Look at 'em go

Look at 'em go

The Calgary Flames have really picked the right time to peak - right now. They are playing amazing hockey - not supertalented hockey like the early 80's Oilers, but tough, hard checking, grinding, hard-working hockey. They have skilled players to be sure, and Jarome Iginla in particular has shone throughout the playoffs. And having a hot goaltender is pretty much a given at this level of the playoffs - right now, Mikka Kiprusoff is the only player with a real shot at taking the Conn Smythe trophy from Iginla, if they win three more games.

And the city has caught on fire. We haven't even been in the playoffs for eight years, and the last time the Flames won a series was in '89. Thousands of fans went to see the game on Monday, on the Jumbotron in the Saddledome. Each of the series wins has led to a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere on 17th avenue, with drunken party girls flashing their breasts for anyone with a digital camera and internet access.

There are more ... wholesome manifestations of the Flames effect on this city. Everywhere you look, there are cars with one square foot C flags attached to the windows. Business people downtown in Bow Valley Square wear Flames jerseys (with ties and dress shirts visible underneath). On game days, everybody is wearing red.

This late in the playoffs, the Red Mile on 17th avenue fills up after every Flames win. Imagine thousands of people, all wearing red, milling about and high-fiving each other, partying in the streets. That has happened several times already these playoffs; surpisingly, there have been only a handful of arrests. If the Flames should win the cup, then tens of thousands of people will be milling about on one street - there were thirty thousand after the Detroit win.

A win in four straight (highly unlikely) or in six games (much more likely) would be a win in Calgary itself; expect fifty to a hundred thousand people on the Red Mile. I've been in Edmonton for the street parties for four Stanley Cup wins, and I am really looking forward to a win here.