Growing up in the late 80s/early 90s Theo was my hero. My dad used to take me to the Dome every couple of months and we'd watch and wait for Theo's next shift. In that shift Theo would change the entire momentum of the game: he'd go into the corners to get the puck, circle in the neutral zone to build up speed and fly down the off-wing and often snipe the top corner. There were 5 or 6 years where he could have played on any team in the league. By the end of his tenure in Calgary he was the Flames.
I was at his 'homecoming' game when he came back with the Avs. I was sat 4 seats from the Avs' players bench. Theo was in a terrible state of mind and responded very poorly to the crowd. He was about 5 feet away from a 15 year-old yours truly and he was cursing and jeering at the crowd. It was pretty shameful behaviour on his part, but some of the crowd were equally shameful back to him. His main jibe at the crowd was that we were all *expletive*s for supporting such a joke of an organisation.
If he was behaving like that to the crowd I can only imagine what his behavior was like through the long protracted contract struggles & trade situation which had inevitably arisen in the financial climate of the NHL at the time. Safe to say that some ownership & management could still have a very sour taste in their mouths from the whole Fleury ordeal.
From a fan's perspective I would like to see #14 up in the rafters but I can understand why an organisation might not want to be associated with his off-ice issues and demons.
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