Fan for the Flames

Calgary's newest acquisition will spark a playoff run

The last time I spoke to Chris Drury he was an Avalanche. Late last month I was working on a story about the challenges of playing on the road in the NHL (Sports Illustrated, Oct. 14). "Harder to play on the road?" Drury began to answer my query. "Yeah, maybe. But to be honest I hardly ever think about it."

That's pure Drury, oblivious to adversity, undaunted by the hard circumstances around him. Hey, playing on the road can be brutal -- ask anyone -- but Drury doesn't flinch.

He never flinches. At least not since I first covered him, back when he was in college, leading Boston University to multiple NCAA postseason appearances (the Terriers won a title in 1995) and winning the Hobey Baker Award in 1998. Not since he broke into the NHL with Colorado in 1998-99 and won the Calder Trophy. And not since long before that when he was making history as an 11-year-old pitcher out of Trumbull, Con.

Today, of course, Drury is a Flame, following an Oct. 2 trade that sent him to Calgary in exchange for defenseman Derek Morris. On Monday, late in the third period of a game against the Canucks, Drury set up the game-winning goal, and the Flames picked up their first win of the young NHL season. Anyone surprised? Last year on an Avalanche team full of All-Stars Drury led the team with six game-winners. Calgary could get used to him. The Flames gave up a seriously valuable player in Morris, no question, but they got back a player who, if Calgary can hold on to him, could be a franchise pillar for years.

"This guy is captain material," Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake told me last year. "I mean, he has (guts)."

Sure does. This is a player who a few years ago scored four game-winning playoff goals -- as a rookie. That's four in his first NHL postseason. By the time he was three seasons into the league he had eight postseason game-winners, most of which came late in big matches when half the arena -- but certainly not Drury -- was quaking in their skates. You'd talk to rival coaches and they'd scan the Avalanche lineup, run their fingers over names like Sakic and Forsberg and Hejduk and then stop at Drury and say. "When the game is on the line, this is the guy we have to keep track of at all times. We have to know where he is on the ice."

Now Drury's on Calgary's top line, playing left wing next to Craig Conroy and Jarome Iginla, and playing close to 20 minutes night. That's two minutes more than he got in Colorado's star-stoked scheme. "Maybe this is a good move for me," he told the Denver Post after the trade was announced. Maybe Drury becomes a 30-goal scorer in Calgary

The hard part for Drury, and the rub that has led fans in Calgary to wonder nervously why Drury hasn't smiled much in his first couple of weeks in town, is that Drury is used to winning. He doesn't stand for less. There was the Little League title, and there were the powerful Terriers in Boston. During Drury's 4 seasons in Colorado, his teams put up a record of 183-100-39, won a Stanley Cup and went to three other Western Conference championships. In that time Calgary went 120-147-49 and didn't once make the playoffs.

With Drury in Calgary, that will change this year. We're going to see Drury in several spots on the ice -- on the wing and at center -- and we're going to see him back in the postseason this spring. We're going to see him grin.

Calgary has some high-level talent, from Iginla to defenseman Robyn Regehr to goalie Roman Turek. The Flames have a couple of sharp rookies in forward Chuck Kobasew (who potted that winning goal in Calgary's Monday win) and defenseman Jordan Leopold (whose solid puck movement in the preseason gave Flames GM Craig Button the strength to deal Morris). Last year the club looked bound for the playoffs until it swooned horribly in the second half, and showed every sign of being a team that couldn't handle the pressure of a late-season playoff push.

The team lacked the determined leadership it needed to finish among the conference's top eight. The Flames needed a player who knew the ways to win at any time under any circumstance. They needed a player who could lift them when they slipped. And now they have one.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides every Wednesday at CNNSI.com.

 

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