Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
That was inches...inches away from ending it, and we'd all be getting off at the re-named Marcus Nilson/Stampede Station 10 years later, to go to games.
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Maybe not even inches, maybe if the puck was tilted at a different angle and slips through... maybe, maybe, maybe! It's still so gut-wrenching to see how close that was.
For sure the loss of Shean Donovan in Game 6 was the key. Even within that game, we missed his speed. That line would cycle and cycle and beat opponents to pucks all over the ice and Darryl would follow that up with the Conroy line who could take advantage of the disarray. Once that 2nd line threat was removed, the Flames had a hard time taking momentum in that game. It's so weird that a plugger like Donovan could be the difference, but that's how well that guy played in those playoffs.
Off the top of my head, now that many are retired or in the twilight of their careers, this is the list of guys that probably never played better hockey than in this run:
Donovan
Nilson
Nieminen
Leopold
Iginla
Conroy
Saprykin
Clark
Kiprusoff
Regehr
Montador
arguably (had other good deep playoff runs):
Warrener
Ference
Commodore
Gelinas
I mean, you put all that together, and you get the collective sum being far more than the individual parts. That's a rare chance, and that's why it hurt so much to miss the opportunity.
What a fun team that was to get behind. All the talk about not being able to watch even now, that's baloney. Sure the last two games still ache, but the rest of it is just great to watch and brings back a lot of fantastic memories. It was a special time in Calgary.