Green Hard Hats and Chris Sutter: The Night Calgary Brought Back 2004

Saddledome — Twenty-two years after the run, the Calgary Flames handed out green hard hats again. The first 2,004 fans through the doors on Saturday got one, the team wore its 2004 jerseys, and the 2003-04 Flames walked out to centre ice. Then Calgary beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1, the same club the 2004 team knocked out in the second round on its way to the Stanley Cup Final.

The club billed it as its first “‘04 Celebration” game of the year. The editor’s photos from the upper bowl show green hats dotted through every level of the building.

Calgary Flames: "Coming to tonight's '04 Celebration game vs. Detroit? Make sure you arrive early - the first 2004 fans will be receiving a green hard hat" (Oct. 24, 2026)

The 2004 Flames alumni at centre ice

Mike Commodore, Dave Lowry, Craig Conroy, Robyn Regehr and Rhett Warrener came out in their Flames jerseys with Darryl Sutter, the coach who took that team to the Final. Martin Gelinas, the man whose goals ended three series that spring, was not there.

Calgary Flames: "What a crew for our '04 Celebration opening face-off! And who better than Chris Sutter to drop the puck" (video, Oct. 24, 2026)

Chris Sutter, Darryl Sutter’s son, drops the puck

The puck went to Chris Sutter, Darryl’s son. He got the loudest ovation of the night, and he waved to the crowd on the walk out.

He did not leave it at the puck drop. Later the scoreboard went to “Sutter Time,” and Chris danced for the building. The Flames’ play-by-play voice, Derek Wills, posted the clip. After the final horn Chris was back on the team’s feed, this time with Lanny McDonald, the man who scored the first Flames goal in the Saddledome. The club’s caption called them “a couple of legends.”

Calgary Flames: "Chris Sutter and Lanny, a couple of legends" (video, Oct. 24, 2026)

Why Flames fans wear green hard hats

The hat was Conroy’s idea. He brought it from his days with the St. Louis Blues: every time the Flames won in 2003-04, the team gave a green hard hat to its hardest-working player. As the habit caught on, fans started wearing them to the rink too. On Saturday the giveaway put the hats back in the stands, and Conroy was at centre ice to see it.

The Flames’ 2004 Stanley Cup run, series by series

The 2003-04 Flames were the first Calgary team to make the playoffs since 1996. Jarome Iginla’s 41 goals tied for the league lead and won him his second Rocket Richard Trophy. Miikka Kiprusoff, acquired from San Jose, posted a 1.69 goals-against average, an NHL record low.

• Vancouver, round one. Seven games. Iginla scored twice in Game 7 and set up Gelinas for the overtime winner.
• Detroit, round two. Six games. Gelinas scored in overtime again, on a rebound of an Iginla play.
• San Jose, the conference final. Six games. Gelinas scored the series clincher, in the second period this time, and Calgary was in the Final for the first time since 1989. No Canadian team had been there since Vancouver in 1994.
• Tampa Bay, the Final. Seven games. Calgary lost Game 7 2-1.

Up to 80,000 people filled the streets after each playoff game that spring. Calgary called it the Red Mile.

The Gelinas “no goal” in Game 6

Calgary led the Final three games to two going into Game 6. In the third period a Gelinas redirect looked to have gone in off his skate, and one camera angle seemed to show the puck over the line before Nikolai Khabibulin’s pad dragged it out. No goal was given. Martin St. Louis won it for Tampa Bay 33 seconds into the second overtime, and the Lightning took Game 7.

The Detroit callback: Gelinas in overtime, 1-0

During Saturday’s game the Flames’ account posted one piece of that spring: the “Yeah baby” call, the phrase Peter Maher made Calgary’s, of Gelinas ending the Detroit series. Detroit’s broadcasters remember the other side of that series: what the Red Wings’ bench and booth took home from the Saddledome.

Calgary Flames: "Yeah baby! Yeah baby! Martin Gelinas scores, the Flames win it 1-0" (video, Oct. 24, 2026)

That goal came on May 3, 2004, at 19:13 of overtime in Game 6. Kiprusoff stopped all 38 shots. Twenty-two years later, against the same crest, Devin Cooley stopped 28 of 29.

Flames 4, Red Wings 1: the score and the box score

Joel Farabee had a goal and two assists and was the first star. He opened the scoring at 17:50 of the first. Andrew Copp tied it 2:22 into the second, and then Calgary scored three times in the period:

Period	Time	Goal	Assists
1	17:50	Joel Farabee	Klapka, Bahl
2	2:22	Andrew Copp (DET)	Compher
2	8:38	Zayne Parekh (PP)	Coronato, Farabee
2	17:04	Ryan Strome	Frost, Gridin
2	18:30	Matvei Gridin (PP)	Farabee, Coronato

Parekh’s power-play goal was his first of the season and the winner. Matt Coronato set up both power-play goals. The Flames went 2 for 2 on the power play and killed both Detroit chances. Detroit outshot them 29-25 and had 57 shot attempts to Calgary’s 38. Calgary blocked 15 shots, and the Red Wings gave the puck away 21 times.

Cooley got the start ahead of Dustin Wolf for a third straight game and has won all three. Farabee, who came over in the same trade as Morgan Frost, has points in five straight.

The fight: Jake Middleton vs Ben Chiarot

With 4:05 left and Calgary up three, it boiled over in front of Cooley’s crease. A scrum went first. About half a minute later, by the camera’s clock, Jake Middleton and Ben Chiarot dropped the gloves beside the Calgary net, two defencemen with Dylan Larkin and Zach Whitecloud standing off to the side.

They tied up, and it ended on the ice, the Red Wing underneath and the Flame on top, with the linesmen coming in.

Fight notes

• Penalties: five-minute fighting majors for Middleton and Chiarot, both at 15:55 of the third. On the same whistle Ryan Strome and Moritz Seider took matching minors for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• The only fight of the night. Both teams had 11 penalty minutes.
• The score didn’t move. Calgary led 4-1 before and after.
• Middleton’s night otherwise: 18:26, plus-one, one block.

The win is Calgary’s third in a row. It moves the Flames to 4-6-0, two weeks after an 0-5 start that was the first in franchise history.

The 2004 team handed out a lot of hard hats on the way to Game 7. This one has won three in a row, and on Saturday the building had 2,004 more.