TAMPA - Let's see, they bloodied Ruslan Fedotenko. They rattled Vinny Lecavalier. And who knows what they did to Pavel Kubina.
Okay, so we get it.
The Flames are tougher than the Lightning.
But, tell me, are they smarter?
In the hours leading up to Game 4, all the talk was of the elbows that were flying and the bodies that were falling in the Stanley Cup final.
We were told, if Tampa Bay was to survive, it would have to match Calgary's physical presence. The players over here, we were to understand, were hard cases and those over there, you know, were easy marks.
Strange then how it worked out. While the Flames were flexing muscles, the Lightning was winning a game.
You have to hope Chris Clark enjoyed his whack at Nolan Pratt because it contributed to a 5-on-3 power play and the game's only goal. You assume Ville Nieminen is doubting his attack on Lecavalier because it put Calgary a man down in the final minutes of a failed comeback.
All of which makes you wonder: After the energy expended on beating up the Lightning, do you suppose the Flames had any strength left to beat themselves up afterward?
Because the series is tied again due, in part, to Calgary's insistence on rumbling. Not to mention Tampa Bay's refusal to get involved.
"The refs are looking for retaliation. We learned that in the Philly series," defenseman Brad Lukowich said. "For us to take a punch in the back of the head or a push into the boards, it takes a pretty big man to walk away. Because you know everyone is watching you, waiting for you to go at it.
"To be able to turn the cheek when we take a shot is pretty big."
Forget the whining coming from Calgary. Ignore the moaning about this referee or that linesman. If you're going to play the tough guy, you have no business crying when the night is done.
Is it possible an official occasionally interprets a play incorrectly? Of course. But the more elbows you throw, the more times you put yourself at risk for a harsh call. And the reputation will only grow from game to game.
Did the Flames really think there would be no repercussions? That they could rearrange Fedotenko's face in Game 3 - with no penalty, by the way - and then try to do the same to Lecavalier in Game 4?
"We know they're a physical team. We know they're going to hit," Lightning enforcer Chris Dingman said. "We just want to play whistle to whistle. We don't need any of that extracurricular stuff. We don't want to take bad penalties. That's part of being tough - taking shots.
"If you're going to take these (hits), the only way to get back is obviously to score on the power play."
Which is the story of this series. Both Tampa Bay and Calgary have scored half of their goals on the power play.
So this is where brains can overcome brawn. A team committing penalties is going to be at a disadvantage. And that's what Calgary wants.
Flames coach Darryl Sutter has essentially said his team cannot afford to play a free-wheeling game against the Lightning. Tampa Bay has too many offensive weapons to keep up.
So the Flames, instead, want to punish the Lightning. And, if Tampa Bay fights back, all the better. That's what happened to the Lightning in Game 3 and, presumably, what the Flames were after in Game 4.
The Flames were short-handed 346 times in the regular season. Playing tough is part of their game.
As for the Lightning? It was short-handed 278 times, second-fewest in the East. Playing smart is Tampa Bay's style.
"We don't worry about our team's toughness. We think we're plenty tough enough," Lightning associate coach Craig Ramsay said. "What we always want is to be smart and to be in control.
"We're pretty adamant about not hooking. We don't allow hooking or holding. We make our players get their stick on the puck, play the puck, think about the puck. Because we're pretty sure goals are scored with the puck."
Beginning halfway through the Montreal series, this has been the trend for Tampa Bay. Opponents look at Tampa Bay's speed, then measure the size of its forwards, and figure banging and bashing is the way to go.
It did not matter against the Canadiens, but it nearly cost Tampa Bay against the Flyers. Too many times, Lightning players were either intimidated or enraged by Philadelphia's antics. Only when the Lightning settled down to play its style in Game 7 was the series decided.
"The easiest thing for anyone to do is retaliate. It gives you instant gratification," Ramsay said. "The hardest thing is to stay in control of your emotions, and respond like a man."
Games of this stature should not be decided by calls of referees. It would seem everyone can agree on that.
But that should not mean penalties are ignored and infractions waved off. It's absurd to think one set of rules applies for the first seven months of a season and then a more lax rulebook is brought out for the eighth.
It's a game, not a war of attrition. It should be hard, it should be tough, it should be grueling and grinding. But it should not be a street fight.
"You get fired up sometimes in the heat of the battle, but you have to look at what the reward is," Dingman said.
"If you walk away and win, you get your name on the Stanley Cup."
