
06-02-2004, 12:02 AM
[quote="Airborne Butters":f0b16]as good a team as Flames are, they're play dirty. [/quote:f0b16]
Examples? Calgary plays within the rules. And when they don't they get a penalty. If Tampa is too small or not physical enough, that’s their problem.
[quote:f0b16]And gotta love when the Calgary fans boo American anthem[/quote:f0b16]
I take offense to that. I have been to 3 playoff games in Calgary this year. 2 against Detroit, and 1 against San Jose. Obviously the American anthem was played at all three games.
Myself along with pretty much everyone else in the building sang along with the Star Spangled Banner. I know all the words and when it’s played I show respect for ones country. I don't care who it is.
There will always be bad apples, as I’m sure some people have problems with US people/politics/whatever, and as I’m sure some people in Tampa have the same thing with Canada.
Point is, anywhere you go in the entire world, and you have a team playing in a different country, people tend to get nationalistic. So don't think that Tampa is free and clear of this problem.
Secondly there was far more people singing and cheering the US anthem than booing. And by far more I mean 98 or 99% of people. Calgary has the highest number of US citizens in Canada living here due to work and things like that. I had at one point 3 neighbours on my block that were American.
I can guarantee 100% that the anthem was not booed in the way your talking. In fact, I really don't know what you were listening to because on the CBC broadcast to me it seemed like everyone was cheering. Maybe on the ABC broadcast they dubbed in booing or something to turn Americans against Canadians. Maybe it’s a scene out of Canadian bacon or something.
Anyway, I don't know why you said that. Because it obviously didn't happen. Calgarians pride themselves in being classy kind and caring people. We've had 40,000+ pack the streets after flames games without incident. No riots, no vandalism, nothing. I reiterate that the booing you say that happened did not happen.
[quote:f0b16]and cheer when when a Tampa player gets cross checked[/quote:f0b16]
As for that, its hockey. Do you not think that if a Calgary player was cross checked in Tampa the crowd wouldn’t cheer? This is an emotional game. Canadians as we know are the most emotional for hockey. We live breathe and die by hockey. Every day it's hockey for some of us. When we see our team win, we cheer. When we see our team lose, we cheer louder. If you want to judge the fans here, then come here and go to a game. Then maybe your opinion on the people here would have some merit. You don't have any idea how much this games means to us. You have no idea. There may be a few flags and banners and people in jerseys in Tampa, but in Calgary its nothing but Flames. Cars are painted with the flaming C. Everyone is in flames jerseys on game days, people line up outside of bars 8 hours before game time to get a seat. Tens of Thousands pack the streets after every win. Thousands even come out when we lose. This game means everything to us, so you can understand why we cheer when we put the big hits on, regardless if it’s a penalty or not. What do you want us to do? Boo Clark for his cross check? We're not going to turn on our players.
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OK, now onto my analysis: Great game. That was intense. That game could have gone the distance, that’s for sure. Calgary has lots of chances, but couldn't capitalize. The 5 on 3 was how do I say this...lets just say I don't think 5 on 3's should happen in the Stanley cup finals for any team especially both at the same time so its 2 full minutes of 5 on 3. I would say the same thing if Tampa got 2 men down, so I’m not being a hypocrite. I would much rather see the players decide the outcome of the game without outside interference. What I would have liked to happen was Commodore's penalty been called, Clark as well, but whoever it was Clark cross checked could have been thrown in for the retaliation. It might have been sarich, but not sure. This goal decided the outcome of the game, and it’s too bad. I don't like even up calls later down the road, because a guy gets it for a love tap. But I really would like to have seen the Tampa player in the box for retaliation. I would have had no problem with that. Because once you put a team down 2 men against Tampa, there is a sure goal. There is nothing a team can do against Tampa with 2 extra men. I'll stop there and say that Calgary had plenty of opportunities to tie it up. Man, were there some close calls. We should have gotten at least one goal. You can't win games without goals.
Calgary will win games 5 and 6.
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