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| Flames captain Jarome Iginla (second from right) celebrates with teammates after Martin Gelinas' OT winner started team on incredible journey through the 2004 playoffs |
If names such as Iginla or Kiprusoff are familiar to you, then that may be since they are the last remaining players from the famous Calgary Flames team of 2004. While the Flames fell short of capturing hockey's ultimate prize, the 2004 version captured the hearts of a hockey-mad nation minus a few fans of the Oilers in Edmonton. However justly or unjustly, the expectations on the Flames to win it all still hang like Damocles' Dagger over the heads of management, coaches, and players. Seven teams in the NHL reside in Canada, but in some way there is a national expectation that Calgary return to those days in 2004, when previously unknown players became national icons: From Craig Conroy and his famous "Green Helmet", which passed through the ranks as a token of appreciation to each game's "unsung hero", to Mike Commodore's shiny red wig which became a marketing boon throughout southern Alberta. From Jarome Iginla's lone prime-time feature interview on CBC's The National with Peter Mansbridge, to the lucky yet aged Martin Gelinas, whose series-winning goals throughout the playoffs kicked off celebrations and impromptu road hockey games in the Calgary and along its "Red Mile". Of course, who could forget coach Darryl Sutter and his famous post-game interviews; appearing laid back and enjoying the ride, Sutter had the Canadian media in his pocket, and the American media waiting patiently outside the arena? The "C of Red", the "beaver-tailing", and the live feed from the "Red Mile" still exist in numerous tribute videos on YouTube today.
How did such a team garner so much admiration and praise from a nation without a Stanley Cup winner since 1993 (Montreal Canadiens; go ahead, rub it in)? Yes, that was one reason, yet there were many others. Calgary's road to the postseason was not easy, as it finished in sixth place in the Western Conference that year. Their first series against the division rival and leaders Vancouver Canucks was a spirited, seven-game affair featuring emergency backstops, desperate comebacks, and ultimate overtime success in the penultimate game. Perhaps it was thanks to the first of Gelinas' series winners, which announced the arrival of the team on the national stage? After all, no one believed such a plucky team led by an old-fashioned and defensive-minded coach (Sutter), the first black team captain (Iginla), a player gone twenty-four years since winning his first Cup in 1990 (Gelinas, Edmonton Oilers), and a collection of retreads and unknowns could become the first team to topple three successive division winners in one playoff year (Vancouver (NW), Detroit (CEN), and San Jose (PAC)).
Then again, this was the classic Canadian story: A collection of hometown heroes and immigrants brought to one place in pursuit of the same dream, and along the way beat teams more advanced and talented in every position. This was not the story of the Calgary Flames, yet it was the story of the "Canada Flames" (That came from a Toronto Sun cartoon featuring the old Bell beavers Frank and George arguing over the latter's defection to the Calgary ranks).We remember what was great about the Calgary Flames of 2004, but we also remember the controversy. If the words "Kerry Fraser" mean something to Maple Leafs' supporters, then it means something just as heinous and cruel in the minds of Flames' fans who remember that year. Fans perceived bias when Fraser helped to gift game four to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, and to add further fuel to the fire the league dropped Fraser from his game six assignment, and put him back in for game seven. All was forgotten when young Oleg Saprykin notched the overtime winner in Game 5 in Tampa to give the Flames a 3-2 lead in the Cup final days later; with victory at home all but assured, CBC and ESPN Classic aired and re-aired select games from the Flames' first Stanley Cup-winning run in 1989. The series was over, the Cup was won, Iginla was MVP, all that remained was sixty minutes of skating around, two or three goals, and maybe a fight featuring Iginla and Bolts' star forward Vincent Lecavalier.
The NHL lockout of 2005 distorted our perception of hockey forever in this country. The 2004 Calgary Flames became the paragon of a begone era, when fans did not see players as millionaires fighting multimillionaire owners for money belonging to normal folk. Canadian NHL teams did play in the Cup final in subsequent years since then, but never captured the hearts of Canadians across the country or across social strata: Memories and mistrust about the lockout persisted when the 8th seeded '06 Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games, the low blow thuggery of the Ottawa Senators in '07 was never a hit with fans, or me for that matter, when they lost in five games to Anaheim, and the geographically detached and international squad from Vancouver played only two periods in the seventh game this past year in the 4-0 loss to the Bruins, which touched off disturbing images of destruction and riot in the streets of Vancouver. All the while, Calgary Flames players, coaches, and management came and went: Conroy, Commodore, Saprykin, Gelinas, Clark, Sutter, beaver-tailing, green helmets, and those red wigs are gone, and the unfortunate story of NHL draft bust Kris Chucko the next year furthered the demise of the Flames' momentum from 2004. Only Iginla and Kiprusoff remain as a paragon to those last days when hockey was more than a game, and not a business.
Today, there is a sense of 2004 and what it meant to the country. Maybe it was Sidney Crosby's gold medal winning goal in the 2010 Olympics that relegated those memories and expectations to the back of our minds, or perhaps it was a return to mediocrity as the Flames sit out the playoff picture in the Western conference? The now retired Craig Conroy sits in as an advisor to current GM Jay Feaster, who managed the Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004. Darryl Sutter's brother, Brent, now coaches the team, but for how much longer is anyone's guess given the current state of the team. Rumours persist about where Jarome Iginla will play hockey, and the aging Kiprusoff still holds down the starting goaltender job for the eighth straight year.
To this day, I never saw game six or seven of the 2004 Stanley Cup final. Sad but true, the few good memories I have of the 2004 Calgary Flames resonate in my mind. Had they won, everything I mentioned above would amount to only HALF of their accomplishments, but I would give it all back for Martin Gelinas to roof the puck over a laid out Khabibulin in overtime in Game 6 of the 2004 Cup final, because...
Written in memory of Mrs. Anna Ficych, 1945-2011
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