Before the season, I had given my buddy Keith soem grief about Calgary throwing a wad of cash at Cory Sarich. Not that I don’t like Cory, not that I feel Cory doesn’t bring anythign to the table or doesn’t contribute, I just think he got paid too much in his new deal.

Well, this Sarich hit from the other night has turned into celebration and a rallying point for Flames fans:

Cory’s gone but not forgotten in TB. i revel in his moment.

This year, an addendum to Rule 56, known as the Sutter Rule, was implemented taking aim at late game instigator penalties. It reads, in it’s entirety:

(NEW for 2005-06) A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime, shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. In addition, the player’s coach shall be fined $10,000 — a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

(NEW for 2005-06) (NOTE 1) No team appeals will be permitted either verbally or in writing regarding the assessment of this automatic suspension.

The NHL has made it clear that this penalty cannot be appealed, and made a sizeable issue out of this rule before the season began in it’s misguided attempt at eliminating fighting from the game.

Two nights ago, this rule was to be put to the test for the first time, as Coyotes forward Shane Doan took an instigator at the end of a game filled with dirty hits. The rule makes it clear: Doan was to be suspended for one game, and the coach to be fined $10,000.

Except the coach in question is Wayne Gretzky.

Suddenly Colin Campbell decided that this rule is not as simple as it seems, and though it is not mentioned anywhere in the rule book, he now has discretion on whether to hand out the penalties. Campbell’s excuse was that Doan isnt a goon, therefore the rule should not apply to him.

Please.

You think Campbell wouldnt have thought twice about the suspension and fine if it was Jarome Iginla and Darryl Sutter in question?

How about Mark Bell and Trent Yawney?

The NHL found itself caught in the embarrassing position of having to fine it’s most notable personality for a rule it felt was extremely important four months ago, and somehow found an even more embarrassing excuse to avoid living up to it’s own rules.

But then, there always was one rulebook for Gretzky, and one for everyone else.

During the 2004 playoffs, Sports Illustrated had a difficult decision to make. They were going to put the Flames, who had just eliminated Detroit, on the cover of their magazine. Instead, they chose to put the NBA playoffs on the cover, and Flames fans couldn’t have been more grateful.

We dodged the curse.

Not so this year. The Flames, SI’s pick to win it all, are struggling to find their identity. Hell, the Flames are struggling to kill a penalty. Sitting at 1-3-1, the Flames are probably wishing the media pundits would have left them alone so that they could climb into a dark hole in peace.

Fortunately, Calgary has some company. SI’s #2 pick? The Flyers. The team that SI called “Young, fast and ready to roll” have sputtered as well, stumbling out of the gates at 1-2-0. Even if one can only count the number of games played on one hand, who would have figured that Washington would have won more games than either the Flames or Flyers? Who would have figured the Capitals would win two games in the entire month?

The Lightning, SI’s #4 pick, havent exactly wowed either, sporting a very pedestrian 2-2-1 record, in the very pedestrian Southwest Division.

The only team out of SI’s top four that is doing well are the Ottawa Senators, the only undefeated team at 4-0. While at first thought it appears they have escaped the wrath of Sports Illustrated, you just know they are going to end up facing the Leafs in the playoffs, and have their hopes crushed just like ever year.

Thankfully, with a new edition on the stands, Sports Illustrated will have cast hockey to the shadows like it usually does, and the hockey world can right itself.

But until then, to add insult to injury, the New York rangers are 2-1-2 and leading the Atlantic. They were SI’s pick to finish dead last.

It’s been an amazing 72 hours as players are moving everywhere, and often to places you would last expect. Amonte to Calgary. Holik to Atlanta. Gonchar to the Pens. Pronger to Edmonton? As the mad dash for news flames across the internet, people everywhere are looking to scoop eachother to earn prestige and power on their respective discussion forums.

This leads me to one of my greatest pet-peeves about this lockout and the internet. I’ve bit my tongue for long enough, as I have finally gotten tired of this evil plague that has spread across internet discussion forums unabated.

This plague is Eklund, the false hockey god.

Eklund is just like John and myself, and every other blogger on the net: A bunch of people posting their opinions, generally not worried about whether others care. Eklund has somehow amassed a following that would have shamed David Koresh.

Despite the fact that his rumors site is batting about .010 in the accuracy department.

Make no mistake about it folks, Eklund is a plague, and you are the carrier. In these hectic days of free-agent orgies, Eklund’s “rumors” - usually lifted off of legit news sources, and usually posted AFTER they appear elsewhere - are being posted everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. He’s infected Hockeyforums, letsgowings, Calgarypuck, Scout.com, even Hockey’s Future (would link, but their server sucks and the site is unreachable… but that is another rant.) I could go on, and on, and on, and on.

And while I rant against Eklund, I also have to say I am impressed by him. Despite the fact that he is incorrect nearly 100% of the time, he has hundreds of loyal zombies refreshing his site every minute, desperately hoping to spread the virus to their home forums. All the while, he collects money from banner ads and from direct donations. One cannot help but to be impressed at how well he controls the sheeple that follow him, and how easily he has used them to fatten his own pockets.

Me, I refuse to follow the herd. I have never visited his site, and I will never visit his site. For the sake of every message board on the internet, I hope anyone reading this does too. He’s gotten fat of the naivity and ignorance of hockey fans long enough. Let this phenomenon die already. The internet will be better off for it.

It’s a good day to be an NHL hockey fan. The first such good day in 301 days as the longest labour war in sports history is approaching it’s conclusion. The buisness of hockey is about to take a backseat to the game of hockey for the first time in nearly a year. The next couple of months will be dominated by the ultimate real-life rotisserie league as fans dream about who will be coming to their teams. What will the new rules be? Will the NHL rig the draft so that the Knicks can grab Ewing… er the Rangers can grab Crosby? In Calgary, the Western Conference banner will finally go to the rafters, while Tampa will finally get to defend their Cup.

Expect to be the victim of a massive publicity campaign, with the once hated players at the forefront, as everybody and their dog (no word on whether Modano’s dog will be strong enough to go on camera after the starvation diet Mike had to put him on) will be talking about how this deal is good for the fans, and how it is all about getting back on the ice. It isnt about the money.

And then, cutting through the euphoria like a knife through warm butter, one spoiled player reminds me why we had to wait as long as we did for this day, and why we ended up with the deal we did.

Scott Niedermayer is not happy. In fact, he blames his fellow union members for not having the guts to go through a two year lockout to avoid a salary cap:

“We were told what to expect, and if a player didn’t feel he could handle what we were told would happen, he should have spoken up last summer. Then this deal would have been in place and we wouldn’t have lost the season,” Niedermayer said.

“I’m a little disappointed in that. You have to be committed. It’s hard, but you have to be honest with yourself.”

First of all Scott, several players did speak up last summer. And last fall. And last winter. They were all pressured into backing down or retracting their statements by your union brothers.

The fact is, Bob Goodenow and the NHLPA executive should never have even contemplated a strategy that involved missing at least two full seasons. Such a plan constituted little more than reckless endangerment of hundreds of NHL carreers. But then, the NHLPA’s strategy was never about helping the rank and file. It was about the stars. Stars like Scott Niedermayer.

The average NHL carreer lasts just 5 years. Any player, agent or fan who seriously expected the likes of Mike Commodore to give up 40-60% of his NHL carreer so that stars like Scott Niedermayer can continue to make $7 million a year was delusional. Such a strategy offered the lower tier and fringe players nothing. The NHL, however, gave them everything they could possibly want.

The minimum salary will skyrocket to $400,000 now, and will be at a cool half a million by the end of the deal. Not only that, but a hard cap should ensure that the NHL remains a 30 team league well into the future. The jobs will still be there for guys like Commodore, and they are guaranteed a very healthy paycheque. The stars, like Niedermayer, however will have to make due with less as teams try to fit 25 players into their budgets. Unfortunately for Niedermayer, there are a lot more lower tier guys than there are at his level.

And so, 10 months after it began, the lockout will end as the NHL successfully split the union down economic lines. Guaranteeing the lower paid majority will retain their healthy paycheques removed the will to fight from the majority of the union. While they will still be taking paycuts in most cases, at least they will still make a kings ransom to play hockey, and they dont have to give up another year of their short carreers so the stars can retain their fat paycheques. Afterall, why should Nolan Pratt care if Jaromir Jagr can only afford one ferrari this year instead of three?

One day and one year ago, the entire city of Calgary was on edge. The entire nation was eagerly anticipating that nights game, as the Calgary Flames had a chance to bring the Cup home.

The game ended up exactly as the entire series had gone: extremely tight, with neither team giving an inch. While the history books will record this one as a Lightning OT win, in Calgary, there is only one way to describe this game:

It was in.

With nine minutes left, Martin Gelinas’ shot went in and out of the net so fast that nobody on the ice even saw it. If a Flames player or a referee had seen it, and called for a review, there is no doubt in my mind that Gary Bettman would have handed the Stanley Cup to Jarome Iginla that night.

But, the game moves faster than the eye some times, and it was not to be. Replays suggest that Gelinas scored, but by the time they could be looked at, play had resumed and the argument became moot. One more inch perhaps, and someone would have realized. The red light would have come on, a city would have gone mad.

We were literally one inch from the Stanley Cup.

Following the disheartening loss in game 4, and without Ville Niemenen who was lost to suspension, many were once again writing the Calgary Flames off in the 2004 playoffs. Evidently “many” weren’t paying attention in the previous three rounds.

The theatrics began a day before the game, as Darryl Sutter blessed sportswriters with a classic rant. Without actually accusing the league of bias, Sutter all but stated the league of cheerleading for Tampa, and stated that the decision on Ville Niemenen’s suspension was made in New York - where Gary Bettman works - rather than Toronto - where league disciplinarian Colin Campbell is based. Bettman responded by trying to dismiss the argument, stating he would look at taking action against Sutter following the playoffs. While fans in Calgary were calling into radio stations looking to donate money to pay for the expected fine, Bettman never did take any action. Read into that what you like.

In both Calgary and Tampa, standing room only crowds flocked to their respective arenas to watch the pivotal game 5 - fans in Calgary spending over an hour in lines throughout the city trying to get passes into the Saddledome for the game, as once again, the statheads told us how important this game was. 83% of teams that win the fifth game of a tied series go on to win the series.

Sutter’s “world against the Flames” rant appeared to pay off. The Flames were intent on winning this game, taking the play to Tampa in the first. Somehow, the Lightning managed to escape the opening frame with a 1-1 tie. Not content with their effort, the Flames pressed even harder, outshooting the Lightning 14-3 in the 2nd, but only had one goal to show for it, as should-have-been Conn Smythe winner Jarome Iginla sent a seeing-eye shot past Khabibulin’s stick. Despite the Flames dominance, it all appeared that it would go for naught when Modin tied the game very early in the third on a powerplay after Rhett Warrener was flagged for holding Tampa’s dead man walking - Vinny Lecavalier.

The rest of the third period, and the entire overtime would test the hearts and nerves of all fans as it quickly became evident that the next goal would win.

Late in the first overtime period came what is now known in Calgary simply as [b]The Shift[/b]. Jarome Iginla was on the ice for the final two minutes of the game, and simply took it over. He very nearly won the game himself, but for the heroics of Khabibulin, and after losing his helmet in a scrum, rushed back into the defensive zone to help his teammates defend against a Tampa attack, only to rush back on the offensive, and thread the puck through two Tampa sticks, on goal, allowing Oleg Saprykin to bang the rebound in and send the entire city of Calgary into a frenzy.

The Calgary Flames, eight years removed from their last playoff run, were now just one win away from capturing the grestest trophy in sport, and had two chances to do it.

Unfortunately, in what ultimately may have become the turning point, Shean Donovan suffered a serious charlie horse late in this game, and while he was expected to return for game 6, he was unable to play the rest of the series. The loss of Donovan wiped out the Flames 2nd line of Nilson-Donovan-Niemenen, which had sparked the Flames the entire playoff run. After surviving several tests of depth in this playoff run, the Flames would later discover that Donovan’s injury may have been one too many.

Well, so much for my seven part recap of last year’s finals. The skinny on games two and three: Lightning returned to form, Kipper was awesome, Stillman got the crap beat out of him (deservedly), Lecavalier and Iggy proved that stars can fight, and the two teams split the two contests.

One year ago, one of the most infamous games the Flames have ever played, and ever will play took place at the madhouse that was the Pengrowth Saddledome. It was a ridiculously tight checking game that otherwise could have gone down as a defensive masterpiece, except that it will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. It was also a game that also proved hairspray causes brain damage.

There are really only two things to remember about this game: The 5-on-3 in the first, and Niemenen running Lecavalier in the third.

This game was decided in the first period, but not by “clutch hero” Brad Richards. No, it wasnt decided by the players, but by the referees. In particular, one referee: Kerry Frasier. In a series of decisions that will baffle me for all time, and which angered an entire city to the point where the NHL was left with no choice but to change officiating assignments for game 6, Kerry Fraser took the the game away from the players.

Barely 90 seconds into the game, the chain of events went something like this: With the play deep in the Lightning zone, Darryl Sydor runs Jarome Iginla from behind with Fraser looking straight at the two players. Inexplicably, he decides not to call a penalty on this play. Watson evidently did not see the hit, as the play was starting back up the ice. A few seconds later, Frederik Modin is hauled down by Mike Commodore, who had no choice but to take the penalty or risk a fairly easy goal against. This call was made by Watson. Behind the play, and with everyone knowing that Calgary was already going a man down, Chris Clark and Nolan Pratt come together, with each taking a fairly weak swipe at the other. After deciding a check from behind wasnt worthy of a call, Frasier somehow decided that the Flames deserved to go two men down. In game four of the Stanley Cup Finals, Fraser made one of the weakest penalty calls of the entire season.

Instead of what should have been a Flames powerplay, or at worst, a one man advantage for Tampa, Frasier handed one of the deadliest teams in the league a full two minute two man advantage. The gift goal the Lightning received turned out to be the only goal of the game. And while the obvious - and accurate - counter argument is that the Flames were unable to tie the game in the remaining 57 minutes, the fact remains that Tampa didnt really earn their goal either. But for Kerry Frasier, this game is scoreless for who knows how long, as neither team was really able to penetrate the defense of the other the rest of the game. And while Tampa Bay might have won legitimately anyway, chaging nothing, we will never know, as Kerry Frasier ripped the decision from the players.

The second play that will be remembered forever in Calgary was Niemenen’s hit from behind on Lecavalier. While you can’t really defend Ville, as it was as much a hit from behind as the one Sydor layed on Iginla in the first, and it was also deserving of a major, as the hit drew blood, it is Lecavalier’s reaction that really drew the ire of Flames fans and players. Before I get into that, it is notable that once again, Frasier was staring right at that hit, and once again, Fraser chose not to make the call. It was Watson who called the penalty from across the ice, as this time, he saw it.

All Lecavalier had to do was get up, go to the referee, show the blood, penalty called. Instead, he had to make a big show of it, playing dead for the benefit of the referees. (He must have picked up some acting lessons from Mike Ribiero). There were even stories that one of his teammates told him to stay down. Watson skates over, looks at Levavalier, announces the major while the fans and Flames players were getting ready to applaud Lecavalier as he struggled back to his feet — only to see him jump right up with a big grin on his face and do his little hair flip towards the Flames bench. LORD IT WAS A MIRACLE!

Not surprisingly, Niemenen was immediately suspended for the hit. A curious decision given that the NHL admitted it was basing a decision on suspending Stillman for his illegal check in game 1 on whether Nilson could go for game two. While there was no doubt Lecavalier would not miss any time, no such concession was made towards the Flames forward on a hit that was no worse than the one Stillman laid out.

The game ended as it began, with the crowd mustering up all of the vitrol and venom it could and aiming it towards the referees. That fury would be captured, and used by Darryl Sutter before game 5, as he launched a Gretzkyesque tirade against the NHL and it’s decision making, suggesting that the league was cheering for Tampa to win, and that it was the world against the Flames.

The most striking part of this game was the looks on the faces of the fans during and after the game. Quite honestly, if the same events had taken place in a town like Detroit, there would have been a riot. The fury in the eyes of the fans was that strong.

However, ultimately, the final verdict of this game is that the Flames lost their chance to take a stranglehold on the series, and we were headed back to Tampa Bay to begin a best of three for the cup as everyone in North America was left to wonder how the Flames would bounce back.

Today begins what I hope will be a seven part retrospective of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals. Rather than a bland, dry recap, I hope to tell the story from the point of view of a Flames fan. Dry recaps can still be found on the websites of all major sports sites, but hockey, more than perhaps any other sport, is ruled by emotion.

Today, two sides are locked in a life-or-death struggle for supremacy over the National Hockey League. One year ago, the same could be said. Except that one year ago, the battle was fought on the ice, as the Stanley Cup Finals opened up featuring the unlikely Tampa Bay Lightning, underrated by everyone in hockey and the impossible Calgary Flames, who had no business even being there.

I always had something of a “dismissive liking” of the Lightning before this series. While I doubt I would have cared either way if they didn’t exist, they were a team I didn’t mind cheering for, and if Montreal or Ottawa couldn’t make the finals, Tampa was as good a choice as any to represent the East. However, that feeling died the second the final buzzer sounded a few nights earlier, and Dave Andreychuk ignored the Prince of Wales Trophy.

You were now the enemy. I hated you. By the end of the series, I would come to hate some of you more than others, but let’s leave that for the game six recap…

We had already knocked off all three division champions from the West. The top team of the weakest division in the East shouldn’t be much of a problem, or so many of us thought. The result of game one only reinforced this belief. In Calgary, the media was throwing out stats like “80% of the teams that win game one go on to win the Cup.”

And really, why should we have felt worried after the first game? Despite six days off, Tampa couldn’t take advantage of Calgary’s rust, generating few great scoring chances. The vaunted Lightning powerplay only managed to go 1-5, and gave up a shorthanded goal on Iginla’s remarkable second effort play. When the Flames got their legs under them, they simply rolled right over Tampa’s defense, and by the time the second period had ended, the Flames were up 3-0.

While a lot of people - especially in Tampa - were talking about the “skill and finesse” of the Lightning vs. the “dirty goons” from Calgary, this game proved immediately that such characterizations are not very accurate, as the Flames simply out skilled the Lightning in the first two periods, while the Lightning resorted to the goon show in the third.

On the same play in the third, Cory Stillman left his feet to elbow Marcus Nilson in the head, while Andre Roy crosschecked Ville Niemenen into the boards from behind. Both plays should have resulted in major penalties, as both were deliberate attempts to injure, however the referees ultimately chose to only call minor penalties against the two players. It is still absolutely baffling that the league would announce that it would suspend Stillman only if Nilson was unable to play in game 2. Just goes to show the league hadn’t learned a thing from the Bertuzzi incident, but that is a can of worms that I really don’t want to open right now.

Honestly, what did we have to fear from this Tampa Bay Lightning team? We outworked them, we out chanced them, we outscored them, our goaltending was better, and when push came to shove, the Lightning could only counter with cheap shots.

Though one realistically had to expect Tampa would rebound and return to its own game, on this night one year ago, we were only interested in partying.

After all, 80% of teams that win game one go on to win the Cup.

When the lockout began, Bob Goodenow made several comments basically stating that his union did not care what the fans thought. He wasnt interested in winning the PR battle, he said.

But, much like the insistance that the NHLPA would fight the salary cap to the death, time has revealed another truth: the players need the fans with them, not against them.

With that in mind, Canada’s entry in the World Hockey Championships has a message for you:

“We arent greedy! Honest! No, we mean it!”

GM Steve Tambellini summed up this little PR stunt quite accurately:

“That’s a very, very important aspect of what people should recognize,” Team Canada GM Steve Tambellini said Sunday. “These are players that are not involved in club (NHL) issues right now, they have volunteered their time to play for their country.”

What are you looking for, Steve, a hero cookie? We were always aware that these players arent getting paid to play in this tournament. They never have. Are we supposed to forget that the NHLPA’s unwillingness to negotiate a CBA until the eve of the seasons cancellation because Dan Boyle has decided to play in this tournament despite the fact that, as he puts it: “We’re not making a dime here”?

Are we supposed to simply forgive these players for robbing us of our pasttime this winter because they were willing to take a free trip to Europe without demanding some spending cash?

That the players felt the need to point out that they arent getting paid actually demonstrates just how out of touch with reality they are. Do they really expect us to salute them for doing what is expected of them?

Players dont go to these tournaments for the money. They never have. They go to represent their country. While I am sure Boyle, Tambellini and the rest of Team Canada are proud of themselves for not asking for more money, the fans are not going to be swayed.

If you want our respect, give us back our game.