My dad tells a story of being on a flight with Kerry Fraser back in the early 90s. They got talking and Kerry shared a number of great stories. My dad asked “who is the hardest player in the league to officiate?”. His answer was Gary Roberts - a mean, strong, skilled player, who was always on the edge. He was a true power forward before that became a label.
Honourable mention goes to Pie for his leadership and physical presence in 2004, even though it was his final season. He finished with over 1000 career NHL games and was one of the veterans who moulded perfectly with Daryl Sutter to instill still a relentless work ethic in that team.
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Obviously Roberts, the Flames giving up on him for liability issues was sad, but really, it probably motivated him that much more to turn into the player he ended up being, the strict fitness and strength freak he was.
Honorable mention to Lowry.
Dave Lowry as the former captain, got sent down to the minors by Gilbert. He played 22 games down there in 2002, Sutter became coach,and he was back up.
He tore some internal muscles in a game January 2004.
He didn’t come back until the Wings series where he lasted one game, then had to sit a game, then played the rest of the games. He got the hard hat that game, and the next game, gave the hard hat to black ace Turek, who hadn’t played a game that playoffs yet.
He was inches away from being the first assist on Marcus Nilson’s Game 6 Ot SCF winner vs Tampa, where Khabibhulin has to look back as it almost sneaked through and would’ve taken the roof off the place.
Also, his intentional flip of the puck over the glass with 15 seconds left in the Ducks brawl, knowing that a whistle would allow Berube to come out of the box and exact some punishment on the Ducks, was also a highlight. 1915 mark
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Roberts in a landslide. one of my favorite Flames ever and when he was on his game (ie healthy) he was the closest thing to Iggy we've seen around here
Quinn- now that's interesting. Quinn and Roberts were near contemporaries- drafted one year apart- but barely overlapped- Quinn went roaring out of the gate as a teenager, actually led the team in regular season scoring in 85-86, but by playoff time was relegated to fourth line and PP duty..was gone early the next year for Bullard...Roberts on the other hand moved a bit more slowly out of junior, he was brought into the fray in the 86 finals when bodies were dropping like flies- he didn't play (Hull did) but I remember a pregame radio interview with him- he was the next man up
he donned 32 the next year , or some such number, while Quinn was still in the fold
took awhile to get going (I think he's part of the 'power forwards take longer' narrative that was popular for a while) but once he did ..woo boy
Didn’t Roberts score a hatty against Buffalo in his first game back after missing a year with a broken neck? My memory may be exaggerating the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure I’m close.
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Didn’t Roberts score a hatty against Buffalo in his first game back after missing a year with a broken neck? My memory may be exaggerating the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure I’m close.
I was at that game. Roberts is the type of player this organization has been missing for some time. He was the total package of skill, toughness, and leadership.
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Gary Roberts for sure. Still remember during the 1995-96 season when he came back and instantly turned our terrible season around and basically willed us into the playoffs. Then he gets injured and misses the playoffs and we get swept.. just shows how he was carrying that team.
Obviously Roberts, the Flames giving up on him for liability issues was sad, but really, it probably motivated him that much more to turn into the player he ended up being, the strict fitness and strength freak he was.
Oh was that why he left? I was still fairly young so maybe I wasn't quite up to snuff on all the details regarding his departure...but I thought he requested to play in the Eastern Conference because his back couldn't handle all the extra travel of a Western Conference team.
I thought he only had a couple years left at that point, I remember being a little salty that he ended up playing over a decade after that and remained an impact player, as I felt that meant he had exaggerated his pain just to get out of Calgary (not saying that's the case, it's just where my spurned feelings went as a lad). He was such a warrior.
These are great discussions. Thanks bingo and all others here who are contributing some amazing stories who like me have been following this team for their entire life
I had to vote for Roberts, but the Big Ern will always have a very special place in my heart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14
The brain says Roberts but the heart says McGrattan
When I think of McGrattan, I picture him wearing #16 rather than #10. Am I wrong on that?
From what I can tell, he wore #10 in his first stint with the team for 34 games in 2009-10 and #16 in his second stint for 103 games between 2012-13 and 2014-15.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
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Didn’t Roberts score a hatty against Buffalo in his first game back after missing a year with a broken neck? My memory may be exaggerating the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure I’m close.
It was his 2nd game. He scored one goal in his first game. He scored in 8 consecutive games upon his return and had 16 points in those 8 games.
Last edited by Buff; 04-05-2020 at 02:56 PM.
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Covid Jersey Vote - Best #10 Flames History
