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Originally Posted by kobasew19
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Bit of a long story, so here goes...
So at Easter-time 1992 my family stayed with a family in Red Deer. My dad was on a teacher exchange for a couple of weeks and we came along for the ride. Such an awesome time, I fell in love with Canada there and then. Amazing hospitality too.
The family we stayed with decided to buy me and my brother a welcome gift each. Being slap bang in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton, they bought one of us a Flames jersey, and the other an Oilers jersey. Being the older brother, I had first dibs on the jersey, and essentially just chose the jersey with the coolest logo. Turns out I made one of the best choices of my life.
I kind of watched from afar for a good few years. More of a passing interest, no real fanaticism. We never made it as far as visiting downtown Calgary itself when we were there (we only passed through on the way to Banff one weekend, and we also skirted the city for a weekend in Pincher Creek), and I've never been to the Saddledome. Once we were back in the UK, I searched to find NHL games on TV, but couldn't find any.
It wasn't until the 2004 Stanley Cup Final that I suddenly realised that the games were being televised over here on terrestrial TV (non-subscription), and that my team was playing in the final. From that moment, I was completely hooked.
I watched every game of that Tampa Bay series, getting up at 2am for every game with my 1992 jersey on, drinking a few beers before falling asleep and barely making it into work each day.
Especially with the internet, keeping up with Flames scores and news was getting easier. When the NHL TV rights got sold on in the UK, I subscribed to the various channels that were hosting it, and watched live every time they were on TV.
So the seeds were sown way, way back in the early 90s. But I've only been crazy about them since the cup run.
By this time I had also married into a family where my new brother-in-law was a Canuck fan from Kelowna. He lives over here now, so we pretty much talk hockey all day long, and I beat him in the fantasy hockey pool each year.
High moment - the whole of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final series, very nostalgic about it, and the moment I fell in love with hockey.
Low moment - game 7 against Anaheim in 2006.
Anyhoo... I've gone on too long about the Flames on a football thread, so I'll stop.
Summary... great times to be a Flames fan again. Awesome comeback last night. I wish I could come to the Saddledome sometime. It may happen one year
