Frank Gunn, Associated Press Calgary standout Jarome Iginla accepts the conference trophy after the Flames eliminated San Jose Wednesday. Click photo for larger image.

Joe Mullen remembers what it was like to play before the "C of Red" at the Saddledome during Calgary's drive to the Stanley Cup in 1989.

The way the city immersed itself in the Flames' battle for a championship, and the wild celebrations their victories inspired along Electric Avenue.

And even if he had begun to get a bit murky on a few of the details about that heady spring 15 years ago, Calgary's improbable surge to the 2004 Stanley Cup final would have rekindled them.

"With the fans going wild and all," Mullen said, "it's deja vu all over again."

There are a few differences. The Calgary team that won the Cup in 1989 had been one of the league's best for several years and had a lineup stocked with prime talents such as Mullen, Joe Nieuwendyk, Hakan Loob, Theo Fleury, Gary Roberts, Doug Gilmour, Rob Ramage, Joel Otto, Gary Suter, and Lanny McDonald.

Jarome Iginla, captain of these Flames, might be more gifted than anyone who played on the 1989 Cup team, but his supporting cast has nothing approaching the skill or depth of the club on which Mullen played.

"The talent we had on that team was incredible," said Mullen, who played on the Penguins' Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1991 and 1992 and has been an assistant coach with them for four years.

The 2003-04 Flames aren't exactly devoid of talent -- Iginla, center Craig Conroy, goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and defenseman Robyn Regehr form a pretty nice nucleus -- but discipline and desire have been the key components in series wins against Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose.

"They've worked so hard," Mullen said. "That's the thing you can see in their play. Darryl [Sutter, the coach] is getting the most out of all those guys now, plus he's getting the goaltending [from Kiprusoff]."

Several of those guys who have made key contributions to Calgary's success are former Penguins: Andrew Ference has been solid on defense, wingers Shean Donovan and Ville Nieminen have assumed prominent roles and even enforcer Krzysztof Oliwa has performed at a level far above anything he reached here.

"Look at all the guys who played for us who are playing for them now," Mullen said. "And they're all doing well."

Whether it's because so many former Penguins are in Calgary or because he was part of the city's only Cup-winning club, it's pretty obvious that Mullen would like to see the Flames win the championship. And after all they've accomplished to this point, that hardly seems out of the question.

"They're going to have their hands full, but they've had their hands full the whole playoffs," Mullen said. "They just have to continue to focus the way they have been and work as hard as they have been. And, if they get the goaltending to stand up, their chances as good as anybody's."

And a whole lot better than they've been since 1989.

Off-color

Iginla, already regarded as one of the NHL's premier players, has further enhanced his reputation with some sensational work during these playoffs. He apparently hasn't become a household name --or, more to the point, face -- in Arizona. McFarlane Toys, a company based there that sells licensed figurines of NHL players, is marketing one of Iginla that is quite striking. Mostly because it depicts Iginla, whose father is Nigerian, as being white. Considerably whiter, it turns out, than Finland's Saku Koivu, whose figurine is packaged with that of Iginla. Company officials acknowledged the errors, but do not plan to recall the off-color figurines.

Changing IDs

Ted Lindsay, a Hall of Famer and member of Detroit's storied "Production Line" with Gordie Howe and Sid Abel, has gone to the Oakland County (Mich.) Circuit court to have his name changed. To, uh, Ted Lindsay. It seems that when Lindsay, 78, was issued a U.S. passport in 1946, it bore his full name of Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay, which does not have the cachet -- or widespread recognition -- of the name by which he is generally known. Lindsay believes that making the legal switch will expedite things when he travels to Canada, which happens several times a week.

Eight captains

While the makeup of Canada's World Cup roster can -- and has been -- passionately debated in that country, no one can complain about a lack of leadership. No fewer than eight NHL captains -- Iginla, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Shane Doan, Patrick Marleau, Scott Niedermayer, Joe Sakic and Joe Thornton -- are on the team. There's no shortage of international experience, either. Canada's players have participated in a total of 686 games on the world stage.

Political career

Ken Dryden, one of the most respected figures in hockey since he came out of Cornell to lead Montreal to a Stanley Cup in 1971, has left his job as vice-chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in Toronto to run for political office. Dryden has been approached by every major party in Canada at one time or another, but has opted to run as a Liberal.

Local flavor

The Philadelphia-Tampa Bay series produced some great moments on the ice, and a few more above it. When the series shifted to Philadelphia for Game 3, a clip from "Rocky III" that showed Rocky Balboa, a fictional boxer who is beloved in that city, tossing Hulk Hogan, a Tampa-area resident and Lightning fan, ran on the Wachovia Center scoreboard. Tampa Bay countered before Game 5 by running video that showed Ronde Barber of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers returning an interception that clinched his team's victory in the 2002 NFC title game in Philadelphia. And punctuated it up with this public-address introduction from Barber: "Let's rock this house like we brought down the Vet."

No goalies, eh

Although Canada is the birthplace of hockey and remains the leading source of players for the NHL, the trend toward diversity in the game's talent pool is hard to overlook. The latest evidence: For the first time in history, no team in either conference final had a Canadian as its No. 1 goalie. Those jobs were filled by Robert Esche (Philadelphia, United States), Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose, Kazakhstan), Nikolai Khabibulin (Tampa Bay, Russia) and Kiprusoff (Calgary, Finland).

Hull auction

Add Bobby Hull to the list of sports legends who have put a personal memorabilia collection up for sale. The highlight of Hull's package probably is his Stanley Cup ring from 1961, the last time Chicago won a championship. The sale is being conducted via a Montreal-based Web site, classicauctions.net, that has performed a similar service for Guy Lafleur, Darryl Sittler and Maurice Richard. Hull, 65, is commissioner of the World Hockey Association, which is set to begin play this winter.

Layoffs still pending

Although a few employees, wary of a future clouded by the specter of a lengthy labor dispute, have left the Penguins for jobs elsewhere lately, team officials still have not laid off any workers. A number of other clubs have, however, with Nashville, Carolina, Dallas, St. Louis and Washington on the list. What's more, Calgary and Edmonton plan to go to reduced work weeks if a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and its Players Association isn't in place by Sept. 15, while Toronto intends to reduce front-office salaries if the lockout lasts four months.

Cup anniversaries

It might seem like just yesterday to some -- especially those who were at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn., to witness the 8-0 victory that clinched it -- but Tuesday will mark the 13th anniversary of the Penguins' first Stanley Cup championship. They wrapped up their second title exactly one year and a week later, when they completed a sweep of the Blackhawks with a 6-5 victory at Chicago Stadium. Both venues where the Penguins captured their Cups were torn down years ago.

Hasek in Ottawa?

Ottawa is the apparent front-runner, at least for now, to end up with goalie Dominik Hasek, who is recovering from groin surgery and who, at age 39, has played just 14 games over the past two seasons. The Senators have a championship-caliber lineup, but have well-founded concerns about whether goalie Patrick Lalime is capable of leading them to a title. What's more, Hasek had a good relationship with Ottawa GM John Muckler during their days together in Buffalo.

Chicago's plans

Russian winger Alexander Ovechkin is the crown jewel in the draft class of 2004 and countryman Evgenii Malkin is a solid second on just about everyone's list. Chicago, which is picking third, seems to feel it's a lock to get a quality player because GM Bob Pulford has gone on record saying that the only way the Blackhawks will deal their first-rounder is if they are approached by Washington, which owns the top choice, or the Penguins, who will select second. Indications are that Czech forward Rostislav Olesz and two Western Hockey League players, left winger Andrew Ladd of Calgary and Medicine Hat defenseman Cam Barker, are high on Chicago's short list of candidates.