The Calgary Flames are reaching back into one of their most memorable seasons as they get set for Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings at Scotiabank Saddledome.
To mark the occasion, the club will wear its 2004 retro jerseys for the first time this season, and fans in attendance will also get a throwback of their own: 2,004 replicas of the green hard hat.
The jerseys are part of a four-game tribute to the Flames’ 2004 playoff run, with each one scheduled against one of the four opponents from that post-season. The Red Wings are the first stop on that trip down memory lane.
The green hard hat itself carries a pretty specific Flames history. Back in 2003-04, Craig Conroy made two big moves in the room: he passed the captaincy to Jarome Iginla, and he introduced a new team award by borrowing a tradition that had already taken hold in St. Louis, where former teammate Kelly Chase had started the hard hat in 1999.
According to an investigation at the time by Jean Lefebvre in the Calgary Herald, Conroy got the hard hat from Flames equipment manager Gus Thorson. Thorson explained that the gear had been sitting around since renovations in the mid-’90s turned the Saddledome into a hard-hat area.
“It already a Flames logo on it,” said Thorson. “We just put a few more stickers on it.”
The award had a simple purpose: it went to the Flames player who went the extra mile in a win. Sometimes that meant an unsung workhorse, sometimes the star of the night, and once even backup goalie Roman Turek was credited with it for a game he didn’t play in.
The previous winner chose the next recipient, and a sticker with that player’s number was slapped onto the helmet. By season’s end, the back of the hard hat was packed with them.
After the 2004 playoffs, the original green hard hat went to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Flames have gone through a few different versions of team awards since then. After the 2004-05 lockout, they used a gold hard hat for one season, then an “all business” tie, and after that went without a player-of-the-game prize for a while. More often than not over the years, though, they’ve brought something back.
Last season, Rasmus Andersson won a red blazer in the team’s golf tournament. This year, the team is using a white hard hat and a high-viz vest - actual construction gear from the recent tour of Scotia Place, the organization’s future arena.
So in the Flames’ final season at the Saddledome, a hard hat is back in the rotation. It’s a neat little echo of 2004, when one of the team’s most exciting runs was linked to the green lid. Saturday offers both the retro jersey tribute and the giveaway, with history being dusted off for one more night at the ‘Dome.
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