Then the roof caved in.
When David Steckel buried his final penalty shot with a little less than 2 minutes to play, the final period became a forgone conclusion. In a span of time that barely topped twenty minutes, the Capitals had scored seven goals, including one where the puck was thrown into the net by a Flames player. This was the second biggest issue of the night.
The biggest issue? The loss comes just days after Head Coach Brent Sutter called out his "star players" for not buying into his system. Though he didn't name anyone specifically, speculation is that he was calling out Jarome Iginla, the team's captain.
There's only three solutions that could possibly resolve the rift starting to form in the Flames dressing room.
1) Keep both on the team.
It has to be said, if it's going to look like the last three games,(which included a victory that was squeaked out during a shootout with the Edmonton Oilers) it may not be a viable strategy. In both cases the Flames have squandered late leads (the Flames led the Edmonton game 4-2 and the Colorado game 4-3 as both headed into the third period) to teams that have, up to that point, underperformed in the game.
It's not a healthy culture if the team can't finish what it starts. And if this continues to happen...then it moves to solutions two or three.
2) Bench/Scratch/Trade Iginla
This one could work, as it is unlike Iginla to put up such a poor effort. Granted, he is 33, and his body is starting to wear down from the abuse he's taken as a power forward who attacks the high-traffic areas around the net. But since he's only scored seven goals in the past twenty-nine games, it could be something more.
Pierre LeBrun, a hockey writer for ESPN.com and a contributor on Hockey Night in Canada, has stated that certain front office executives around the game believe that Iginla needs a permanent change of scenery. He, LeBrun, suggested that the Los Angeles Kings would be interested in Iginla's services if he were to be dealt.
Though the deal would probably work out for both sides ( Wayne Simmonds and Matt Greene for Iginla?) it will never happen. Simply put, Iginla is the face of the franchise. He may be the most important player on a Canadian-based team in the NHL, and has been a fixture in the region since 1997.
(He's been around for a while.)
It'd be like trying to trade a struggling Derek Jeter from the Yankees.
Expect him to lose some ice time, at least until he figures out what ails his game(Hint: he's not attacking the net with the reckless abandon he once showed). If that doesn't work, plan three will come into play.
3) Fire the Sutter Brothers. Both of them.
As a coach, Brent Sutter has never led anyone( past the second round of the playoffs. Since the team fell short last year after so much was expected of them, he's been on the hot seat. And whenever there's a rift in the dressing room, it's usually the coach, not the players, who are forced out.
His brother, Darryl Sutter, is the team's GM. Though EP hockey could spend an entire column on why Sutter should win the Least Valuable Executive Award, suffice it to say that in the span of six months he traded away a player for his lack of offensive production, only to re-sign him in the offseason
Without, according to Eric Francis of Sun Media on Hockey Night in Canada, the approval of some the people involved in the hockey side of the Flames organization.
(Just a thought, when you get rid of a guy for underperforming, make sure it's for real)
In addition, Francis has also stated that communication between the front office and the coaching staff had dwindled to the point that Jay Feaster has been hired by the club to ensure communication between the two groups. Yes, the front office and coaching staff have such different views of the players necessary to succeed that someone had to be hired from outside the organization to ensure that the two groups could come to a consensus.
If both are fired, it wouldn't be hard to insert Feaster as the GM, since he was a member of the staff in Tampa Bay that won a Stanley Cup in 2004. And it was just two years ago that a virtual unknown in the coaching world, Dan Bylsma, took the Pittsburgh Penguins from outside of the playoffs to Stanley Cup.
(From an AHL assistant to the top of the NHL in a year.)
Regardless of which option the Flames decide to go with, it needs to happen soon.
Because giving up 7 straight goals at home will only increase that rift.
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