[sureLoss]

https://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey...-win-over-wild

PURPLE DRINK GETTING OVER

No one can pinpoint its origin or when it started.

All they know is they have to keep it up.

Johnny Gaudreau will first take a sip out of his Gatorade bottle — always ‘purple’ in flavour.

Then, being a good teammate, he’ll squirt some into Sean Monahan’s mouth. Then, another quick squirt into Elias Lindholm’s mouth.


Whenever the first line scores a goal, this is what they do. Their habitual exercise has gone viral, to the point of it being made into gifs, Sportsnet highlight clips, and photos circulating on social media.

“I don’t even know how it started,” Lindholm said with a chuckle on Thursday prior to the Calgary Flames clash versus the Minnesota Wild. “But after that, it seems to be going pretty good for us lately. Everyone is scoring. It’s a fun thing and I’ve seen it popping up on Instagram and Twitter lately, it’s pretty funny.”

But it’s not always restricted to the top line.

When Matthew Tkachuk put his finishing touches on the Flames’ game-tying marker on the man advantage Tuesday at Columbus, cameras turned to the benches which showed Gaudreau offering his fellow comrade a sip.

“I get to sneak my way in there on a powerplay goal or something like that,” Tkachuk said. “When you get a goal, Johnny rewards the guys with a little shot of Gatorade.”

Let’s be clear, however. It MUST be Gaudreau’s specific bottle on the bench.

And it must be purple.

“Tastes real good,” said Monahan with a shrug. “I don’t know how it started. Johnny has a special bottle and I’d always try and take it. Whenever he scores or, I guess, our line scores, he gives us all a squirt . . . now, every time our line is in on a goal, we all get a squirt.”

But . . .

“Sometimes he forgets,” Monahan continued. “And I let him know we all need a squirt. I guess you could say it’s superstitious but it’s fun. You’re scoring goals and you’ve gotta enjoy it.”

In fact, heading into Thursday’s game against the Wild, they had accounted for 42 of the Flames’ 100 goals scored this season.

Lindholm added to the total, netting his 14th of the season in the second period on a great heads-up rush by Gaudreau to put the Flames up 1-0.

Sure enough . . .

“It’s a good taste, too,” Lindholm said with a grin. “It’s good that we keep doing it.

“I don’t know what he’s putting in there but it’s working.”