ESPN NHL Playoffs 2008

Updated: April 9, 2008, 1:15 AM ET

Flames-Sharks may be mismatch to some, but both sides feeling the heat

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By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com
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Iron Mike Keenan is defiant ("I don't know about that," he countered, when reminded that the San Jose Sharks are indisputably hockey's hottest pre-playoff entity. "They lost their last game").

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Bruce Kluckhohn/Getty ImagesWhat will be the Sharks' No. 1 priority? Shutting down leading Flames scorer Jarome Iginla.

Jarome Iginla is wired.

Dion Phaneuf is growling.

But in homage to the late Roy Scheider, face a blank mask of fear and cigarette dangling limply from thin lips:

They're gonna need a bigger boat.

The Sharks are circling, a beady-eyed beast with jaws strong enough to rip a man's leg off at the hip. Nobody's giving the Calgary Flames much of a chance to escape the water alive.

Excepting, naturally, the Flames themselves.

"I think it's fun," captain Iginla said as we near the puck drop on the playoffs Wednesday night at HP Pavilion. "[The Sharks] have been playing the best hockey in the last quarter in the whole NHL. They made a big trade [for puck-moving Buffalo defenseman Brian Campbell], and they finished over 100 points. You're going to read and you're going to hear people say we don't have a chance.

"But I believe we do."

Count him among the few.

This Western Conference quarterfinal series fairly teems with intriguing individual battles:

• Iginla (98 points) vs. Joe Thornton (96 points) up front.

• Miikka Kiprusoff (39 wins) vs. Evgeni Nabokov (46 wins) in net.

• The crash-bang of Phaneuf vs. the offensive artistry of Campbell on the respective blue lines.

• The flinty Keenan vs. the withering yet erudite Ron Wilson behind the benches.

Kiprusoff was deemed expendable by the Sharks. So, too, was GM Darryl Sutter. Owen Nolan used to captain the proud boys in teal. Sharks assistant coach Tim Hunter spent a lot of years fighting on behalf of the Flames and was an alternate captain the year of the franchise's only Stanley Cup triumph in 1989.

This is also a series that holds far-reaching implications on both sides. The heat is most definitely on.

For the Flames, it's imperative to reach at least the second round. A third straight early playoff exit on the trot -- regardless of the caliber of opposition -- would not go over well, on the streets or in the boardroom. And it almost certainly would undermine the almost slavish faith southern Alberta has placed in Sutter. Sutter was given leave to sign his four major components to lengthy extensions, thereby cementing the core of his lineup. Three of those four cornerstone players -- Iginla (30), Kiprusoff (31) and defenseman Robyn Regehr (27) are at or nearing the prime of their careers.

The Flames are the third-oldest team in the league. That means time is of the essence.

For the Sharks, the expectation is in, at long last, laying claim to a championship, to rid themselves of the reputation of a team better suited to clutching tightly to its own throat than those big jug ears on Lord Stanley's large silver mug.

"That's something," admitted Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick, "that has been addressed in our locker room. This team has had chances in the past and fallen short. Whether it was a lack of physical play, or whatever. But this is a different scenario. The confidence level is much greater now, from what I understand.

"We're a tougher team in general, adding Jody Shelley to our lineup. This is a much better defensive team than the one we had in Chicago [in 1992, when the Hawks were swept by Pittsburgh in the Cup finals]. And we're more adept scoring goals.

"Winning is not just about the Milan Michaleks and Joe Thorntons and Brian Campbells. You need the Mike Griers and Patrick Rissmillers and Jeremy Roenicks, too. We know we're playing against a very talented Calgary team with one of the best players in the world in Jarome Iginla. And a coach who demands they play with toughness and grit."

Before dropping their final two regular-season games, the Sharks went on an amazing tear, going 20 games without losing in regulation. Calgary actually won the seasonal series between the teams, 3-1-0, largely on the brilliance of Kiprusoff and the stifling job on Thornton. Jumbo Joe picked up only a point and a power-play assist in those four games and was minus-4.

A similar sort of superhuman effort is required now.

"Against Joe, you've got to be all over him quick," said Flames defenseman Cory Sarich, who'll be assigned with Regehr to try and toss a lariat over the big galoot. "You've got to pound on him physically, and keep pounding. He's a big man, and I'm pretty sure he relishes that side of the game. But I don't care who you are or how big you are; if guys are hard enough on you long enough, then you've got to slow down."

If the Flames aren't hard enough and quick enough on Thornton, this series is likely a foregone conclusion.

"There isn't a guy in our locker room who doesn't think Joe Thornton isn't the best all-around player in the game," Roenick lauded. "Toughness. Passing ability. The way he carries himself on and off the ice. One of a kind.

"He's always about the team," Roenick added. "When you see him drop his gloves to make a point, it rubs off. Everyone's thinking, 'If Joe Thornton can do it, why can't I do it, too?'"

The Flames feel precisely the same way about Iginla.

"Jarome is our top player, and everybody knows it. Joe is their top player, and everybody knows it," is how Keenan summarizes the situation. "They may not be matched up against each other, but it'll be a very interesting 1-on-1 battle nonetheless."

While the Flames lurched down the stretch in failing to snare the division and that coveted No. 3 seeding, San Jose was at full throttle. If Calgary harbors any hope of pulling off an upset, it's absolutely vital to steal one of the first two games, prey on the disappointing playoff history of the Sharks, and get them and the Silicon Valley fans second-guessing.

"Going in, they've got a lot of pressure," Flames center Craig Conroy said. "This first game's going to be huge. If we can go in there and steal one, it might put a little doubt in their heads."

It'd be a start, anyway.

George Johnson, a columnist for the Calgary Herald, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.