[calgARI]

After two days of traveling from Philadelphia, I am now in Calgary for Game 7. As Friday’s Game 6 disappointment unfolded, I started to reflect on over three decades supporting this team. Checking the newspaper two days after games for the score because the mountain time starts wouldn’t finish early enough to make print. Listening to Peter Maher call games on 66 CFR through the original nhl.com website. The games against the New York Rangers I could actually watch on television. In late 90’s Fire On Ice (what later became CalgaryPuck) revolutionized my ability to interact with the team. Then DirectTV and streaming and then soon one’s team could be at their fingertips.

Growing up in Ithaca, NY always made me a very random Flames fan. I remember looking at a hockey card in the early 1990’s and just feeling immediately that they were my team. The local team to cheer for was Cornell University and the illustrious college careers of Joe Nieuwnedyk and Kent Manderville saw their first NHL stops in Calgary. And so within the sea of Sabres and Rangers fans, it was the Calgary Flames.

In 1997, I attended my first Flames game, traveling down to the old Meadowlands to see them take on the New Jersey Devils. It was the first time I ever met another Flames fan and I was surprised at how many there were. As I got older, the Flames seemed to be getting worse, to say nothing of the declining state of economics for the NHL in Canada. So it was not much of a surprise when the infamous announcement came following the 98-99 season that ownership declared that 14,000 season tickets needed to be sold by July 1 or the team would be sold. I had never been Calgary or anywhere in Canada, but at 14 years old I took my Bar Mitzvah money and purchased two season tickets to help. People of course thought it was crazy, including the person from the Flames ticket office (Mike Franco) who spoke with me on the phone. I felt normal and necessary to me. Not long after I purchased the season tickets, I received a phone call from George Johnson of the Calgary Herald and I told him I had no intention of using these season tickets to see game, because I lived thousands of miles away and was too young to make it happen. But I did say that the next time they made the playoffs I would make the pilgrimage.

More pain and many years later it was 2004 and that story is intimately familiar with all Calgary Flames fans. But for me, it was another level even beyond. I made the trip out to Calgary for the first time for Game 6 against Vancouver. I was treated well by the organization and treated to a legendary game (sitting in a box with some of Jarome Iginla’s family) where the Flames rallied from 4-0 down only to lose in triple overtime. What happened two days later is well known, though I watched that Game 7 on television at my parents’ house in Ithaca, NY. Just over a week later my dad and I went to Detroit for Game 5, the 1-0 win on Craig Conroy’s tally, and also the game when Steve Yzerman took a puck in the face that helped bring his career to an end. And a month after that I was in Calgary for the whole Stanley Cup Final, attending Games 3, 4, and 6, just 25 feet from Martin St. Louis when he scored in triple overtime. I lived on the Red Mile during that week, just my second trip to the mystical place of Calgary in what was perhaps the most mystical time in the organization’s history. We know the rest.

The next several years I made some games on the road, but not until 2015 did I make the trek back from the northeastern US to Calgary for Game 6 against Vancouver. Low and behold, the day of travel from Philadelphia through Denver put me in Calgary for 18 total hours, which included the very familiar rally from a deep hole (3-0 down) and the jubilation of winning a series on home ice.

Now in 2022, after more years of disappointments and falling short (to say nothing of a year when we all quarantined and were restricted to watching on television) and I am pleased to say I have just landed back in Calgary for my fourth trip ever, to attend Game 7 this evening. I drove 8 hours from Philadelphia to Toronto yesterday and took a 6:30 AM flight to Calgary this morning. Incredibly, since 1989 the Calgary Flames have had precious few opportunities to clinch a series, much less clinch a series at home. Even if it is just my fourth ever trip, tonight will be the fourth series clinching opportunity for me to see in-person – 2004 Game 6 vs Vancouver, 2004 Game 6 vs Tampa Bay, 2015 Game 6 vs Vancouver. And today marks just the tenth day of my entire life in Calgary, Alberta. It feels good to be home for this special opportunity.