2011 FNHL Cup Champions

Calgary Flames

Led By GM: Nate Erb

Row 1: Vesa Toskala, Antero Niittymaki, Barry Brust

Row 2: David Legwand, Dany Heatley, Shane Doan, Sami Kapanen, Yannick Tremblay

Row 3: Kyle Wellwood, Matt Cooke, Miroslav Satan, Chris Therien, Francois Beauchemin

Row 4: Erik Christensen, Cory Stillman, Milan Hejduk, Christoph Schubert, Paul Martin

Row 5: Angelo Esposito, Kyle Wanvig, Vladimir Mihalik, Brooks Laich

7th Degree Burns

The Calgary Flames had a pretty decent season. I think that GM Nate Erb would probably say that his season was nothing special and maybe even a little disappointing. Calgary almost missed the playoffs and with three weeks left in the season they were in 9th place. They finished the year off going 7-2-1 and secured not only a playoff spot but the 5th seed in the Western Conference. The 5th spot and the 8th spot in the West were only determined by four points so Calgary could have easily faced any opponent in the playoffs. Even though the season was ho-hum, the playoffs were amazing.

Calgary pulled the shock of the century by not only beating Nashville but sweeping them in four games. Calgary looked unbeatable at that time and GM Nate Erb must have been licking his chops. Calgary then faces the Detroit Red Wings and had a very hard time and won that series in an exciting seven games. By hardly beating Detroit, and having Dallas next up in the Conference Finals, maybe predicted a Dallas win. Calgary once again surprised everyone and won the series in six games. On to the FNHL Finals. The Calgary Flames go up 3-0 and fans in Calgary begin to celebrate..... wait, hold the phone. NY Islanders win game four.... then game five.... then game six. We once AGAIN go to seven games and the Calgary Flames pull it out in overtime. Calgary had to survive two seven game series in order to win the cup.

Congrats to Nate Erb and the Calgary Flames on the improbable FNHL cup win. This goes to show you that every single playoff team has a chance to win it all. NOBODY and I repeat NOBODY had the FNHL finals pinned off to be Calgary at NY Islanders. Hopefully we will see many more cup wins in Calgary in the future.