Atlanta Flames. Yes They Did Exist

On Thursday night, the Calgary Flames will travel to Atlanta to play the Thrashers. In that game the Flames will be the away team. There was a time though, when the Flames called Atlanta home. Back in a time when disco and punk ruled the music scene, bell bottoms and afro haircuts were in style, and cellphones were only a pipe dream. With that in mind here is a brief condensed history of the Atlanta Flames.

The city of Atlanta were granted an NHL franchise, and began play in 1972 along with the New York Islanders. The team was named after the burning of Atlanta by General William Sherman during the American Civil War. The Flames played their home games at the Omni Coliseum. The Omni was also known as the “Waffle Iron” for its space frame roof which resembled a waffle iron.

The Flames began play at the start of the 1972-1973 season with Cliff Fletcher as the GM and Hall Of Fame forward Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion as its first head coach. The burning A logo was admired around the league and is still one of the best logos in the NHL! The Flames had a good first season for an expansion club. Atlanta finished with a record of 25 wins 38 losses and 15 ties for a total of 65 points in 78 games. It was at the time the best record ever posted by a first year club.

The second season showed further improvement. Led by upstart goalie Dan Bouchard, and rookie forward Tom Lysiak the Flames made the playoffs in their second season. However they were knocked out by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round. The series was a rough affair as the Flames could not handle the brawling tactics of the Broad Street Bullies. Flyers vs Flames brawl from 1974

The third season was a disappointment. Despite the fact that Eric Vail became the Flames first award winner by winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, the Flames failed to make the playoffs.

Attendance slowly declined thereafter. Even though the Flames showed on ice improvement, the fans were getting restless by regular season and playoff disappointments. The Flames hadn’t won a playoff series up to this point.

When the 1978-1979 season started the Flames came roaring out of the gate. The Flames started the season with 12 wins 1 loss and 2 ties. During that stretch they went on a 10 game winning streak. However the Flames tailed off and Fletcher was desperate. He traded the high scoring Lysiak along with tough guy Harold Phillipoff and defencemen Greg Fox, Pat Ribble and Miles Zaharko to the Chicago Blackhawks for high scoring forwards Ivan Boldirev, Darcy Rota and rugged defenceman Phil Russell. At the time it was the largest trade in NHL history and it sent shockwaves throughout the league. But it didn’t inspire the Flames as they fell in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Leafs vs Flames brawl from 1979

The 1979-1980 season proved to be the last season in Atlanta. The Omni Sports Group were losing money and decided to sell the team to a group of businessmen led by . The group was headquartered in Calgary and after another first round playoff disappointment, the new owners decided to relocate the franchise to the Stampede City.

The Flames enjoyed immediate success in their new city making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals in its first season. The Flames then achieved the ultimate glory winning the franchise’s first and so far only Stanley Cup in 1989.

Atlanta had to wait until 1999 for the NHL to return. The Thrashers were born that year but have yet to achieve the heights the Flames have in Calgary.