With no goals, one assist and a minus-six rating in his last five games, Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla know he needs to turn things around.
As for how he plans to turn things around?
Simple -- quit thinking.
“I’ve got to not think about things too much,” Iginla told the Calgary Sun. “As soon as I start thinking, I stop moving my feet. You’ve seen me in some tough stretches, and I find it’s when I get a little hesitant, and everything starts looking slow.
“The last five games, unfortunately, haven’t been really good. That’s probably the rut I’ve been in, and I plan on getting out of it.”
As is often the case, the Flames go as their captain go -- and over the last five games they’re 1-2-2, scoring just 10 goals while allowing 18. That’s put Calgary in 11th place in the Western Conference with 67 points, three back of eighth-place Dallas (three back of ninth-place Colorado as well.)
That said, Iginla isn’t the only Flame struggling at the moment. Olli Jokinen, Michael Cammalleri, Jay Bouwmeester and Mark Giordano have all struggled to produce, perhaps a byproduct of having to log heavy minutes for a team lacking depth and talent.
Not that head coach Brent Sutter is ready to start making excuses.
“We’ve put a lot on those guys’ shoulders the last two, two-and-a-half months because of the situation we got into with injuries, and there’s been nights when those guys had to play 24, 25, 26 minutes,” Sutter said. “They’re going through a little tough time, no different from the team, but we’ve got to get through it. We’ve got to stay together, hang tough together.
“You win as a team, lose as a team. What we’ve gone through is a team thing and we have to get through it.”