Remembering the Canucks-Flames Brawl

Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA Today Sports

Last night, San Antonio Spurs head coach Greg Popovich was ejected 63 seconds into their game against the Denver Nuggets.  This prompted Sports Center to reflect on other quick ejections throughout sports history.  They brought up the infamous Canucks-Flames brawl from 2014, which is one of the best moments in hockey history.  Let’s relive it.

On January 18, 2014 the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames were preparing to face off against each other for a regular season game in Vancouver.  The Flames strangely sent their fourth line on the ice to start the game, which coach Bob Hartley later claimed it was because they had been playing well as of late.  Canucks’ coach John Tortorella became suspicious of possible foul play from that lineup, so he responded by switching out his own starting players and replaced them with their fourth line “tough guys.”  Then, just two seconds after the puck dropped, fireworks ensued.

All ten guys on the ice instantly dropped their gloves and went at it like it was old-time hockey.  One of the tough guys from the Canucks, Tom Sestito, left Flames’ player Brian McGrattan with blood on his face.  Eight players total were ejected from the game, including Kellan Lain from the Canucks who was making his NHL debut (gotta love the ol’ 2-second debut).

After it was all cleaned up and the game could finally get going, the aggression wasn’t over.  Later in the first period Flames’ Mark Giordano landed a punch to the face of Alex Burrows from the Canucks, who was already playing with a broken jaw.  After the period coach John Tortorella was seen on camera attempting to storm into the Flames locker room.  He was pushed away by Flames player Brian McGrattan, where the two got into it and had to be separated, upon which Flames’ goalie coach Clint Malarchuk ran out of the locker room after Tortorella and had to be restrained by his players.

All in all, the two teams combined for 188 penalty minutes in the first period alone.  Flames head coach Bob Hartley claimed he had no bad intentions by starting his fourth line, just that they had been playing well.  Tortorella wasn’t buying it, which was why he went off the deep end during the first intermission.  There were no prior incidents that season between the two teams that had to be resolved, but the Canucks and Flames are rivals.

This was one of the craziest moments in hockey history.  I really wish more fighting occurred in the NHL, but it seems to be a thing of the past.  There are still fights that occur, but they just aren’t nearly as often as they used to be.  So this highlight took a lot of hockey fans back to a more rough and rowdy time in the game.  The classic joke, “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out,” was never more appropriate than it was in that game between the Canucks and Flames.

Garett