Craig Conroy remembers fondly the goodwill of Lyle Odelein, Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider.

Mikael Backlund, no doubt, will always treasure Conroy's.

These are the fine folks who went out of their way to take away the sting of the ultimate indignity for a young hockey player - the healthy scratch, which can be a shattering experience.

Breaking in with the Montreal Canadiens in the mid-1990s, Conroy endured his share of lineup bumps.

No different than Backlund now.

The Calgary Flames' centre was scratched for the first time this season Dec. 5 in Chicago, a development that made press-box mates of the team's youngest and oldest players - Backlund, 21, and Conroy, 39.

What Backlund got that night was an earful of encouragement.

"It helps you hear that," says Backlund. "It give me confidence. They believe in me and they care about me and they want me to do good, you know."

Conroy, not surprisingly, shrugs off the gesture.

For a guy like him, it's simply a case of doing the right thing. Just like Muller and the rest did for him.

"I know my situation," says Conroy. "You try to make him feel better. You try to pull on the positives - what makes Backlund such a good player - and just try to be good with him. You want to make him feel better about himself because it is a tough spot when you're not playing. You feel bad. And a young guy like that, they usually take it harder than most. You don't want him to be discouraged. You want him to be positive and ready for the next game."

Even if Conroy has to mask his own disappointment at not playing, yet again.

"You can't show them that," says Conroy. "You have to say, 'You know what? This is what we're doing.' You have to move on from there."

Flames coach Brent Sutter sees Conroy doing his job. And, yes, it does ring some bells.

When Sutter was winding down his own playing career with the Chicago Blackhawks, he suited up only 91 times in his final two seasons (1996-98).

"I was 36 years old," says Sutter. "I was a fourth-line player, in and out of the lineup, injured some. But it didn't change who I was. It didn't change who I was in the dressing room, it didn't change what I needed to do for my teammates. It probably added a couple years to my career.

"It's never something that you're going to be totally happy with, but you can't change the way you are in the dressing room. If your attitude's not good, if you're not a good leader, if you don't keep the same mentality you've had your whole career, things can go the other way pretty easily."

Go the other way? Undoubtedly. No one wants a selfish veteran on the team.

And being a high-maintenance healthy scratch, an inward-looking grump, is the quickest way to the parking lot.

Not that Conroy should be worried.

"I have absolutely zero issues with Connie," says Sutter. "He's been a trooper through it all. It's probably a good reason why Connie has played as long as he has. Because he's gone from being this type of centreman, to being this type of centreman, to being this type of centreman, over the course of his career. As you get up there, a little longer in the tooth . . . your role changes. It's hard to do it. It's understanding and acceptance. Once you do that? You're fine."

In the case of the Flames, with a relatively nick-free pile of forwards, two men must sit every game.

Sutter, so far, has ruined nights for Matt Stajan, Ales Kotalik, David Moss, Curtis Glencross and now Backlund, a healthy scratch in the past two games.

Conroy, meanwhile, has dressed for only one of the last 13 dates.

"That's the thing - it's not anyone else's fault," says Conroy. "You're just trying to be good to your teammates . . . and hope you get back in. Obviously Stajer was out, Mosser, Glennie . . . it's happening to more people than just me. So what are you going to do? Whine about it? You just have to wait.

"It's always tough. But if you can help other guys along . . . Glennie and I went to lunch the last game. You've got to stick together. You're a team. Sometimes great things happen, sometimes there's bad stuff. So you want to be there in the good and bad."

"What can you do? It is pro sports. I can see where other guys might (say), 'Oh, this guy's coming to take my job,' so maybe they don't want to help him. But I've played 1,000 games now. I'm not overly concerned. I just want the team to win, to do well, and have the young guys play as well as they can."

Calgary Herald

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