Mike Cammalleri is a good playmaker and might even be a better finisher, both on and off the ice.

Aside from returning to the Calgary Flames in a Jan. 12 swap with the Montreal Canadiens and hoping to rekindle the wizardry that led to a career-high 39 goals and 81 points in the 2008-09 season, he also knows how to go on the offensive to stickhandle through the real estate maze in hopes of scoring a deal or two. Cammalleri was attempting to sell his Los Angeles home to Kings coach and former Flames general manager Darryl Sutter while also suggesting a swap of residences with Rene Bourque, who went the other way in the multi-tiered transaction with Montreal.

"We'll be in touch," said Cammalleri," who scored in a shootout Thursday as the Flames ended a six-game road winless streak with a 2-1 victory in Los Angeles. "We'll try to figure something out and make it easy on everybody. We're going to talk and see if it works out."

It's not that Cammalleri needs the money. With two more seasons at a $6 million US cap hit before he becomes an unrestricted free agent — he's actually pocketing $7 million annually in the back-loaded contract — he's more interested in restoring his game and battered image after nine goals in 38 games with the Canadiens. Cammalleri was vilified in the French media for addressing how difficult it is to overcome a losing culture in Montreal and that pronouncement was summarized as labelling the famed franchise as a bunch of losers.

For the record, Cammalleri said: 'I can't accept that we will display a losing attitude as we were doing this year. We prepare for our games like losers. We play like losers. So it's no wonder why we lose.'

Hence the screaming Journal de Montreal headline: 'UN PERDANT, DE MOINS.' Translation: 'One Less Loser'.

Pressed on the matter that shook a hockey-mad city like an earthquake, Cammalleri thought he was actually making a politically correct statement and provided some insight into the sorry plight of a struggling club. He refrained from pointing a finger at any teammate.

"When you get tight, you get into this kind of losing thing — you become afraid to make plays," added Cammalleri. "You get a losing mentality and you've got to break out of it. Winning teams have that attitude like we'll make a lot of good plays, we'll be strong."

Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier told Cammalleri he had been working on the trade for more than a month, so the parting shot wasn't really the big body blow. It was a team going nowhere fast and in need of something. If anything, the Cammalleri's comments just made it easier to pull the trigger in the face of public perception in Montreal. Not so much in Calgary.

"For me to hear the passion, the emotion, the enthusiasm that he had when I called him — it that's the corollary [consequence] to it, that every once is a while he's going to pop off and stir the pot and maybe get some peoples' noses out of joint, I'll take that," said Flames general manager Jay Feaster. "That's something we need in our lockerroom."

The bigger story is how Cammalleri can help get the Flames where they haven't been since 2009 — the playoffs. A 27-11-9 second-half spurt left them three points shy of the postseason last spring and a motivated Cammalleri might be the difference if the Flames can stay healthy to try and squeeze into the playoffs. And make no mistake, Cammalleri is an attractive wild card because the Vancouver Canucks may have considered him and/or Marian Gaborik as a Plan B had they not signed Henrik and Daniel Sedin to five-year, $30 million contract extensions.

As for the Flames, that rebuild has been shelved and they won't be selling at the trade deadline. They're all in for a playoff push with Cammalleri. Feaster sees Cammalleri's supposedly controversial words as a catalyst for change in Calgary, rather than something that should drag down any franchise. Coach Brent Sutter would second that emotion.

"He's got some charisma to him — he's got some swagger to him," said Sutter. "I like guys that are that way. It's good to have that inside your room. It's good that it's not all the same. You want guys who are different characters."

Character is one thing. Ability is another. Whether snapping a shot or deflecting one, Cammalleri has that uncanny ability to be a difference-maker and Western Conference rivals are on high alert. There's already a hectic pace in the playoff-positioning race.

"He's a very good shooter and can one-time the puck very well, but he's also very creative with the puck and is always looking for [Jarome] Iginla on the other side," said Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford. "Especially on the power play, they both look for each other and are good shooters and playmakers, so it's kind of that double threat. "Cammalleri is tricky, too, so he's almost a triple threat.

"You have to have the awareness against him. He's not shy to shoot and our guys have to be smart and take away the lanes because his release is so quick. It's in the net before you know it."

bkuzma@theprovince.com

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