Featured Article Summary #174

The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team in Calgary, Canada, playing in the NHL’s Western Conference as part of the Pacific Division. They are one of two NHL teams in Alberta, along with the Edmonton Oilers, and their close rivalry is known as the “Battle of Alberta.” The team was founded in 1972 in Atlanta as the Atlanta Flames, then moved to Calgary in 1980. After playing at the Stampede Corral, the Flames began playing at the Scotiabank Saddledome in 1983. They reached the Stanley Cup for the first time in 1985–86 and went on to win the Stanley Cup once. The franchise has also had major success in regular season and division play, with notable leaders like Jarome Iginla and goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, and many players linked to the team inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Atlanta Flames were created as the NHL’s first answer to the World Hockey Association, which was expanding into new cities. After receiving a franchise in December 1971, owner Tom Cousins named the team “Flames” for Atlanta’s Civil War burning. The team reached the playoffs often but won only two postseason games in eight seasons, and in 1980 Cousins sold the club due to financial troubles. Nelson Skalbania moved the Flames to Calgary in 1980, keeping the Flames name but changing the logo, and since then the team has been locally owned. The Calgary Flames were quickly welcomed by the city, selling 10,000 season ticket packages and making the playoffs in their first year with a 39–27–14 record. They won their first two playoff series but then lost in the semifinals, and after a poor 1981–82 season, coach/general manager Bill Fletcher reshaped the team, adding players like Hakan Loob and early Soviet recruits such as Sergei Makarov. The Flames later improved, pushing the Oilers to seven games, and in 1983 they moved into the Olympic Saddledome. The Flames often reached the playoffs but struggled to make deep runs, mainly because they frequently faced their provincial rivals, the Edmonton Oilers. Even so, by 1986 they built a strong team, swept Winnipeg, upset Edmonton, then beat St. Louis to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time, where they lost to Montreal. They followed up with a Presidents’ Trophy season in 1987–88, suffered another Oilers setback, then won the Stanley Cup in 1989—beating Montreal—after setting a franchise record in the regular season. In 1989–90, the Flames added Soviet forward Sergei Makarov, though his Calder win led to rule changes, and the team missed another Presidents’ Trophy by two points before losing to Los Angeles in the playoffs. In 1991, general manager Cliff Fletcher left Calgary for Toronto, and Doug Risebrough’s major trade backfired as Doug Gilmour became a star for the Maple Leafs while Calgary missed the playoffs in 1992. The Flames later reached the playoffs for four straight seasons but were knocked out in the first round each time, then slid into a long drought after 1997, including a low point of 67 points in 1997–98 and a midseason trade of Theoren Fleury in 1999. As performance worsened, attendance dropped and owners threatened relocation to the United States unless more season tickets were sold. Fans responded, keeping the team in Calgary for 1999–2000, and ticket sales rose again in 2000, but the Flames still lost about $14.5 million from 2001 to 2003; then Darryl Sutter was hired in 2002–03 and later brought in goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff to help revive the franchise.