
oh you're just mad because you're a Flames fanboy and I think they are a crap franchise. :P

But don't worry; they aren't on my list of contraction franchises.

Crap franchise that made it to the Stanley Cup finals.

How did Chicago do again? Oh yeah, last place in the West, 2nd last overall.

[Wezil]

How about feeling my pain Asher - I'm a Sabres fan.

[joncha]

You call that pain? I'm a Whalers fan!

[Wezil]

lol, we'll share a brew or two.

[monkspider]

Tampa in five. Go Lightening!

[Ben Kenobi]

Calgary in 5.

Canucks deserve to be the second best team in the league.

GO FLAMES

[Tingkai]

I have no idea who will win, but this will go seven games and its going to be classic, hard-hitting, fast hockey.

Unlike Vancouver, Tampa has great goaltending.
Unlike Detroit, Tampa has four or five fast snipers.
And unlike San Jose, Tampa is loaded with talent.

Unlike the Islanders, Montreal and Philly, Calgary has a young goalie who is in the zone and has bounced back from terrible games. Kipper has proven he can come through when it really matters.

Calgary is also tougher than the Islanders, Montreal and even Philly.

Calgary also has Iginla who nobody has been able to effectively shut-down and that's a true sign of a star player cause in the playoffs, the other team always focuses on the star.

The big question is whether the Flames defence can hold together. There have been games where they're fantasitic and others where the other team is all over them.

I'd like to see a Canadian team win, but I'd also like to see Andreychuk win. This is his last chance so I'll probably be cheering for Tampa.

[Ben Kenobi]

....four or five fast snipers.
...loaded with talent.

Wow. I don't think I've ever heard you pay the Canucks such compliments.

[reismark]

Calgary looks like a team of destiny. Flames in 6.

[Asher]

http://www.nhl.com/cupcrazy2004/serieso/sutter052404.shtml

It's Sutter time
By Larry Wigge | NHL.com columnist
May 24, 2004

Maybe some of the younger fans in the NHL require an explanation as we get ready for the Stanley Cup Finals.

From 1976 through the end of the 1999- 2000 campaign, the Sutter legacy thrived. Six hockey-playing brothers -- all in the NHL.

No one brought more skill to the game than Wayne Gretzky. No one changed the position of defense more than Bobby Orr. And no one brought more passion, hard work and leadership to the game than Brian, Darryl, Duane, Brent, Rich and Ron Sutter.

And it was no coincidence that from 1980 through 1992 at least one Sutter was playing in the Finals in eight of those years (Duane from 1980-84, Brent 1982-85 and 1992, Ron 1985 and ?87 and Rich in 1985).

Combined, the six brothers appeared in nearly 5,000 regular-season games and 603 playoff contests. In a combined 79 years of NHL experience, they accumulated 1,319 goals and 2,931 points.

"They brought a different character, a competitiveness to their teams," Philadelphia Flyers General Manager Bobby Clarke, one of the most ferocious competitors the game has ever known, told me earlier this season. "From the day in 1976 when Brian played his first game in St. Louis, it was clear that this family brought something special to the NHL. They were going to find a way to out-work, out-compete and out-battle you every shift, every game."

Though Duane was an assistant coach with the Florida Panthers when they went to the Finals against the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, the Calgary Flames' Darryl Sutter represents that first Sutter to take his team to the Finals.

And Darryl's done in it with the typical Sutter all-or-nothing hard work that put the tiny farming town of Viking, Alberta (population 1,200) on the map.

It was a little less than a year ago when I arrived at Lambert St. Louis airport for a flight to Nashville for the NHL Entry Draft. A friendly face was already waiting. It was Darryl Sutter, laying over from San Jose and his daughter's graduation. When the topic of hockey came up, Sutter had plenty on his mind after taking over as coach in Calgary on Dec. 28 and then adding the duties as general manager on April 11.

One job is tough enough, but Darryl, the third of seven brothers born to Louis and Grace Sutter (Gary -- the only non-NHLer in the group is the oldest and Brian is next), clearly has learned to wear his emotions on his sleeve and still out-think a number of his GM counterparts.
"From the day in 1976 when Brian played his first game in St. Louis, it was clear that this family brought something special to the NHL." -Bobby Clarke

I remember clearly, Sutter bemoaning the fact that goaltenders Roman Turek and Jamie McLennan were not consistent enough to help the Flames make the playoffs for the first since 1996. He also said his team lacked depth -- particularly up front, where he had trouble putting together two lines, much less the four he wanted to use.

"You need a goalie who can keep you in the games almost every night -- and you need a collectively solid effort from all four lines and your three sets of defensemen," Sutter said. "Right now, I have quite a few holes to fill."

In the off-season, Sutter added winger Steven Reinprecht and defenseman Rhett Warrener from Buffalo in a three-team trade that also included Colorado. He signed minor-league center Matthew Lombardi away from Edmonton and promoted youngsters like defensemen Jordan Leopold, Steve Montador and Mike Commodore, along with forward Chuck Kobasew.

But it was the trades he pulled off this season that pulled this whole Cinderella story in Calgary together, when you look at the acquisition of No. 1 goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff from San Jose along with heart-and-soul forwards Marcus Nilson from Florida, Ville Nieminen from Chicago and Chris Simon from the New York Rangers.

"Darryl is as up-front as you find," Kiprusoff told me late this season. "I played for him in San Jose and he was always pushing me. It meant a lot that he wanted me here and gave me a chance to be his No. 1 goalie.
"It meant a lot that he [Sutter] wanted me here and gave me a chance to be his No. 1 goalie." -Miikka Kiprusoff

"He'll get angry enough to make the locker room shake sometimes, but as long as you hold up your end Darryl is someone I'd stand next to in a battle for any reward."

"I've never worked harder ... and never had so much fun playing hockey," former 52-goal scorer Jarome Iginla told me. "When you come to the rink, it's like our own little world where we come to work and stand together with the guy next to you."

"He's the hardest, but easiest, coach I've ever played for," said Warrener. "There's no 50 percent effort on Darryl's team. There's no 90 percent effort. If you're not all in, it's not good enough. But if you are all in, he's got no complaints.

"You can make mistakes. You can screw things up. But if the work ethic is there, then he's got no problems with you. And guys respect that. He'll tell you to your face when you're not doing what you need to do, and sometimes guys need to hear that."

His honesty can be felt by anyone who takes the time to get to know him. You know immediately that he is a special, no-nonsense person, one who doesn't take kindly to losing or missing the playoffs.

"Six Sutter brothers didn't get to play in the NHL by accident," Darryl told me last June, looking ahead to the job he had in front of him. "You have to believe in rolling up your sleeves and putting together a plan that will work."

This team's identity? It starts and ends behind the bench with Darryl Sutter. But truly it starts and ends with Sutter time and the intangibles that Louis and Grace Sutter taught all of their boys.

It wasn't easy at first. These were the kids who played on a makeshift rink built in the backyard by their father. They were the kids who would remove all the hay from the barn, hang lights from the ceiling and play floor hockey late into the night.

Louis ran the farm and Grace stocked shelves at the local IGA -- and, boy, they give their boys the right values in tiny Viking, Alberta, about 85 miles east of Edmonton.

After watching seven boys fight to get into the one bathroom in the house, the Sutter boys had about a 200-yard walk each morning just to get to the bus stop for school. After school, they were responsible for all sorts of chores on the farm before the fun began -- playing hockey under the moonlight at night and roughhousing in the loft, where the competitiveness of this family probably began.

"I remember one year we got a small pool table for Christmas," Brian once told me. "By the end of the day, all of the cue sticks and the legs on the pool table were broken."

Earlier this season, Darryl told me about how much he loved hockey ... and how much he did to try to make a career in the game for himself.

"We didn't have electricity until 1964 and didn't have running water until 1967, but we did OK," Darryl remembered. "Hockey was always important to me. In fact, I remember walking about two miles every Wednesday and Saturday to watch the Hockey Night in Canada telecasts."

Now, the old homestead in Viking, Alberta, has a satellite dish -- and where the coordinates once used to be set for the cities where the six brothers played, now the main focus is on Chicago, where Brian coaches and Calgary, where Darryl runs the show.

But time never really stands still for any Sutter.

Darryl has displayed a keen awareness of players who perform differently than the skate-through-the-wall fondness of the Sutters. He doesn't discourage the great puck movement of his best forwards and mobile defensemen. In fact, he encourages his players to use their creativity and skills -- and work hard in doing it.

Calgary fans have learned to appreciate this young team's hard-work ethic. Fans in all of Canada have learned to appreciate their first entry into the Stanley Cup finals since Vancouver faced the New York Rangers in 1994.

So, you see, it's more than just Sutter time. It's the continuation of a hockey legacy that has endured in the NHL since 1976.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

And unlike San Jose, Tampa is loaded with talent.

riiiiighht. no talent on the sharks. shows how much you know about hockey.

tampa in 7, heartbreak again for the nation of ice and snow.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
riiiiighht. no talent on the sharks. shows how much you know about hockey.

Who are the star San Jose players with loads of talent?

Marleau? Ekman? McAuley? They all failed to deliver in the playoffs. Ekman was the second highest scorer in regular season and managed to get 3 points. Marleau disappeared against the Flames.

Cheechoo has potential, but to early to say yet.

Basically, the Sharks don't have anyone who can step in take control of the game and make things happen, people like Iginla and St Louis, Richards and Lacavalier.

Edit: But that's also what makes the Sharks impressive. They were able to get to the conference finals without having that dominating player. What they had was great team chemistry.