Should the Flames follow their normal pattern of folding down the stretch, the final months of this lamentable year should continue in the same vein.

It was former Colorado coach Bob Hartley who observed in October that there are several points in the season where the competition ratchets up to a higher level, challenging some to elevate their play but leaving the old and weak along the roadside.

The Flames began stumbling in the opening days of November, early victims of Hartley's theory.

Aside from a brief flurry following the appointment of Darryl Sutter as head coach in late December, the Flames have never suggested they're anything more than we're seeing, in the bottom third of the NHL defensively, on special teams, in offence and not coincidentally, in the standings as well.

There's not even an Art Ross Trophy race to offset the pain this year.

This has been quite simply the longest grind in Flames history.

The only small mercy we've observed lately is the players have stopped their ad nauseum use of the word "unacceptable."

FANS - Over 18,000 for a recent game against Vancouver and seven other sell outs through the year speak to a fan group that is either blind to the adversity of a last place team or is actually entertained by NHL hockey, regardless of what the home team might be up to. The real test, of course, comes when season tickets will need to be renewed. It will be interesting to see if the Flames try last year's tactic of offering a big discount to renew tickets immediately after this season concludes.

If management – whoever they may be – opts for the latter, it will mark the third "rebuilding" phase since the team first began their seven-year stretch without the playoffs.

The fans still fill the building on a regular basis but there is no quick-fix solution in sight. This is a bad hockey team and things won't be getting better anytime soon barring any unexpected surprises such as Kobasew becoming a 20-goal scorer and Leopold becoming a top NHL powerplay quarterback. Roman Turek returning to Vezina-trophy candidate form again wouldn't hurt, either.

Goaltending on this team is awful, plain and simple. As a goaltender your most important objective is to keep the team in games and have a good win-loss record. Neither Roman Turek nor Jamie McLennan has accomplished this. The thought on McLennan was that he would be an upgrade over Mike Vernon. Well, Vernon had two wins last season and so far McLennan has two wins (and ten losses).

Most nights Turek looks like a deer on ice and is by far the most overpaid player on the team. Occasionally he'll put together a solid outing but unfortunately the team is back on its heels so often that they still can't win when that occurs. Case in point, the team's recent 1-1 tie in Dallas.

A blueline decimated by injuries saw no fewer than ten different players suit up on defence over the past 20 games. Household names like Mike Mottau, Steve Montador, Micki DuPont, Andrew Ference and Jordan Leopold joined blueline regulars Gauthier, Boughner, Lydman, Buzek and Regehr.

For the most part, the young defence held up surprisingly well in the face of all that adversity but the supposed veterans struggled. Toni Lydman is simply not suited for the number one role with which he's been saddled. Some nights he's outstanding. He contributes offensively, makes big plays defensively, and logs a lot of ice time. Other nights he's dreadful. Case in point, his minus-3 performance in Nashville last night. With an inexperienced defence, the veterans need to step up even more and they have not.

There have been very few bright spots for the Flames on forward this quarter. Among them were Jarome Iginla, Stephane Yelle and Craig Conroy.

The switch has suddenly come on for Iginla. He leads the league in goals this February. Conroy is having the second-best season of his career. Chris Drury has provided a disappearing act far too many times this season. Over the past 20 games he's shown signs of brilliance coupled with inconsistent play.

Yelle and Rob Niedermayer have been strong on the checking line, chipping in goals occasionally and rarely giving up one of their own.

Meanwhile, most of the other forwards have been terrible. Dave Lowry had a great start after being called up from Saint John but has fallen back on the injury-prone style of game that plagued him last season. Chris Clark had his worst quarter of the season. Gelinas has one goal since January 13,

The reality of Darryl Sutter's first full quarter as the team's head coach is that it's very difficult for a coach to come in at mid-season and completely turn around a sinking ship. Of the seven teams that were out of the playoffs and fired their head coach, only one – the underachieving Colorado Avalanche – has made the move into the playoffs. The only other team to show marked improvement was the Atlanta Thrashers, who were 12 games under .500 when Curt Fraser was let go but have battled their way to a .500 record under Bob Hartley.

Sutter, meanwhile, has the Flames playing with a record of 4-13-4-1 in their last 22 games. Four wins in 22 games. While it's true that two other head coaches this season couldn't get much of a better result out of the team, he has not done well. In all fairness, his ability to get this team turned around should be re-evaluated next season after he's had a training camp with the club.

Seven years. Flames fans have been waiting – and patiently, I might add – for any sort of glimmer of hope. But where has this team gone in the past seven years? The answer is nowhere. Proponents of the current management team will point to a roster that "looks better on paper" but compared to the 1996-97 Flames, the 1998-99 team looked better on paper too. A quick glance at that roster reveals a pretty scary lineup. Names such as Rene Corbet, Jeff Shantz, Clarke Wilm, Andrei Nazarov, Steve Dubinsky, Hnat Domenichlli, Cale Hulse, Dave Roche and Bob Bassen don't light the world on fire. Two or three years down the road fans will likely look at the majority of players on this roster and think similar thoughts.

Are the building blocks there for a contending team? Probably not. Iginla is a great player to build your team around but who else is there? Chris Drury complements Iginla well but Conroy will be gone before 2004. Gelinas will likely be gone shortly after that. Kobasew, like Tkaczuk, Fata and Saprykin before him remains a question mark until he can prove himself at this level.

On defence, a blueline that's supposed to be collectively entering its prime right now just can't get the job done. The club can't simply sit back and wait until Leopold has developed to bring in someone to lead this group offensively. If the Flames don't bring in a proven powerplay quarterback this summer they're doomed to have the league's worst powerplay once again in 2003-04.

And on top of all that, goaltending is the worst problem on this team. Roman Turek was brought in to provide stability but his inconsistency is coming close to rivaling that of Grant Fuhr's in his final years. Goaltending is an interesting position. It's hard to acquire a good one and even harder to trade a bad one away. If the Flames had a key save now and then maybe everything else would fall into place. As it stands, the team is doomed to sit on the sidelines and watch as this season spirals endlessly out of control.