Gvitaly posted an interview with McGrattan not too long ago somewhere where he spoke about this brawl. Torts was an idiot that day for choosing to start his 4th line. McGrattan's line was being rewarded for their strong play, and the other lines were being embarrassed for their poor play in the previous couple of games. McGrattan stated that there was no way that he or anyone else would have just jumped the Sedins, and even asked when that has ever happened in the last 20 years out of the blue.
Torts was guilty of overthinking it. McGrattan did say: "Let's line brawl tonight", but he did not for a second think it was going to happen right at the start of the game, until he saw who Torts was starting.
The brawl was also the mark that launched these two teams in different trajectories - Flames shot up to the point that at the end of that season, Aaron Ward (as well as Cali_Flames_Fan) predicted that the Flames would make the playoffs the following season - and they were right. Vancouver went into a tailspin that season, Torts was fired, and they recovered somewhat, making the playoffs the following season (and being defeated by Calgary).
Fun times. The methods behind the scenes may indeed have been madness, but boy was that an easy team to cheer for, and so damn fun to watch.
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