CALGARY, Alberta - Though Calgary claims its hometown fans are the NHL's best, that adoration has brought out the worst in the Flames, who are 3-4 at home in the playoffs after the Sharks' shutout victory in Game 3 of the West final Thursday.
The road team has won all three games in the series, and both coaches believe it might be a reflection of the incredible pressures of playoff hockey on two young teams with no experience playing this late in the spring.
"Obviously, we'd like to do better at home," Calgary forward Shean Donovan said. "The fans came out with a little something extra, and maybe we tried to do a little bit too much. You need to win the home games.
"We've got the best fans in the league, and I think sometimes we try to get too fancy and do too many things for them. We just need to get back to playing ugly Flames hockey."
But when the lights go down as the Flames take the ice at the Saddledome, it's a thrilling experience. The fans, mostly clad in bright red shirts or jerseys, rise to a deafening roar while dazzling bursts of flames fill the arena.
But the Flames acknowledge they're sometimes overhyped from a combination of the pomp, the cheers and the sky-high hopes of the fans, who went seven years without playoff hockey before this season.
Or could the pressure and scrutiny of being "Canada's team" - the unofficial honor annually given by journalists and fans to the final Canadian club left in the playoffs - be a stress?
"We've done a lot better job winning games on the road," Flames defenseman Robyn Regehr said. "We just haven't done a good enough job making this a tough place to play. I don't know (why)."
A road trip was exactly what the Sharks needed to get back on their game. San Jose played sturdy defense in front of Evgeni Nabokov and forechecked with an aggressiveness that never appeared in the first two games, both home losses in front of a deadened crowd at the Shark Tank.
"You feel the most pressure (at home)," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "The only expectations you should be carrying are the ones you have in your own locker room. ... I think that's what's helped us: getting on the road and just being by ourselves in the room.
"The stakes are higher. The pressure's so much more intense. The lights are brighter. Every word you say is scrutinized. It's just a totally different environment that unless you've been there, you don't know."
That pressure boiled over in the final minutes of Game 3, when a few of the Flames took exception to an empty-net goal scored by Alex Korolyuk. Instead of scoring quickly, Korolyuk pulled up short of the net in an attempt to pass to captain Patrick Marleau.
Though some Flames and coach Darryl Sutter saw nothing wrong with Korolyuk's actions, other players and a section of the Canadian media insisted Korolyuk crossed one of hockey's imaginary lines in the ice. An evening of hacking, jersey-holding and facewashing is fine, but any possibility of showboating must be swiftly punished.
The resulting scrum finished with a fight between Calgary forward Chris Simon and Sharks defenseman Mike Rathje, who was sporting a nasty black eye Friday.
Though Rathje shrugged off Simon's shenanigans, Wilson called the incident "a black eye" for hockey, even though Wilson and Simon are close from their years together in Washington.
"That's the sport we play," Calgary defenseman Andrew Ference said. "If you have complete respect for each other, you should go play pool or something. Guys like us play this game because we like the intensity, the physical play.
"It's not a black eye for hockey. It is hockey."
Game 4 is Sunday in the Saddledome.
BLUES: A federal judge in East St. Louis, Ill., ordered forward Mike Danton to cease all contact with his agent David Frost, the man federal prosecutors say he wanted dead.
"Your best friends now are your attorneys," U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan told Danton. "It's best to keep your mouth shut."
At the request of prosecutors, Reagan ordered that Danton not call, write or visit with Frost. Frost's family may continue to contact and visit the jailed player, the judge said, but they may not discuss the case.
Danton's attorney, Robert Haar, told the judge the circumstances of his client's relationship with Frost were "difficult and very unusual." Frost is Danton's agent, handling his personal affairs, but Danton regards Frost and his family as the only family he has.
Haar said Danton would "very much" like to speak by phone to Frost, whom he regards "as the closest person to him."
