Post by Jazz on Jun 9, 2004 3:49:34 GMT -5
Heart-broken Flames run out of gas against talented Lightning[/u][/color]
Pierre Lebrun
Canadian Press
June 8, 2004
Dejected Calgary Flames players Jarome Iginla (12), Krzysztof Oliwa (33) and Craig Conroy (22) watch the end of game celebrations. (AP/Gene J. Puskar)
TAMPA, Fla. (CP) - The beards were gone.
Hockey's ultimate superstition, the unkept beards, had disappeared by the time players on the Calgary Flames came out and explained to the world how gut-wrenching it felt to fall one goal short in the Stanley Cup final. The beards represented two months of hard work. They were gone, as was their dream. "It's the toughest loss by a thousand times," said superstar captain Jarome Iginla. "One shot. The guys worked so hard. It's a very good season and I'm so proud of everybody but that hurts more than anything else I've been a part of."
We Are The Champions could be heard reverbating around the St. Pete Times Forum, but it was dead quiet inside a dreary Flames dressing room. Players expressed their thoughts with voices barely audible, as if letting out their last breath.
"This is the ultimate low," said centre Craig Conroy, an unrestricted free agent July 1. "We worked so hard for two months and fell short when it came to the ultimate goal."
They came short because they ran out of gas, delivering a performance in Game 7 on Monday night that barely had any energy. The aggressive forecheck and rambunctious body checking was not at the usual level.
They were dead, and they were hurting.
Star defenceman Robyn Regehr and second-line winger Shean Donovan suffered injuries in Calgary's Game 5 victory. Regehr suffered a high ankle sprain but still played in the sixth and seventh games, and again left the St. Pete Times Forum on Monday night with a walking cast on his left foot.
"There was no question I wouldn't play," said Regehr, who didn't take in the pre-game skate. "It was an easy decision."
Donovan suffered an MCL tear on his right knee and wasn't able to play after Game 5.
The Flames reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final despite fighting through major injury woes this spring. Key forwards Steve Reinprecht and Dean McAmmond were lost even before the playoffs started to season-ending surgery. Hard-hitting Denis Gauthier played only five games before going down in the first round, while forward Matthew Lombardi was taken out by Detroit's Derian Hatcher during Calgary's Game 6 victory over the Red Wings in the second round.
Defenceman Toni Lydman missed almost all of the playoffs before returning to the lineup for Game 5 of the Cup final.
The injuries barely slowed down the lunch-bucket Flames, who adopted the blue-collar personality of their coach and grinded their way past division champions Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose before finally succumbing in seven tough games to a vastly more talented Tampa club.
"We know in the dressing room that we played as well as we could tonight," said Regehr, who will join Team Canada at the World Cup in August. "Even though it's a great disappointment, I'm very proud of each and every one here for the effort that we had throughout the entire playoffs.
"No one thought that we would be in the playoffs at the beginning of the year. And no one thought that we would make it past the first round once we got into the playoffs. The final result is disappointing but we can be proud of some things we achieved along the way. And we have to learn from it."
They will look back and regret not taking advantage of having Game 6 at home, ahead 3-2 in the series.
"We played too nervously at home in the sixth game," said veteran winger Martin Gelinas.
But they leave feeling they played their very best with what they had left. And they plan on coming back.
"We wore out hearts on our sleeves and that's a sign of a great hockey club," said winger Ville Nieminen, holding back tears. "Emotion doesn't go away. There's more great things to come from this team."
"In the end, we ran out of gas," said an emotional Flames coach Darryl Sutter. "In a way, winning Game 5 cost us because of the injuries we sustained. We did what we could to conserve energy, but in the end they had more legs than we did."
The club will need to re-sign Conroy, who can walk away July 1, and Iginla, who requires a $7-million US qualifying offer by midnight on June 30.
"I want to come back," said Conroy. "But it's really not my decision. I just really hope this wasn't my last game with this team."
Iginla was too devastated to look ahead.
"This is going to stay with me for a long time," he said. "The guys worked so hard in this dressing room. We were literally one shot away, one second away from winning the Stanley Cup."
And Iginla will have all summer to stew on being held scoreless over the last two games, including failing to record a single shot on goal in Game 7. His 13 playoff goals meant nothing to him on Monday night.
"In the last two games I didn't find a way to contribute to the guys' win," Iginla said. "You can ask them if they adjusted something, I'm not sure. It wasn't good enough in the last couple of games.
"I don't know what else to say."
Pierre Lebrun
Canadian Press
June 8, 2004
Dejected Calgary Flames players Jarome Iginla (12), Krzysztof Oliwa (33) and Craig Conroy (22) watch the end of game celebrations. (AP/Gene J. Puskar)
TAMPA, Fla. (CP) - The beards were gone.
Hockey's ultimate superstition, the unkept beards, had disappeared by the time players on the Calgary Flames came out and explained to the world how gut-wrenching it felt to fall one goal short in the Stanley Cup final. The beards represented two months of hard work. They were gone, as was their dream. "It's the toughest loss by a thousand times," said superstar captain Jarome Iginla. "One shot. The guys worked so hard. It's a very good season and I'm so proud of everybody but that hurts more than anything else I've been a part of."
We Are The Champions could be heard reverbating around the St. Pete Times Forum, but it was dead quiet inside a dreary Flames dressing room. Players expressed their thoughts with voices barely audible, as if letting out their last breath.
"This is the ultimate low," said centre Craig Conroy, an unrestricted free agent July 1. "We worked so hard for two months and fell short when it came to the ultimate goal."
They came short because they ran out of gas, delivering a performance in Game 7 on Monday night that barely had any energy. The aggressive forecheck and rambunctious body checking was not at the usual level.
They were dead, and they were hurting.
Star defenceman Robyn Regehr and second-line winger Shean Donovan suffered injuries in Calgary's Game 5 victory. Regehr suffered a high ankle sprain but still played in the sixth and seventh games, and again left the St. Pete Times Forum on Monday night with a walking cast on his left foot.
"There was no question I wouldn't play," said Regehr, who didn't take in the pre-game skate. "It was an easy decision."
Donovan suffered an MCL tear on his right knee and wasn't able to play after Game 5.
The Flames reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final despite fighting through major injury woes this spring. Key forwards Steve Reinprecht and Dean McAmmond were lost even before the playoffs started to season-ending surgery. Hard-hitting Denis Gauthier played only five games before going down in the first round, while forward Matthew Lombardi was taken out by Detroit's Derian Hatcher during Calgary's Game 6 victory over the Red Wings in the second round.
Defenceman Toni Lydman missed almost all of the playoffs before returning to the lineup for Game 5 of the Cup final.
The injuries barely slowed down the lunch-bucket Flames, who adopted the blue-collar personality of their coach and grinded their way past division champions Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose before finally succumbing in seven tough games to a vastly more talented Tampa club.
"We know in the dressing room that we played as well as we could tonight," said Regehr, who will join Team Canada at the World Cup in August. "Even though it's a great disappointment, I'm very proud of each and every one here for the effort that we had throughout the entire playoffs.
"No one thought that we would be in the playoffs at the beginning of the year. And no one thought that we would make it past the first round once we got into the playoffs. The final result is disappointing but we can be proud of some things we achieved along the way. And we have to learn from it."
They will look back and regret not taking advantage of having Game 6 at home, ahead 3-2 in the series.
"We played too nervously at home in the sixth game," said veteran winger Martin Gelinas.
But they leave feeling they played their very best with what they had left. And they plan on coming back.
"We wore out hearts on our sleeves and that's a sign of a great hockey club," said winger Ville Nieminen, holding back tears. "Emotion doesn't go away. There's more great things to come from this team."
"In the end, we ran out of gas," said an emotional Flames coach Darryl Sutter. "In a way, winning Game 5 cost us because of the injuries we sustained. We did what we could to conserve energy, but in the end they had more legs than we did."
The club will need to re-sign Conroy, who can walk away July 1, and Iginla, who requires a $7-million US qualifying offer by midnight on June 30.
"I want to come back," said Conroy. "But it's really not my decision. I just really hope this wasn't my last game with this team."
Iginla was too devastated to look ahead.
"This is going to stay with me for a long time," he said. "The guys worked so hard in this dressing room. We were literally one shot away, one second away from winning the Stanley Cup."
And Iginla will have all summer to stew on being held scoreless over the last two games, including failing to record a single shot on goal in Game 7. His 13 playoff goals meant nothing to him on Monday night.
"In the last two games I didn't find a way to contribute to the guys' win," Iginla said. "You can ask them if they adjusted something, I'm not sure. It wasn't good enough in the last couple of games.
"I don't know what else to say."
