Getting that Stanley Cup feeling in Calgary

Three years ago, I made a trip to Calgary to watch the Flames play the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I remarked about how different Canadian fans were from American fans and about the lack of enthusiasm and passion they seemed to exhibit.

This past Memorial Day weekend, which is not a holiday in Canada, I again took an Air Canada flight up to Calgary.

To get myself prepared for the trip, I went down memory lane and listened to the old disco hit, "Disco Inferno."

You remember that song... the one with the lyrics, "burn baby burning." It was the song that used to be played after every Flames goal.

(How times have changed. The new song for the Flames is "In the Dome," which is sung to the lyrics of "In the Club," by the rapper 50 Cent.)

In three years, Calgary has changed a lot.

I wasn't just going to see the Flames play the Tampa Bay Lightning. I was going to witness a Canadian hockey team playing for the Stanley Cup.

To be in the same place during the Stanley Cup Finals, in the country that is the birthplace of hockey, is, well... words can't describe it, but I'll do the best I can.

Imagine the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and the Olympics all rolled into one.

That's what being in a Canadian city during the Stanley Cup finals is like -- sort of.

From the moment I stepped off the flight from Los Angeles, I felt it.

Something was different about Calgary this time.

I lost count of how many red Calgary Flames jerseys I saw, whether they were worn by Calgarians coming home, wannabee Calgarians, airport staff, bus drivers or a cleaning lady wearing her jersey over her uniform and telling me, after I told her the reason why I was in Calgary, "Tampa Bay is a good team, but Jarome(Iginla) and our Flames will win it all. The Cup belongs in Canada."

Where else but Canada would you see one long block -- 17th Street South West to be exact -- called the "Red Mile," because of all the bars, homes, shops and people decked out all in red.

Calgary even has its own version of the Red Sea, but in a play on words, everybody wearing red has been affectionately termed the "C" of red. (The C stands for the city of Calgary by the way.)

As I couldn't even get close to standing or sitting in the Saddledome this time, I did the next best thing -- put on my big red sweatshirt and joined the C of red at a pub with four big TV screens.

The color red was even in fashion at the pub, which ironically was an Irish pub called Ceili (pronounced Kaylee's.)

Yes, even there the bartenders were wearing either Flames jerseys or T-shirts.

In spite of the fact that the home team was losing, and would go onto lose 1-0, spirits were high as patrons of Ceili's chanted the three famous words heard all over Calgary now, "GO FLAMES GO!"

Calgarians still have faith in the Flames and on more than one occasion during the evening, I was reminded how long it had been since the Flames won the Stanley Cup. (It was 1989.)

I also was gently, and not so gently, reminded about the last time a Canadian team was in the finals and how great for hockey it would be if a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup and kept it "home" where it belonged.

I even had to smile to myself about that one. (I feel the same way about my Yankees, but that's another story for another time.)

Watching and experiencing a hockey game, especially the Stanley Cup Finals, is an experience no hockey fan should miss, even if you can't get tickets and have to watch in a sports bar.

It's even more of an experience if a Canadian team happens to be playing.

Thank you, Calgary for letting this American hockey fan be part of the "C" of red, if only for one night.