From the Other Side

My focus of this blog is the Flames but I had the opportunity to attend yesterdays game as a fan of the opposite team.  I was born and raised in Toronto, lived there until I moved to Calgary in 2004 and still bleed Blue and White (only when they play the Flames).  I love the city of Calgary and the Flames are my adopted team and so with that said…

What an atmosphere… I was in the 2nd level behind the Flames Attack Zone (so I got to see Jonas Gustavsson twice) and the Dome was literally a mix of blue and red.  I’m starting to really see the true nature of Flame fans and it was something else.

My thoughts on this game were what I expected.  The Flames were playing a solid game and so were the Leafs except for their usual 3-5 minute lapse in play, which in the end, caused their demise.  I believe that the Leafs can hang with the best of them but what separates them from Great Teams is that 3-5 minutes of play where they’re giving pucks away in their own end and leaving their D men to fend for themselves.

Nigel Dawes, Daymond Langkow, Craig Conroy, Jarome Iginla, Curtis Glencross, Dustin Boyd, Brandon Prust…etc. They all play a solid two way game where they help out the Defence with their stick work and in your face kind of play… what I noticed the Maple Leafs doing was standing around and waiting for an outlet that would never come… If I was to judge the Leafs on this one game, I wouldn’t be able to stomach Phil Kessel just wating for a ripe cherry pick on the opposite Blue Line, Mr. Sutter would never stand for a player like that (Calling Kristian Husselius?!)

One thing the Flames will need to do is not rely on Kipper to stand on his head to keep them in the game.  I like how they played in front of McElhinney the other night because he didn’t have to stand on his head, just make key saves when called upon…

Finally, being a Leaf fan in the Dome was awesome… maybe it was because we really can’t boast about alot but I found that the Fans weren’t obnoxious like Canuck or Oiler fans but a classy bunch of people who will always root for their team no matter what.  We were loud but I was humbled as to how much louder the Flame fans were in the end!

Now back to reality of swimming the C of Red!

Always a Pleasure, Naoto