McCarty makes return to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit
by Mike Board
www.calgaryflames.com staff

Darren McCarty played 11 seasons and won three Stanley Cups playing
for the Detroit Red Wings. Close to 800 games, including playoffs,
wearing the winged wheel on his chest. Immensely popular with the
Detroit fans, McCarty will return to Joe Louis Arena on Sunday
(Flames vs. Detroit, 2 p.m. The Fan 960).

But he will be going to the visitor's dressing room as a Calgary
Flames after signing as a free agent in Calgary in August. The
veteran, who wrote a thank you letter to Detroit fans and placed it
in a newspaper after signing with Calgary, scored his first goal as
a Flame on Friday in a 3-1 win over Columbus that puts the Flames at
1-1-0 heading into Joe Louis.

"It will be a little weird going into that rink. Going into the
other dressing room. But it is going to come and it is going to go.
I haven't really thought about it. It will come quick enough," said
McCarty prior to the Flames departing on the season-opening four-
game road trip.

"I think there will be some emotion playing in that building. But
once the pucks drops it's about the hockey. It's all part of
something that everyone who gets traded goes through. It will be
emotional, I know that. But it will be exciting."

McCarty, who scored the 120th goal of his career on Friday, will be
34 years old before the next NHL playoffs begin and the Flames will
look to him for leadership, among other roles.

So far, he likes what he sees in the Flames and believes they
learned a lesson in their run to the Stanley Cup in 2004, even if
they came up a game short. He remembers going through the same
thing, the same growing pain, in Detroit when the New Jersey Devils
spanked the Wings in four straight in the 1995 Stanley Cup and then
losing the next season in the Western Conference Final after racking
up 131 points in the regular season, the second highest regular
season total in NHL history.

"You learn something in that environment. It's a tough lesson to
learn. We had to learn it in Detroit when we lost to New Jersey in
the finals and then lost the conference finals the next year after
getting all those points," said McCarty.

While the Flames were considered a Cinderella story in the 2004
playoffs, they are not considered underdogs by many these days --
Sports Illustrated for example picked them to be tops in the NHL.
McCarty's advice is for the team not to read their own press
clippings.

"You just have to go out and play. People are going to write and
they are going to have their opinions whether they are media or
fans. That's what part of being in sports is about. We do the same
thing in football and everything else. But the bottom line is in the
dressing room and how we approach things," said McCarty.

"We know that we have to outwork teams and play well every night and
if we do that, we like the team we have."

After a self-described poor effort in the season opener in
Minnesota, a 6-3 loss, the Flames were very dominant against the
Blue Jackets two nights later -- they definitely outworked the Blue
Jackets and the 3-1 score flattered Columbus as goalie Marc Denis
turned in a star performance.

Friday was a more typical Flames game. One McCarty expects to see
lots of.

"Our goal right now is to win hockey games and set ourselves up for
the playoffs," said McCarty.