CALGARY – Give ’em credit.
The Calgary Flames have made the final weeks of the season far more interesting than it appeared possible.
They’ve done so by exhibiting admirable resilience and character, allowing them to bounce back from significant setbacks that appeared to all but end their playoff hopes.
An 8-2 thumping in LA?
No problem.
Overtime heartbreak against Arizona and Dallas, not to mention losses to bottom-feeding Anaheim and Chicago?
Whatever.
Each one of those memorable teeth-kickers could easily have been a death sentence for team morale.
Instead, their bouncebacks have been dramatic, as part of an emotional landscape that has seen the Flames go a remarkable 10-4-2 over the last month.
That, combined with the Winnipeg Jets’ freefall, has made for a fascinating ride the lads are to be applauded for, no matter how this ends.
“Kudos to the team that we didn’t give up, and that we still had belief,” said MacKenzie Weegar in a quiet moment away from the upbeat chatter suddenly filling his dressing room.
“It’s easy after those losses to see in the media we could be done, and our odds of making the playoffs are at such-and-such a percentage, but we just stuck with it.
“We ended up winning games and got ourselves into this position with Winnipeg falling.”
“It does speak volumes of the character in the room, that we didn’t just back away and count ourselves out.”
In a weighty dressing room, in which players are well aware of how lofty preseason expectations were, it would have been easy to go the other way.
Especially this week, when their latest loss to Chicago not only took its toll on the players’ minds, but on their bodies as well.
Yet, there they were in Winnipeg, one sleepless night later, piecing together more third-period heroics to draw even with the eighth-place Jets.
“It’s hard in Canada to do what they’re doing,” said Darryl Sutter.
“You’ve got to ‘win tonight,’ because if you don’t win tonight, then it’s the other way tomorrow. “It’s hard in Canada to do that because of everything that’s… there’s no isolation for them.
“Three weeks ago, ‘it was over’ and they’ve heard it and seen it, so the only way you do it is to stick together and just manifest that trust in each other and then go from there.”
The coach and players say the system and the belief hasn’t changed in the last month.
Only the results have, giving the Flames an outside chance to finish an unlikely quest that will likely require them to win all three remaining games, while hoping the Jets lose at least two of four.
For what it’s worth, Moneypuck.com pegs their playoff chances at 31.8 per cent, up from 13.1 per cent one game earlier.
“Right now everybody is laughing and smiling and you can see it in the way we’re playing – guys are looser and more comfortable and more confident,” said Weegar, who admits all those one-goal losses throughout the season certainly played with their minds.
“After the second period in two of our recent games we were down a goal. Earlier in the year we would grind away in that situation and who knew what would happen?
“The difference now, when we come into the room down a goal, we know we’re going to come back.”
Weegar credits the team’s veterans for helping turn the club’s fortunes.
“Darryl relies heavily on the older guys, and I think a lot of the older guys started to kick it in gear and brought everyone together,” he said.
“We knew what kind of team we were and it’s nice we’re showing at the most meaningful time.”
He said the hard-driving coach has also taken his foot off the gas pedal a touch.
“I would say all-star breakish it didn’t seem so hard – he got a little looser and wasn’t pounding the drum as much, which I think made a lot of the new guys a little more comfortable,” said Weegar, whose improved play certainly coincides with that timeline.
“The other guys had seen him before and were used to him, but it does help a little bit. It’s nice to see maybe he’s taking a step back a little bit.
“He’s coaching well, and is still Darryl.
“But he’s a great coach who gives us a great game plan. When the game is on the line, it has been better for sure.”
Whatever the reason, good on the players for responding the way they have.