In 1980, when the Flames came to Calgary, it was so cool. Reggie Lemelin lived across the street from me and I found out because my friend's mom worked at the bank where he opened an account. We were the first kids to visit his house and he autographed my hockey stick before playing a game for the Calgary Flames. He also gave me an autographed picture that looked like this:
Later in the season, I learned Bobby MacMillan lived a few blocks away and I visited his house a few times, bringing friends along to get autographs. He was very friendly and accomodating. I was very sad when he was traded the next season.
At the end of the season, in the playoffs, after sweeping the Blackhawks in the first round, the Flames were up against the heavily favoured Philadelphia Flyers who sported names like Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Ken Linesman, Reggie Leach and with Pete Peters in net. The Flames were up 3-1. They lost game 5 in Philadelphia and came home for game six. Everyone thought that they had to win game six at home, that there was no way they could win game seven in Philadelphia as it was the most feared place to play in all of hockey. Well, they lost game six and went on to game seven into the belly of the beast and won 4-1! My friend down the block and I made a banner and went to the airport to great our heros! It was awesome. I got autographs from most of them. Willie Plett walked through the fans refusing to sign any. In spite of this, I still liked our goon who could score 39 goals. Here's a picture for Plett from that series:
The semi-finals saw unknown rookie Dino Ciccarelli score 14 goals and 21 playoff points and discarded the Flames. They just didn't have enough fight left in them after beating the Flyers. The next year, when the Flames were struggling, I called into John Henderson's hockey talk radio show and said the Flames should trade Nilsson for Ciccarelli. He scoffed at such an idea. History proved I was right - even being just a kid. Though our eventual Nilsson trade turned out ok.
The 80s were awesome. The Flames were bad for a couple years, but then Bob Johnson was hired and it all turned around. The Flames were the first to scout and sign college free agents and wound up with guys like Jamie Mccoun, Eddy Beers and Joel Otto. They drafted exceptionally well. After being hammered by Edmonton and hearing how great the Oilers were year after year, we stood up and knocked them out in 1986. Many of the Hockey Night in Canada crew hated the Flames for it. Howie Meeker was probably the most biased in his love for the Oilers and hatred for the Flames. 1987 and 1988 were great regular seasons with very disappointing playoffs. 1989 we finally did it and it was a tremendous relief.
Since 1989, it has mostly been downhill, with a few blips. 2004 was awesome. Today team shows some promise and is actually a contender, which we haven't seen many times since 1989. It is nothing like the 1980s where passion was such a big part of hockey. Now it is systems and rivals train with each other in the off-season and it is not near as fun. Systems might be better and the players are in better shape, but it doesn't replace the passion we saw. The Flames players hated the Oilers more than the fans did. I don't think that is true today.
