Don't let Jay Feaster's teddy bear exterior fool you.

The Flames general manager, whose tag of "acting GM" was finally changed when he was given the full-time role in mid-May, wants his team to go back to being the in-your-face squad that reached Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final.

"I think that's one of the things we lost," Feaster said. "We lost our identity. Go back to 2004, you knew how this team was gonna work. You might win a game, but you're going to pay a price for it."

He knows first-hand what the Flames were like in that playoff run, since it was his Tampa Bay Lightning team that finally knocked off the Flames in the seventh game of the final.

Since then, the Flames have been guilty of playing all too often without that nasty edge and determination.

"All the skill in the world that's not backed up with will isn't gong anywhere," he said. "We started to bring in some skill, but guys who didn't necessarily bring the will component. The one thing we can control is our work ethic. Bringing in a guy who doesn't play to your identity is worse than not doing anything."

SEASON HIGHLIGHT
Just before Christmas, the Flames appeared down and out from the playoff race. Then came an incredible turnaround. The Flames went into the break with a comeback shootout victory over the Dallas Stars, and rode a wave with a 22-6-6 run that had them looking like a playoff team. Curiously, that spree ended with another shootout win in Dallas, which brings us to ...

TURNING POINT
Things were going so swimmingly that when the Flames beat the Stars for the second time in Dallas, there was no hand-wringing how they did it. Calgary had a three-goal lead, but blew it before winning in a shootout on March 9. That victory had them tied for the fourth spot in the Western Conference. However, they lost the next night in Phoenix, which started an ill-fated 1-4-2 stretch they couldn't recover from and fell out of the playoff picture for good.

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