We’re getting close to only a month left of the regular season! With 38 days left, let’s take a look at a former Calgary Flames player with that number.
Since the start of August, we’re counting down the number of days left until the regular season starts up again! Everyday until the start of the season, we’ll be talking about a Calgary Flames player whose number correlates with how many days there are left.
Last time we talked about a guy who’s had a very back-and-forth type of career. I mean, he’d be playing for one team, go somewhere else, but ultimately come back to that team. He did that twice. Yes, we’re talking about #40 Alex Tanguay.
There may be 38 days left, but the young stars classic is so close! But for now, with 38 days until the regular season starts up again, let’s talk about #38 Jeff Cowan.
Related Story: 40 Days Until the Season Starts: #40 Alex Tanguay
Who is Jeff Cowan?
Name: Jeff Cowan
Birth place: Scarborough, ON, Canada
Position: LW
Shoots: Left
Birthdate: 1976-09-27 (we’re birthday buddies!)
Height: 6’2” / 188 cm
Weight: 93 kg / 205 lbs
Drafted by: Undrafted
Stats with all NHL teams, regular season:
Jeff Cowan started his career off with the Calgary Flames organization. Going undrafted, the Flames signed him just before the 1995-96 season started. However, he would go back and forth between the ECHL and the AHL before finally getting a call up with the team.
He finally got a job with big guys in the 1999-00 season, but would only play 13 games. The following season, his season was still cut somewhat short, playing just 51 games. The season following, he would finally get more of a full-time roll, but scoring just one point in 19 games, the Flames keep going down a similar path and he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 2004. In the 2006-07 season, Cowan scored just 2 assists in 21 games with the Kings and again, he would be leaving. He was put on waivers in December of that season and the Vancouver Canucks picked him up.
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This is where the fun begins.
Starting his time with the Canucks, it really wasn’t that glorious for Cowan. He was struggling immensely and his career was essentially on the line. Being a fourth-liner with the Canucks and not getting a lot of ice-time, he had zero points through the first 23 games with the club.
But then something clicked for him in March. On March 1st 2007, he got into a fight and had a goal in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes (a shorthanded goal too, nonetheless), earning him the first star of the game. It was his first goal as a Canuck and his first goal of the entire season.
Three nights later, Cowan scored two goals in a span of 10 minutes against the Minnesota Wild and the Canucks won 4-3 in a shootout.
Now we really get into the fun part.
On March 6th 2007, the Canucks were playing a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canucks were already up 4-1, Cowan already had a goal, and there was about a minute left of the game. And with less than a minute left, Cowan makes it 5-1. But the fun part isn’t about the goal. It’s about what happened after.
See, there was a woman in the stands who got so excited about that goal that she decided to throw her bra onto the ice. Everyone in the stands is now chanting Cowan’s name. But with a bra thrown on the ice after your goal, nicknames are bound to ensue.
Some nicknames were thrown out there as suggestions, like Cowman, Milkman, Double D, and Big Red. And finally, someone suggested the best nickname of all: Cowan the Bra-barian. That nickname lived on with him and the entire Canucks roster signed a bra that was later auctioned off where the money went to breast cancer research.
Cowan ended up finishing his career in Europe with a team in the DEL in 2011-12 before finally hanging up his skates and calling it a day.
Next: Dougie Hamilton Ranked as 16th Best Defenceman
He may not have had a very glorious career, but at least the nickname Cowan the Brabarian will live on forever.