RACE FOR THE ART ROSS

As a first-hand, best-seat-in-the-house witness to history, Craig Conroy doesn't - for the life of him - see why it can't be repeated.
"The thing is,'' the Flames assistant GM is saying, "Johnny's got that hunger. That appetite. He wants the puck. He wantsto be the difference-maker.

"Just like Jarome.
"Just like Hullie, when we played together in St. Louis.
"Those guys, special guys, they all have that attitude. Oh, they may tell you it doesn't matter.
"But I mean, I don't think, deep down, Connor McDavid's sitting up in Edmonton, thinking: 'Gee, it'd be great to finish second …'
"Guys like Crosby, Ovechkin, they always want to be first.
"Jarome always wanted to be first.
"I remember we'd have, say, two and he'd be on the bench telling me: 'We've got a couple more coming tonight, Connie.'
"I'm not down on the bench anymore but I'd bet Johnny's attitude is exactly the same."

Only one man in franchise history, the iconic Iginla in 2001-2002, has ever lifted the Art Ross Trophy, emblematic of the NHL's season scoring titan. That year, he counted 52 goals and 96 points to outlast Vancouver's Markus Naslund by a half-dozen.
Johnny Gaudreau, currently at 54 points and trailing pacesetter Nikita Kucherov of the Bolts by seven, has a solid shot to be the second.
As well, no Flame has reached the 100-plateau since Theo Fleury, back in 1992-93.
Gaudreau, with 37 games remaining, is on pace to accomplish that, as well.
He rejoins the chase Saturday afternoon in a post-break matinee against the Winnipeg Jets (1 p.m., TV: CBC, Radio: Sportsnet960 The FAN) at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Conroy was the Iginla's facilitator during that touchstone season of '91-92 - Dean McAmmond manning the port side - and finished second on the team in scoring, largely due to 48 helpers, the majority off goals from the captain.
Gaudreau, of course, has developed a kinetic camaraderie with Sean Monahan and now Micheal Ferland, to create one of the top lines in today's game.
Pre-Friday-results, Kucherov held a four-point lead over Colorado's Nathan McKinnon, five over NY Islanders' star John Tavares and the six over Gaudreau and Phil Kessel of the Pens.
Quite the clog of star-power.
Still, as Conroy points out, there "isn't a Gretzky or a Lemieux" among them towering over the competition, which should make this a fair, balanced fight right to Game 82.
The Iginla Art Ross arrived in an era of still having to hack your way towards the net with a scythe.
"Back then,'' Conroy recalls, "Jarome had to physically go through people. I remember goals where he'd have three guys hooking him, holding him, draped all over him, grabbing his shirt, he'd be off balance and still find a way to score.
"Ask guys who played then. It was hard getting through the natural zone without being hooked. Everybody hooked, held up for your defencemen so they could track back for the puck. If they ever did get hit, they were upset with you. That's the way the game was.
"Now, that's all been eliminated. There's no hooking, no holding, no slashing. You're not being impeded at all.
"Now it's just geared up for a playmaking guy like Johnny. Skates well, elusive. The slashing held him back last year a little bit because he'd come through the neutral zone and he'd have four or five sticks on him. Now there's no sticks on him.
"He's pretty much free to create."

The two men are stylistic opposites. Iginla primarily a shooter, Gaudreau a passer. Iginla relying on power and precision to create his points, Gaudreau on a snake-shedding-its-skin evasiveness and an extra sensory perception that'd make a clairvoyant envious.
What the two do share is that appetite, the hunger, Conroy spoke of.
"As I said, they've all got it.
"Johnny wants to be the leading scorer in college.
"Johnny wants to be the leading scorer in the NHL.
"If you don't think that way, you're never going to be a top guy in this league. In any league.
"You have to produce when you're not feeling well. You have to produce when the team's not playing well.
"You might have to do it almost all by yourself some nights.
"But that's okay. Because that's how you're wired.
"I remember Bob (Hartley) asking me one time, during Johnny's rookie year: 'Who do you think, Connie, of all the guys on the bench' - I'm not there so I haven't got a clue, right? - 'hates losing the most?'
"I'm thinking 'Maybe Gio …' And, let's be honest, they all hate losing. That's in their DNA.
"But he says, big smile: 'This Gaudreau kid. He hatesto lose.'"
On Thursday, Johnny Gaudreau departs for Tampa and his fourth All Star trip in four seasons.
Might there be in a few months time a miniature Art Ross to place in the ol' curio cabinet and keep that mini Lady Byng Trophy he collected a year ago company?
"To win it,'' says Conroy, a first-hand witness to history, "a lot of things have to go right. Your linemates have to stay hot. There are nights, when he's not feeling his best, where he's going to need Monny and Ferly to do something special after he chips the puck to them.
"The powerplay has to work. You've got to stay healthy, feel good about yourself and the team has to do well.
"There are going to be dips. How fast can he or they as a line come out of them? It cycles in and out.
"With the chances he creates for this team night-in and night-out, I don't see why not.
"Can he do it? Absolutely."