Gameday Feb 5 @ FLA

February 5

CGY @ FLA

Gametime 5:30pm

I remember when I was a little kid and I used to watch The Score (which nobody watches in Edmonton for some reason), I always used to get confused when I saw FLA on the ticker because I thought it stood for Flames, not Florida. 

Ahh to be young again...

That really has nothing to do with anything though. Tonight is an early game for the Flames who are going to beautiful Florida to play the Panthers at 5:30pm. I was wondering why the NFL team in Carolina was named the Panthers as well as the NHL team in Miami. I looked into it a bit and realized that there is in fact an animal called the Florida Panther. The Florida Panther is an endangered species, much like the hockey team.

Panther's captain Brian McCabe

At this point I'd like to go into a little rant about the logistics of having a hockey team in Florida (sorry to anyone who has heard this before). Everyone says it makes no sense to have a team in a place like Florida. This argument is because people are only looking at the surface. Just because it is really hot in Miami and the culture is more suited to sports like basketball and football doesn't mean there isn't a market for hockey. Think about it: what is the demographic that goes to Florida over the winter/has a place in Florida?

If you said old Canadians, then you are correct! And as you all know, old Canadians love hockey. Of course everyone has their team they grew up cheering for, probably the Leafs or Habs, but if I had a place in Florida and found out the city was getting a hockey team I would be so stoked. What happened in Florida is that they went from being an expansion team to making the Stanley Cup Finals in like three years, surpassing any reasonable expectations. Shit was bumpin' in Florida for a while.

They also have this guy calling goals

Then any consistency the team had went to shit. They stopped being competitive, stopped making the playoffs, and weren't a novelty anymore, so there was really no reason to keep watching. Alright now I'm done.

This is the only meeting between the Flames and Panthers this season and at this point every game is huge for the Flames. 32 points is the (hopefully) magic number. If we had 96 points and missed the playoffs, I wouldn't even be that mad, that's just unlucky. No better time to start winning than tonight.