A game of inches

One day and one year ago, the entire city of Calgary was on edge. The entire nation was eagerly anticipating that nights game, as the Calgary Flames had a chance to bring the Cup home.

The game ended up exactly as the entire series had gone: extremely tight, with neither team giving an inch. While the history books will record this one as a Lightning OT win, in Calgary, there is only one way to describe this game:

It was in.

With nine minutes left, Martin Gelinas' shot went in and out of the net so fast that nobody on the ice even saw it. If a Flames player or a referee had seen it, and called for a review, there is no doubt in my mind that Gary Bettman would have handed the Stanley Cup to Jarome Iginla that night.

But, the game moves faster than the eye some times, and it was not to be. Replays suggest that Gelinas scored, but by the time they could be looked at, play had resumed and the argument became moot. One more inch perhaps, and someone would have realized. The red light would have come on, a city would have gone mad.

We were literally one inch from the Stanley Cup.