Why I Left

Oh yeah, I used to write about hockey, didn't I?

It seems convenient that I write about hockey, when we are in the middle of another NHL lockout, yes? o_O I recall last season, when during the all-star break, I suddenly stopped updating my hockey blog, and didn't give a reason why. There are a few reasons I wish to tell you:

1. Too many suspensions: The subject on everyone's lips last season was the daily controversial hockey hit, and whether such illegal body checks warranted four or six game suspensions depending on the player, and I really did not want my blog to become a jumping off post for rants and ANGRY WORDS SPELT WITH ALL CAPS. In my hometown, there is a daily radio talk show dedicated to hockey, and almost everyday there would be some heated argument over another blown call by a referee, another player injured with a concussion, another suspended player given way less than everyone thought he deserved, another Zapruder-like film study, and another case of psycho-analysis of the aggressor and his "intent". Entering that debate never interested me; yes, I did write about illegal hockey hits and suspensions in prior posts, but I didn't want to regurgitate the same old stuff day after day, so I decided to stop altogether unless something interesting (different) occurred.
2. Conspiracy, conspiracy: I always thought teams played for "not to lose" on an annual basis, so when three-point games became the norm I didn't feel like writing about that conspiracy theory of match fixing all over again: Guarantee your one point, don't break your back trying to score in five minutes of overtime, and throw your goalie under the bus because you didn't get the "bonus point". What bonus point? o_O There are two points to win in every game; how does the second point become the bonus point? It's still two points. If a win in regulation time was worth three points, then...great, I did it again! -_- I put half my audience to sleep AGAIN!
3. Refs under orders? One NHL team that has no owner, no sustainable market for hockey, and no fan base in a town with no money to support its professional sports teams or stadiums is in the playoffs, while another NHL team plays in the second largest media market in the United States, and always benefited from favourable calls and non-calls since The Gretzky Trade (Yes, Kerry Fraser, I am talking about you). Which teams did I allude to in the previous sentence? Which teams met in last year's Western Conference Final? Which team won that playoff series off of a blown call (again)? Which team won the Stanley Cup last year?
4. Stupid, stupid, stupid: Why is Winnipeg still in the Southeast division?!

I have other reasons for not updating this blog, but those are the first four that came to mind. Hockey is a great game, and as a Canadian I will always love it. I might write something about it, now and then, but with other blogs to write, and work I don't have too much time to spend talking about collective bargaining agreements, and referee biases towards struggling NHL teams in the sun-belt. Maybe it is time to move on.

Seriously, it's not that difficult: Winnipeg in the Northwest, Minnesota in the Central, Nashville in the Southeast, HELLO?!

The Forgotten Fire: The 2004 Calgary Flames

Flames captain Jarome Iginla (second from right) celebrates with teammates after Martin Gelinas' OT winner started team on incredible journey through the 2004 playoffs

Last Saturday, the Calgary Flames defeated their provincial rivals, the Edmonton Oilers, 3-0 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta. Captain Jarome Iginla scored two of the Flames' three markers while goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff shut out the likes of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Smyth, and Jordan Eberle. Calgary takes their regular season best three-game win streak into Nashville to take on the Predators tonight at 8:00pm ET.
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.

I was on a flight with my family from Toronto to London, England, when the Air-Transat pilot and captain announced to passenger sitting in the sardine can with wings that the Lightning won game six in overtime. He did not mention Gelinas' apparent Cup-winner, which my friend Megan saw cross the line as she was at the game just a few rows up behind then Tampa Bay netminder Nikolai Khabibulin. No one knows what discussion took place when the referees phoned the NHL offices in Toronto as they reviewed the goal. Future CGI interpretations of the event show a black cylindrical object stopping outside the goal, but no concrete footage of the Gelinas' game six overtime winner exists (Or can be found: DUH DUH DUH!). Back in Tampa Bay for game seven, the Lightning vanquished Calgary, who were still dismayed and disillusioned over the league taking their championship away. However, all the expectations Canada heaped on the Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup suddenly fell on the doorstep of the Calgary Flames organization.

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...

They deserved it.

Written in memory of Mrs. Anna Ficych, 1945-2011

Losing to Winners: Me versus the Montreal Canadiens

One Christmas, the Wood family received a table hockey set. It took hours to construct, the half-foot long stickers of the 21 NHL teams pasted on each side were slanted, and the miniature scoreboard attached on top soon fell off and disappeared within a matter of weeks. The best part about the construction was peeling the stickers of the smiling, sparkly toothed, helmet-less, hockey players, attaching the stickers to the plastic wafers, and sticking them onto the metal pegs that danced in their saw-cut groves. Once pucks when behind the net, they stayed there until you called a faceoff next to the mask-less, smiling goalkeeper. The puck would also fly out of the arena causing another stoppage, and another faceoff at center 'ice'.

As months and years passed, I took over that table hockey set. I would broadcast games, and imagine NHLers were playing for the Stanley Cup every night on my kitchen table. In the imagination, however, there was one hindrance: The teams of stickers featured two teams from the same country, two teams with long and storied histories, and while one was my favourite the other was a winner. That favourite team was the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the winning team was the Montreal Canadiens.

Whenever I played table hockey with my older sister, two things always happened:

1. She was always Montreal.
2. She always won.

It was "death and taxes" to me, and as her center scored goal after goal against my "Johnny Bower", and then "Felix Potvin" who played without a mask, I could never figure out why my Leafs were always so...bad! The history books I read, as I grew in interest for the game of hockey, told a similar story in the list of Stanley Cup Champions printed near the back of those books. The Toronto Maple Leafs were winners, and so was Montreal; I liked knowing the Leafs were a good team, and won plenty of Stanley Cups in their history. Then, however, the words "Toronto Maple Leafs" stopped appearing in the column of more recent winners. Words like "Boston Bruins", "Philadelphia Flyers", "New York Islanders", and "Edmonton Oilers" filled the column of Cup champions. However, two words persisted and remained a fixture on that list: Those "Montreal Canadiens".

I wasn't losing to my sister Grace-Anne, I was losing the puck to Larry Robinson, who passed to Jean Beliveau as he breezed over the line. He would pass to Rocket Richard as he blazed down the wing with that trademark glare, and make an unbelievable pass to Guy Lafleur, who won score before my plastic Leaf players could do anything - except smile -_-. On the odd offensive chance, I would be stonewalled by Patrick Roy one game, Jacques Plante the next game, maybe Georges Vezina the week after! My vision of a two-inch tall plastic version of Ken Dryden standing over his goal stick on the table hockey set before me also angered me to no end. Perhaps Les Habs' success on the ice reached my table hockey set as well? I didn't know for sure, because I always played as the Leafs, and I could never turn my back on my team.


With a new computer came NHL 97 by EA Sports, and I could play as any team and any player in any type of game I desired. Of course, the memories of that old table hockey set still linger whenever those Montreal Canadiens do something related to victory, or my Canadiens-loving friends remind me that their most recent Cup Memories are preserved on colour film, and not on black-and-white 8mm reels (they include cigarette commercials! o_O). As I get older, I look for any reason to get excited about my Leafs; any victory is the victory of me. I was that loser by the water cooler at the paint store, where I worked for eight years, and would get hit day after day by my Habs-loving co-worker about how my Leafs stink (Hi Michael). Younger kids in my church, who love the Canadiens, can relive the 1993 Stanley Cup moments on DVD and Blu-Ray discs, unfortunately. Over the years, however, the hatred I should feel for Les Habitants developed into acceptance and respect.


I don't know the moment it happened, but as the Leafs continued to lose and the Canadiens continued to find victory in improbable situations I discovered I liked them, and had brief moments where I cheered for them (Blasphemy, I know). In time, I found a new team to loathe and despise: The Scum from Ottawa with their pink satin and white lace jerseys. A collection of low-blow all-stars, who think 2-on-1 fights and powerplays are the only times they can score, supported by former Leaf fans that grew impatient with the losing but were too proud to join the ranks of "Les Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge". Evil Alfie running Darcy Tucker, the most gentlemanly player in the game, from behind and not getting a penalty because the Scum paid off the referees like they always do...! To them I say: 1927.

Oops, tangent...where was I? Oh yea, Canadiens.

In the opening NHL regular season game in Toronto, my Leafs defeated the visiting Montreal Canadiens 2-0 at the Air Canada Center. The victory did not set off a firestorm of street dancing, confetti tossing, and the Cup parading down Yonge Street Torontonians usually do after every win, but this does add another chapter to the already storied history between these two great teams in the storied history of Canada. It also adds give me bragging rights for at least one hour to all my friends who support the Canadiens; too bad they can't see me gloating behind all their Stanley Cup banners :(