[flylock shox]

Lest we forget why Freddie was so beloved:

This is how Freddie Brathwaite's National Hockey League career began in 1999:

It was midway through the 1998-99 season and the Calgary Flames were enduring an injury crisis, similar to what the St. Louis Blues are today. First, their goaltending starter, Ken Wregget, went down. Then his backup, Tyler Moss, was injured. Then the first call-up, J. S. Giguere, got hurt, as did the second call-up, Andrei Trefilov. A goaltender from the East Coast Hockey League, Tyrone Garner, came up, but struggled.

To find someone -- anyone -- who could dress as a backup one night, they brought in Igor Karpenko from their farm team in Saint John. And when he was stranded because of a snowstorm in Boston en route to a game in Pittsburgh, the team brought in a goaltender named Pavel Nestak, whom they needed to sign to a contract in order to have him play that night.

When they came home from that trip -- dispirited, shell-shocked and wary of what could possibly happen next -- the Flames looked across town and discovered Brathwaite, playing for Canada's national team. The Flames eventually signed Brathwaite as a free agent, thinking he could provide organizational depth in the minor leagues. He came to Calgary from Ottawa, where the national team was playing, only to pick up his equipment, but was quickly pressed into service. He then won his first game by shutting out the Dallas Stars, and by the time the rest of the goaltenders had recovered from their injuries, Brathwaite had essentially won the No. 1 job.

The man was a ray of light during an almost comically dark stretch. Not mentioned in the quote above, Freddie's win over the Stars ended an 8 game losing streak.

You had to take your heroes as they came back then.