The opening and closing of the latest 20 game segment has been a study in contrasts for the Calgary Flames.

Calgary swept into Boston, Washington, St. Louis and Detroit to open the quarter, riding a momentous losing streak that, unbelievably, would only got worse with the Flames outscored 23-6 and emerging without a coach after beleaguered mentor Greg Gilbert was finally fired.

Interestingly, with interim boss Al MacNeil at the wheel, followed by new coach Darryl Sutter, the Flames were 7-6-3 in the remaining 16 games.

Unfortunately, they'll have to do a lot better than that to entertain hopes for a post-season berth for the first time in seven seasons.

DEFENCE - Team defence isn't all about defencemen, the Flames blueliners early in the quarter all but abandoned by their forwards and the results decidedly negative. Toni Lydman was minus nine in the initial four games of the road trip which opened the quarter and Petr Buzek minus eight, as only two examples. In the other games played this year, both players are on the plus side of the equation. In spite of all their problems in the win column this year, Calgary has actually improved dramatically from prior seasons when the team would routinely finish in the bottom third of the league defensively. Sutter has already taken a different tack than his predecessors, relying heavily on the tandem of Denis Gauthier and Bob Boughner who have seen their ice time rise by one-third to match that of Toni Lydman and Robyn Regehr. The Flames are now 15th overall defensively and climbing thanks to the recent heroics of starter Roman Turek. Take out those four terrible games to open the quarter, replace them with 2.64 goals per game which is Calgary's average, and the Flames would fit in right behind Toronto for ninth overall defensively. Look for that trend to continue under Sutter, a maniac for taking care of the defensive side of the puck. Give them a B.

FORWARDS - They withered badly, ranked ninth overall offensively after beating New Jersey on November 5 and now 30th overall in spite of scoring 16 in their last five. This team should not be dead last in scoring in the NHL but the persistent ailments afflicting superstar Jarome Iginla for much of the first half as well as the power dive in the standings which saddled the team with a lame duck coach left many in the lineup too uninspired to show up. Chris Drury for one has been rejuvenated under Sutter while Iginla and Craig Conroy have finally been able to put their health ailments behind them. The resurgence of Oleg Saprykin has been also been a welcome surprise. We can only mark these guys on the full 20 games, however, and not the last five and that qualifies for a D.

GOALTENDER - The success or failure of Roman Turek will be one of the more interesting storylines as the Darryl Sutter regime plays itself out. Like most NHL goalies, Turek will be consistently only as good as the team defence being played in front of him. Sutter said his first priority was cutting down on odd-man rushes and other surprises goaltenders typically have to contend with. The Flames in turn, through Sutter's initial five games, have done exactly that. Consequently, Turek's numbers have been correcting themselves to the positive, his GAA dropping as his Save percentage rockets higher, a far cry from the opening days of the quarter when Flames netminders surrendered 23 goals in only four games. GRADE C

COACHES - The bottom line on Greg Gilbert was he couldn't convince his players to employ the processes that go into winning. His critics will argue he never knew the processes to begin with, another in a long line of "work harder" coaches. Others would lay the blame at the feet of the players for tuning him out. Sutter started his reign by making adjustments to the Gilbert mode of play, employing personnel such as Gauthier and Boughner differently, asking his centres to play higher in the attacking zone to prevent odd man rushes, etc. He made suggestions for an improved power play - verbally without practice time - and the team responded with three goals with the man advantage the very next game. Right now, after being undefeated through five, Sutter could walk on water, but the hard times will come again at some point. How Sutter drags them back to the win column from the inevitable spiral will separate him from Gilbert who plainly wasn't strong enough to pull the nose of the plane out of a power dive until it was too late. How do you grade three coaches? Gilbert - F, MacNeil A, Sutter A.

MANAGEMENT - The unsettled issues at the top have quieted down a bit since the hiring of Sutter. As the dust settled a week and a half ago we could glean certain things from comments made at the time. Craig Button wanted Sutter as his coach and also made it clear he wants to stay as GM of the Flames, an observation which shouldn't be dismissed as obvious since resigning over upper management interference in his duties couldn't have been ruled out. Lastly, the image of the franchise took another pasting from the peculiar behaviour exhibited by those over Button's head, so much so that perhaps the public relations disaster surrounding this recent episode caused those responsible to re-acquaint themselves with their prior duties. Maybe. On the hockey front, it would figure that Sutter likes his team speed and depth down centre (Conroy, Drury and Yelle) but would probably want better size with skill on the wings and likely wouldn't mind a power play shooter on the blueline. That's Button's job. In a quarter just passed, however, only an F would do here.

OWNERSHIP - Flames owner Murray Edwards stated flatly the ownership group had made an internal commitment to stick things out until the CBA negotiations in 2004. And, it should be noted, Sutter was not cheap, the most expensive coach in Flames history.

THE FANS - Still averaging about 15,500 for a team six years removed from a playoff spot and 13 years in arrears of its last playoff win. That's a miracle and leaves one to wonder what things might be like if they actually had a winner here. Will the fans return next season? If the team can generate a decent second half and finish at .500 or better for the year the fans will probably return. More losing, losing, losing and that might be doubtful.