Calgary Flames Daily: Season ends on an emotional note
By Ramina Shlah
It’s a wrap! The Calgary Flames finished their season last night with an emotional 7-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
While the Calgary Flames won 7-1 last night over the Vegas Golden Knights, there were other things on their minds heading into the game. As everyone most likely knows, on Friday evening, the SJHL Humboldt Broncos team bus suffered a crash where 15 people didn’t make it. All the players range from 16-21 years old and this one hit the hockey community hard.
Lots of these players have been on those junior team buses and some Flames players, like Tanner Glass, have even driven on that exact road before. It just goes to show that there are bigger things than just the game.
But tragedy brought the hockey community together, since these guys have been on those buses and have done those trips before, all with the same dream of doing this professionally and doing this forever. Before the start of the game last night, the Flames and Golden Knights came together in a circle for a moment of silence for all those affected by this horrific accident. They then all stood together during the national anthems.
In the Flames’ locker room yesterday, they had a picture on their projector of a team picture of the Broncos with the caption “thoughts and prayers”. Apparently, it was quite the quiet locker room yesterday morning.
Via Calgary Sun:
"“My first junior game was in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. So I’ve driven that road, just like those kids did,” said Flames forward Tanner Glass, who hails from Craven, Sask., and briefly suited up for the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers. “It just gives you chills to think about. Our thoughts and our prayers and our hearts go out to those families.“It’s truly heartbreaking. We’ve ridden those buses. We’ve been in those situations, on those cold snowy days on the prairies. It’s just really hard to think about.”"
The safe space of travelling with your team and doing some team-bonding has been forever ruined for the survivors of the crash.
"“It hits home for a lot of people,” said Flames defenceman Travis Hamonic, who played his junior hockey with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League (WHL). “It’s just so sad — these hockey players, they’re trying to chase their dream and to have that happen … It’s hard. A lot of us have spent a lot, a lot, a lot of hours on buses and it’s a shame, it really is.”"
It was an emotional night for everyone and the Calgary Flames finished their season on a high-note. And while they didn’t make the playoffs, that’s nothing compared to what these people have gone through.
Via Calgary Sun:
"“It was important,” Gulutzan said. “With everything that was going on today and in the last 24 hours, we talked a lot to our guys about the emotion. We talked about the young men on that bus that would loved to have been in the seats we are in and that was their goal.“We wanted to play as well as we could to honour that.”“Our minds were on the tragedy that happened,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “We just wanted to come out and play hard and not take anything for granted. I thought we did that. I thought our guys had a lot of energy. Obviously, it’s a tough end to the season right now, but it was a little bit of good taste (to win) for hopefully our fans, too, to leave with a big win like that.”"
Some links surrounding the Flames
‘Absolutely awful’: Flames rocked by Humboldt Broncos tragedy (Calgary Sun).
Emotional finish to season as Flames dominate on sombre night (Calgary Sun).
Mark Jankowski notches 4 goals as Flames win finale (CBC Sports).
Engelland responds to Giordano critics: “He’s one of the best leaders in the game” (Calgary Sun).
Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL
The Predators just ensured that they won’t win the Stanley Cup this year (FanSided).
Rangers’ Alain Vigneault says he’ll ‘without a doubt’ return, is promptly fired (FanSided).
NHL playoff schedule 2018: Dates, times, matchups (FanSided).
Jagr not ruling out NHL return: report (NHL.com).
Next: Takeaways from win over Vegas - That's a wrap!
Well, that’s all in today’s Flames Daily. This one had a different mood.