I wasn't all that impressed when the Flames hired Brian Burke as President of Hockey Operations. After all, he'd been at the helm of a floundering Leafs organization for years and they'd continued to flounder. I was happy to see Burke fire Jay Feaster as GM after Calgary continued to blow leads and miss the playoffs. My viewpoint on both these decisions has changed this year. On Feaster's firing, Burke said he wanted to bring more "truculence" to the organization, he wanted them "tougher" playing with "more hostility." "Alberta hockey is black and blue" he said, and the Flames red and yellow definitely is tinged with black and blue now. Part of that blue is from Canucks uniforms that have rubbed off from the hits they've been meting out. Treliving was hired shortly thereafter, followed by the signing of Engelland and Bollig. Along with players like Ferland and Bouma, the Flames are tougher, and it seems to be making a big difference in this series against the Canucks. Not only is that toughness helping to free up the puck and in so doing create more scoring chances, maybe more importantly, they are getting under the Canuck's (and their fans lol) skin, causing them to take unnecessary, costly penalties and even raising the spectre of possible suspensions. As far as my change of heart with Feaster, this is essentially his team. He was responsible for the bulk of the changes that have turned this team around. It's too bad that the management hadn't listened to him a couple years previously when he wanted to trade Iginla - they might have got some real quality players if they would have traded at that time. With this series starting to transcend the line of tough into dangerous on both sides, I would expect tomorrow's game to be a lot less chippier albeit just as physical and intense.
