From the Rogers Arena roar to the greenest seats in the league
Still remember that spring like it was yesterday. I'm a Flames man through and through, but my sister lives in Vancouver and I happened to be visiting her that May. Watched Game 5 against San Jose in a pub on Commercial Drive, and when Burrows scored in OT the whole block just erupted. Horns going till midnight, strangers hugging, some fella bought the room a round and wouldn't take a dime for it.
Back in my day we used to say a playoff run belongs to the whole city, and that spring proved it, blue and green everywhere, even the Lions Gate lit up. My sister kept her street horns for weeks afterwards, till the neighbours made her a polite deal 😄 What a time to be a hockey fan in this country, even from the wrong side of the Rockies.
Commercial Drive after Burrows scored... 🔥 I was 8, watching on the couch with my dad, and we ran out to the street yelling til midnight 😂 Even Flames fans get it, gotta respect that 💙💚
You don't abandon your own.
Back in the day I watched that whole run from a couch in Saskatoon with my old man on the phone after every game, and even 700 km away you could feel the city humming. The horns after Game 5 though, my neighbour had one bolted to his truck and leaned on it for a solid ten minutes, no shame at all 😄 Funny how a Bieksa bounce can make strangers hug on Granville Street, eh.
Seen it all, lads.
that commercial drive story hits home, kev. my own memory from that spring was my old man calling me after every round — he'd seen the cup final in '94 and said this group felt the same, and honestly he was right about the vibe. and jack, i hear you, but i'll take patient any day; back in my day we rushed a few young core groups and it never ended well 😉
Been here longer than some have followed.
Funny how the younger crowd needs "a round or two" - the 2011 bunch had half that city painting itself blue and green by the second round, horn blasts all night after the Sharks went down. I'll grant Jack one thing though: that group had earned its scars. Still, comparing vibes across eras is like comparing winter in Quebec City to a Vancouver drizzle, depends how you count it 😄
Watching that run from an IT support desk in Calgary was brutal, I'd sneak the game streams on a second monitor and blame "network issues" whenever I screamed 🤣 my boss was a Oilers fan too, worst supervisor of all time. Hold my pint, I paid for a Canucks jersey just to wear it ironically and it's somehow my favourite shirt now 😂
Came to laugh, stayed for life 🍿