It was a shot that bounced off a mat, passing Calgary Flames goalkeeper Mike Vernon, who ended his 1991 dream.
Of course, it was impossible to know it would end that way. A little over a month earlier, on March 4, 1991, Vernon was in the middle of overtaking Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper Patrick Roy.
That night, a still relatively unknown grunge trio known as Nirvana (probably unsold on the poster only as “Seattle”) will perform their first Calgary show at the Westward Club, months before they released Smells Like Teen Spirit and reach superstar.
At the time, Catherine Ford was a columnist for the Calgary Herald, trying to quit her smoking habit and therefore encountered severe nicotine withdrawal.
“Let me put it this way,” Ford said. “Not that I remember much of the 1990s, but 1991 was a particularly, say, efficient year.
Effective – productive and constructive – not only because Ford would eventually abandon its cigarettes, but also because it began to see signs of a city in transition.
She watched the city become one that is more culturally diverse, with booms (and collapses) and transformations in the city center, a city that sees its homogeneous political landscape gradually begin to evolve into something more complicated.
Aerial view of the city of Calgary in 1991 (Glenbow Museum)
However, this year’s Calgary Herald headlines show that while some things are changing, others seem more familiar to today’s Calgary.
Take Ald. Barb Scott’s efforts in the January 21, 1991 issue to turn empty buildings in downtown Calgary into housing to serve the city’s needy.
Or, a story from the February 1 issue, which reports on high pump prices caused by the ongoing conflict in the Persian Gulf.
In June 1991, Al Duer was mayor of the city, rejecting the image of Calgary’s “fat cat” and worried about the specter of federal cuts.
WATCH Legendary Calgary goalkeeper Mike Vernon for the Battle of Alberta
Legendary Calgary goalkeeper Mike Vernon for the Battle of Alberta
Advice from a professional! Veteran Calgary Flames goalkeeper Mike Vernon says Flames and Edmonton Oilers players in Wednesday’s Stanley Cup playoffs must keep their heads straight and step by step in the first battle of Alberta in decades.
More than 4,300 Calgary workers have been laid off in the city in the past six months, with NovAtel, Canada Packers and other energy companies among them.
However, the unemployment rate in Calgary was well below the national average. It won hundreds of new residents after TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. move to the city.
The concern in Dwer’s eyes was the federal government, which looked to Calgary for layoffs based on its “resilient spirit” when it returned, although the peak of the oil boom in the late 1970s appeared only in the rearview mirror.
Al Duer was the 34th mayor of Calgary from 1989 to 2001, before being succeeded by Dave Bronconi. (James Young / CBC)
Today, Dwer sees many similarities between this time period and today’s Calgary – and where the battle of Alberta fits.
“In 1991, we fought. “We are fighting now, we are coming out of a very difficult period,” Dwer said. “The Battle of Alberta gave us that opportunity to focus again.”
‘They choked’
It was in this context that Alberta’s two hockey teams had to clash in the first round, with both organizations recently winning the championship: the Calgary Flames in 1989 and the Edmonton Oilers the following year.
Doug Darks, former host of The CBC’s Homestretch, was in Calgary in 1991 doing a daily nationally syndicated radio feature called Faceoff Circle.
“There was so much excitement in the city. They came out of winning the Stanley Cup in 1989, and everyone thought it would be a dynasty for centuries, “said Darks, who became a full-time sports presenter and CBC reporter in 1993.
Two young unidentified hockey fans applauding the opposing teams secured tickets for Match 7 before the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers match at the Olympic Saddle House on April 16, 1991. the Oilers fan. ‘[Mike] Vernon will take Conn Smythe [Trophy]”, Insisted the Flames fan. (CBC Archives)
The day before the puck fell for Calgary 7 in what was then called the Olympic Saddledome, 2,100 tickets went on sale in the morning, sold out in 50 minutes.
This battle with Alberta went through seven games and ended with a broken heart for the faithful of the Flames thanks to the staff of Esa Tikanen. He found the back of the net three times, as his goal in overtime sealed the series for Oil Country, four against three.
“There is no way to smoothly pedal the loss of Flames 5-4.
Four days later, at exactly 3 p.m., Ford put out his last cigarette. The Flames will continue to see drought in the playoffs without winning another series until 2004.
Westwards
Although fans came home dejected tonight, Calgary’s future at the time looked bright in other ways, especially if you’re not a member of the Flames faithful.
For non-sports fans like Arif Ansari, who was probably at the Westward Club or the Republik nightclub the night the team received the shoe, 1991 was a time when the alternative music scene began to flourish when there was excitement in the air.
Lists of films from the Calgary Herald on April 16, 1991, the day the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers faced Game 7 at the Olympic Saddledome. Stephen Seagal’s action Out for Justice topped the box office after dethroning the previous starter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Tin. (CBC News)
Some nights since the early 1990s have reached legendary status for Ansari, such as when the American heavy metal band GWAR played at the Westward Club and fans experienced first-hand the band’s deception of spraying fake blood on the audience.
“So there are great stories of people coming home after this show covered in all this fake blood and walking like a horde of zombies on 17th Avenue,” said Ansari, who runs the Calgary Cassette Storage Society. local music archivist.
Some believed at the time that culturally Calgary could be the next Seattle, said Mike Bell, publisher of Calgary-based monthly arts and culture magazine The Scene.
A 1991 poster from the Westward Club, a popular music venue in downtown Calgary that hosts artists such as Flaming Lips, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lenny Kravitz. (Submitted by Arif Ansari)
“There was excitement about music, about the arts,” Bell said.
“People were spending money, people were going to the theater. People wanted to go out, and the artists here didn’t feel like they had to leave. Things were actually happening in Calgary.”
Intangible assets
Tonight, Flames and Oilers will meet again in the renewed battle of Alberta. Instead of Theoren Florey and Tikanen, this year’s match will be led by young superstars Johnny Godrot and Connor McDavid.
From the 1991 match, Calgary went from Dwer, to Dave Bronconi, to Nahid Nenshi, to Joti Gondek.
It has gone from an oil boom, an oil collapse, an oil boom again, although this time with increased urgency about what comes next – both for the economy and the climate.
It is now home to more than 1.3 million people, up from 750,000 in 1991 (not to mention dormitories like Chestermeer, Alta, which have grown to more than 20,000 from 900 in 1991). .).
Former Calgary Flames player Jamie Makun, who won the Stanley Cup with the team in 1989, says he quickly realized the importance of the Battle of Alberta after arriving in Calgary in 1983 (James Young / CBC).
Ford, who has written thousands of columns on Calgary and Alberta, said she will continue to defend the place she calls home, no matter what comes next, even if talking about what makes it home may seem like a cliché – the big blue wide the sky, the mountains, the unpredictable weather that keeps the inhabitants on their feet.
“These are all those intangible things that make you love something. It’s like asking me why I love my husband. Do I love him because he is tall, handsome and good-looking? ”She said.
“No, none of these things. I love him for who he is. I love this city for what it is and what it represents to all of us.”
Match 1 of the second round of the playoffs for the Stanley Cup 2022 between the Flames and Oilers begins at 19:30 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
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