TORONTO (Apr. 20) -- The Calgary Flames are an embarrassment.
In my pre-series picks here on HockeyBuzz, I chose the Flames to knock off Detroit in seven in their Western Conference quarterfinal, figuring the Red Wings had to show me they could beat an Alberta-based team after three years of falling short. Well, the series still isn't over and -- theoretically -- my prediction could come true. Pigs could fly over Joe Louis Arena as well. Forget, if you can, how disgraceful the Flames looked in the dying moments of Game 5 earlier today. If that is the same disciplined, professional squad that earned a surprise berth in the Stanley Cup final three years ago, then I've missed something along the way. Of equal concern is just how gutless the Flames are on the road. This is no bulletin, of course, as Calgary cowered on foreign turf all season. But, the playoffs are designed to show which teams possess character and fortitude in tough circumstances. And, the Flames aren't on the same planet as Detroit.
In fact, Calgary doesn't deserve the right to play another game on home ice. Unfortunately, the NHL post-season format dictates that Game 6 must be at the Saddledome. But, it's a futile exercise. Even if the Flames prolong everyone's agony with another triumph in southern Alberta, you know the players will tremble, quiver and grovel on the flight east for Game 7. No team with a backbone gags so spectacularly on the road. No team with an ounce of leadership behind the bench comports itself like a collection of boors when it is soundly and deservedly pummeled as the Flames were in Game 5. Even Jarome Iginla, a player most hockey observers rate among the most competitive and classy in the NHL, sank to the level of his ridiculous teammates in the Saturday afternoon debacle. And, forget about this nonsense of "sending a message". The only message the Flames "sent" is that they are poorly equipped to handle the burden of the Stanley Cup tournament. The game, and the playoffs, will be far the better if the Red Wings finally dismiss their shameful opponents on Sunday night.
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The Maple Leafs have become a younger team in the past couple of seasons, though the jury is still out whether youth and competence are intermingled on the Toronto roster. Kyle Wellwood sure looks like a special player at times, but I'm not sure Matt Stajan, Alex Steen, Alexei Ponikarovsky, John Pohl, Carlo Colaiacovo and Ian White will ever be much better than they are right now. Time, of course, will tell. What the Leafs could certainly use is a dose of leadership up front. And, given this team is nowhere close to being a legitimate Cup contender, I would seriously consider tendering an offer to Gary Roberts if he's available July 1st.
I just covered the Ottawa-Pittsburgh first-round series, and Roberts -- even at 41 years of age -- was the Penguins' most dynamic and physical player... Sidney Crosby included. Roberts' misfortune is that the wrong team acquired him; a Penguins squad not yet ready for prime time. Can you imagine how nice ol' Gary would look in a Senators' jersey right about now? How much more of an edge his relentless forechecking would give an Ottawa team that might already be good enough to make it out of the East? There's a reason why John Ferguson went the extra mile at the trade deadline to try and land Roberts from Florida. At the time, I thought it was a suspect idea. After watching Roberts down the stretch and in the opening round of the playoffs, however, I'm convinced he has another year or two left in his aching bones. He would be a splendid roster replacement for someone like Jeff O'Neill, who is unlikely to be reunited with coach Paul Maurice. And, Roberts would be a considerable upgrade over a player like Bates Battaglia, who accomplished very little for the Leafs this season.
Assuming Roberts wants to play again in Toronto, I'd be knocking on his door around 12:01 a.m., July 1st.
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Interesting bit of trivia for those hockey fans who remember the 1970s: the Ottawa-Pittsburgh series featured, in management, a pair of goalies who played for some of the worst teams in NHL history. In fact, one of them -- Senators' assistant Ron Low -- tended goal for the ABSOLUTE worst team in league annals, the expansion Washington Capitals of 1974-75, which yielded a never-to-be-eclipsed total of 446 goals in 80 games. You can look it up. The Caps were an unbelievable 8-67-5 for an all-time low 21 points. They scored a paltry 181 goals, and gave up an average of 5.575 goals per match. Poor Low was stuck in net 48 times that season, just as he'd been for 42 games with the horrid Maple Leafs of 1972-73, and on 55 occasions with the God-awful New Jersey Devils of 1982-83-84 -- the team Wayne Gretzky refered to as "Mickey Mouse" after a 13-4 Edmonton victory at the Meadowlands (with Low in net), Nov. 19, 1983.
On the Penguins' side in the just-completed series was goaltending coach Gilles Meloche -- he of the legendary California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons cataclysm of the '70s. And, poor Meloche was a victim in one of Low's very few moments of triumph in the NHL. The two netminders faced each other at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on Mar. 28, 1975. It was the 38th road game of Washington's inaugural season. The Capitals were winless in their first 37. But, Ron Low-and-behold, the expansionists pulled off their first (and only) foreign-ice victory of the schedule, knocking off the Golden Seals, 5-3. Afterwards, in a story that has become legend through the years, the Capitals players all signed a garbage can, and paraded it around the visitors' dressing room in Oakland.
That was a long time ago. How long? The Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup drought was about to reach eight years.
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