Good Iggy

Guts.

They are the answer to the question of how players like Guy Carbonneau and Gary Roberts hang on to National Hockey League jobs long after their peak playing days have ended. And they are the reason Alexei Kovalev can drive Canadiens fans crazy.

They are the reason the Vancouver Canucks have gone from the group that would finally bring a Stanley Cup to the West Coast, to a dysfunctional team that can't put together three decent efforts in a row. And the reason why Jarome Iginla is this column's pick as the best hockey player Canada has.

When your leaders come up small in the big games, as has happened with Edmonton and Vancouver countless times this season, it has a resonating effect. Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish calls it "gamesmanship." It's a polite term for guts.

Edmonton, like Vancouver, becomes like a batter with the bases empty, trying to erase a four-run deficit with one swing. They are easy prey for a smart pitcher, or in this case, for a savvy team like Calgary, whose game plan is to prey on mistakes. A 1-0 score is more likely to become 3-0 than 1-1, once panic sets in against a savvy team that has scored the first goal.

The Todd Bertuzzi-Markus Naslund-Brendan Morrison line that should be carrying the Canucks through tough times is so bereft of consistency that head coach Marc Crawford gives them only a couple of shifts per night before mixing up his lines. The end result in a key game at Anaheim Sunday night was a Vancouver team that scored first, later allowed two Anaheim goals in 12 seconds in the opening period, then simply didn't have the intangibles necessary to fight back.

Out West, the road to the Stanley Cup still goes through Calgary. It's a road the Flames know well, their biggest advantage over the Canucks and Oilers.