Worst Moment As A Flames Fan

[Circa89]

October 2, 1999
Smith named Flames captain

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CP) -- Veteran NHL defenceman Steve Smith has been named the 10th captain in the 20-year history of the Calgary Flames.
Smith has played in 14 seasons in the NHL and has been with the Flames for the past two seasons.
The new Flames captain came out of retirement in August 1998 and played his first season with the Flames recording 15 points and 80 penalty minutes in 69 games during the 1998-99 campaign.


To top it off we had Grant Fuhr in Net!

We were so bad, the best thing about this team was reminiscing about the beating the oilers and When smith scored on Fuhr, now they were mere shadows of their former selves and were our CAPTAIN and STARTING GOALIE??!!!!!

This was the worst, the darkest of days, the lowest of lows.

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by Locke

Thats an opposite of 'Worst Moment!'

Getting Conny back? That was awesome!

Yes it was awesome but it never should have happened in the first place.

Of course if the Flames kept Conroy then they may not have acquired Langkow. Do the Flames beat the Ducks in 06 with Conroy instead of Langkow? We will never know.

[FurnaceFace]

04 was the best of times and worst of times. You knew leaving game 6 it was over. Numb from the horrible tripping/pick play.

Another horrible moment was during the young bums era. 0-0 draw against Washington. Terrible game made more terrible by the guy beside us yamming on through the entire game...Zuluking, who invited that dude anyway?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

You are right about Conroy. I do seem to remember Conroy jumping on the guaranteed contract from LA too, and am not sure if the Flames were plodding due to Sutter or owners.

Almost nobody was signing big free agents at that point because nobody knew what the system would be out of the impending lockout. LA took a chance and signed Conroy, but I don't blame the Flames for waiting.

[DeZoE]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Slightly off topic. Worst sports moment. Period.

Spoiler!

13th man. That was by far the worst sports related day of my life. In fact it was quite a bit worse than a whole bunch of non-sports related terrible events/days of my life.

Bought a ticket at the last minute, figured I'd be crazy to not attend the GC of my most cherished of all sports teams in my home city. And I lived about a 15 min drive from McMahon, just up crowchild. Went down, got a ticket for $100 in section N or M.

What a glorious 55 minutes of football that was. Give or take that amount of time. Right up until Durant threw that pick.

The section I was sitting was THE endzone it happened in. It all happened right in front of me. I swear I was the only person in my section to see the flag instantly. I didn't cheer for a single second. But the whole rest of the people around me went nuts and started jumping up and down, hugging. These two young ladies, about my age, in front of me were hugging and crying.

I just stood there pointing muttering to myself how there was a flag. And I knew it was against the Riders (though I figured it was procedure or offside, not too many men).

I can still hear that ###### randorf (i think) announce the MVP and hand over the trophy in my mind. And the associated image is of the intersection around 24th ave because I had left the stadium well before then. In fact my seat was on an aisle that allowed me to walk right out of the stadium as soon as the second kick split the uprights.

To this day 2007 and 2013 don't fully wipe clean the horror. I was at both the West Final in Calgary and the Grey Cup in Regina in 2013 and 2009 still hurts man, still hurts.

This is me right now by the way:

Spoiler!

I was in Regina for that game. We were in the Earls on Albert St and the place erupted, then was silent. And I mean silent. I've never seen a packed lounge so quiet before in my life. When we were driving back to my girlfriends parents place there was absolutely no one on the streets. What a difference a win would have made for the city and lounge tabs......

[joejoe3]

When they traded olli jokinen in 09-10, and then signed him as a FA for 2 more years.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by joejoe3

When they traded olli jokinen in 09-10, and then signed him as a FA for 2 more years.

I loved that...no I didnt.

"Maybe he got better..." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- Management. Probably.

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Almost nobody was signing big free agents at that point because nobody knew what the system would be out of the impending lockout. LA took a chance and signed Conroy, but I don't blame the Flames for waiting.

Agree only a few teams were signing free agents although a quick search found the following:

2004: Phoenix Coyotes sign Brett Hull and Petr Nedved, Pittsburgh Penguins sign Mark Recchi, Colorado Avalanche sign Vincent Damphousse, Philadelphia Flyers sign Mike Knuble.

In hindsight the Flames should have re-signed him. It was a player who had chemistry with Iginla, wanted to stay in Calgary and signed a reasonably priced contract.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Agree only a few teams were signing free agents although a quick search found the following:



In hindsight the Flames should have re-signed him. It was a player who had chemistry with Iginla, wanted to stay in Calgary and signed a reasonably priced contract.

It's my understanding that going into the lockout, the owners were not willing to spend any more money until they knew what the next CBA would look like.

Anyway…

For me, the worst of being a Flames fan can be summarized in four words:

Doug Risebrough, general manager.

I remember feeling bewildered (and a little bit betrayed) when Cliff Fletcher quit the team, and sore as hell when he popped up as the new GM of the Leafs. Then, instead of actually going out and hiring a replacement with some know-how, the Flames hired a cipher as team CEO and gave the GM job to Risebrough, simply because he was already on the payroll.

And the very first thing the new GM did was show up at the draft and waste a first-round pick on Niklas Sundblad. Nobody had ever heard of the kid; his stats in Sweden the previous year were basically zilch – 4 points in 39 games for AIK. But Risebrough told the media that he wasn't worried about Sundblad's skill, because he was a Swede. Evidently the man had never heard that there are bad hockey players in Sweden, the same as any other country.

When he flubbed the Gilmour arbitration, and then gutted the team in a desperate effort to give Gilmour away for less than nothing… well, I couldn't say it was unexpected. Though again, I remember being bewildered before I realized just how epically awful the trade was.

Fast forward to the summer of '95. Another first-round exit to another inferior team, and somebody had to be fired. Risebrough fired Dave King to save his own arse. Then Joel Otto went to Philly as a free agent, Robert Reichel bolted for Frankfurt, and Kelly Kisio retired – three of the team's top four centres. You'd think even Risebrough would have the smarts to lock up the one good C remaining in the system; but no, he let Nieuwendyk walk, too.

Then he got fired. And of course the owners still couldn't be bothered to go out and hire a GM, so they gave the job to Al Coates, because he was already on the payroll…

[codynw]

The game against the Flyers on November 27, 2016.

[codynw]

When Wideman was signed to a 5 year contract with a NMC.

[Calgary_81]

nm

[Huntingwhale]

The day Gaudreauvertime joined this forum and almost single-handedly turned a fan favourite into a ''greedy'' player that had some on CP almost turning against Gaudreau. He then lied about teaching CEO's what they know, lied about being a Flames fan, clearly had some other sketchy ulterior motive that to this day was never really revealed, only to disappear once the season started.

I see he's in the sin bin now and still lurks. Some say that CP started turning into an HF-like gong show the past couple months. I can trace it back to the day he joined.