…who attended game Six AND game Seven. Flew down from Calgary and stayed with me. His story about pulling that off is epic, and he had it posted for a time on Calgarypuck.com but I believe it got lost in a site upgrade.

But I was there for game seven… And yeah, it was a great series. What really bugs me is coming across Lightning fans now that say they “hate” the Flames. Why? What did the Flames do wrong? We played a great series.

But the level of excellence expected of a team rises after a championship. I saw it happen with the Buccaneers and then the Lightning… Even competitiveness wasn’t enough for some people, they wanted it all again, and again, and again. Part of it’s greed, part of it’s expectations that were met in other cities (after all, we are a transplant-driven region) and part of it is just wanting the best from franchises that fans are endeared to.

But I’ll be happy with my Cup, and my Lombardi Trophy in 2003. I suffered through the depths for each team and experienced events I was told would never happen, just 5 (Lightning) and 8 (Bucs) years earlier.

and that is the beauty. They can never be taken away. However as you indicate it always creates a level of expectation.

No doubt, that’s what it is (or should be) about. I was pulling for the Bolts partly for that reason — everybody should have that feeling once — and partly because I simply liked how they played.

But regardless of who would win, I really enjoyed that series. Maybe because the lockout followed, I still have a lot of flash memories of various moments between Games 1-7.