Yesterday, one of my hockey fanatic friends invited me to see the Calgary Flames home opener at the Saddledome. Oddly enough, in my ten years of living in Calgary I’d never been to see a game before. Further, I possess very limited hockey knowledge (having only seen a few practices from when I was a figure skater as a young child and having attended a singular Hitmen game). I mostly associate the game with the smell of the locker rooms we used to walk past on our way out of the rink.
After the pandemic, it made the experience even more special. Everyone could feel it—and as we were greeted upon arrival by an announcer telling us that it had been 600 days since fans could last be in the arena, the atmosphere was absolutely electric.
Here are three things I loved about my first ever Flames experience—and a couple things to watch out for next time you go.
1. The Energy
Right when you step in the stadium, it’s the most amazing feeling to enter the ‘C’ of Red with everyone wearing their bright red Flames jerseys (except my friend, who wore a Ducks jersey because he’s a contrarian). I borrowed a jersey, so I really felt like I belonged in the crowd. With the lights and the music, it was almost surreal—one of the other people in our group commented that it felt like “being in VR.” And from there, the energy only got better. The massive ‘energy board’ in the middle of the stadium hosts mini games like getting the crowd to cheer for the labels they identified with (‘people who are sick of zoom meetings’ got a REAL loud one) or putting up videos of the ushers dancing and feeds of people in the crowd. They even gave away free Flames merch to loud cheerers in certain sections—my friend managed to snag a cool hat.
As a sidenote, the Flames picked an epic mascot – the blasts of heat from the fire and the editing of the clips on screen really added an extra oomph.
2. Meeting People
Hockey is definitely better with friends, but who says you can’t make some new ones at the arena? While standing in line for Pocket Dawgs (an ostensibly very popular form of hotdog—I didn’t try one, but my friends did and they liked them a lot), we were greeted by a guy who struck up a conversation with my friend about his Ducks jersey. It may seem trivial, but the general friendliness and the comfort of total strangers around each other was just a really good, wholesome experience—especially after the COVID-induced drought in social interaction.
3. Hockey Culture
Hockey is actually a really interesting game—it’s fast-paced and a lot of fun to watch, and the fact that the fights are considered part of the entertainment value of the game creates some genuinely hilarious moments. Something that initially surprised me about the hockey itself came towards the end of the game—the Ducks and Flames were tied 2-2, and suddenly my hockey aficionado friend began cheering for both teams to go on defence (for neither to score, basically). He explained to me that this is because he wanted the game to go into overtime, an intense five minute round of three-on-three plus goalies following the third period. “We want an intense overtime, but for no one to score so that we can see a shootout,“ he said.
Unfortunately, the Ducks ended up winning in overtime, but the immediate aftermath was so comedic as to be almost worth the satisfaction on my Ducks-wearing friend’s face. He literally tapped me on the shoulder and beckoned me away, we stood up, and joined the sudden crowd of people trying to leave before the rush. We literally ducked and wove around people as we ran to the car. Luckily, we didn’t get stuck in traffic, and I definitely felt like I got a full experience out of the night. Hopefully next time, I’ll get to witness a more favourable result for the Flames. In the meantime, it was definitely a night I won’t soon forget.