Hockey is back, baby! The NHL Season kicks off tonight and one of the matches is a classic. The Montreal Canadiens are in Toronto to tangle with the Leafs. I’m a Habs guy, so all the hope for the Maple Leafs this season doesn’t have me very excited. My other team is the Calgary Flames. They’re in Van-City tonight, probably happy to escape the snowpocalypse which hammered Cow-Town the last couple of days.
It’s kind of strange to like both the Canadiens and the Flames, I know. Here’s how that came to be. When I graduated from Con College I got a placement in Calgary and ended up staying there for several years. When I arrived, I despised the Flames. After-all, they beat my Habs for the Stanley Cup in 1989. That devastated me as a kid. How could the Flames beat us!? Especially with Hakan Loob, the poor man’s Mats Naslund! Working in Calgary, especially in media, I was exposed to the Flames a lot. At first I started rooting for them just so we’d have something happy to talk about on the show. Then, their young team, led by Jarome Iginla, slowly won me over. They were so gritty and worked so hard, and everybody loves Jarome. So, it was official, after years of hating on the Flames, they became my official second favourite team. So much so, that I wrote a parody/tribute song during one of their playoff runs, set to the tune of the modern classic, “Ice Ice Baby”. My co-workers at Breakfast Television were the real MVPs for agreeing to be in the video. Enjoy, “Flames Flames Baby” … And I use the term “Enjoy” very loosely.
PS I still actively dislike Hakan Loob.