CALGARY — As Johnny Gaudreau busts into the Calder Trophy conversation, another little guy is pulling out his iPad from wherever he is across Canada every second night, watching and cheering for Gaudreau and the Flames.
“I watch the Flames every chance I get,” Theo Fleury said. “They are the most exciting team in hockey.”
The kid they call Johnny Hockey arrived in Calgary this fall with as many question marks surrounding his abilities as Fleury had when he waltzed into the Flames room back in 1989. At their size they both had plenty to prove, but because Fleury had entered at a much more violent and obstructive time in the game, the parameters surrounding his success were totally different.
“It was the era of clutching and grabbing,” said Fleury, who checked in at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds when he joined the Battle of Alberta just in time for the Flames only Stanley Cup victory. “I had to figure out how to get room out on the ice so I could do what I do best. There was a certain style I had to play. I was so unpredictable, guys didn’t known whether I was going to kiss ‘em or cut their eye out.
“Back then there was an intimidation factor. I knew, if I allowed someone to think they had the upper hand, I don’t think I would have been as successful as I was. I had to give it back as bad as they gave it to me.”
Today Gaudreau, who is impossibly small at 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, is running slightly below Fleury’s opening season average of 0.944 points per game. But he does have 19-34-53 in 68 games, which leaves him one point behind Nashville’s Filip Forsberg in the rookie scoring race, having played three less games than Forsberg.
“It’s definitely changed, the game. I don’t know if I would have made it back then, with the hooks and holds they did allow,” Gaudreau said. He knows of Fleury, though he has not yet met the former Flames star. “When I got here I knew he was a pretty big player in the organization. It was such a different league back then, but he was a small guy and he made it.”
Like Fleury, Gaudreau is getting stronger as the season goes on, just one more metric where the little college grad has succeeded against most people’s expectations.
“There was questions around him at the start of the season,” began Gaudreau’s head coach, Bob Hartley. “His size. A college kid in his first NHL season. Would he run out of gas around Christmas? But … the kid just loves to play. Just look at his face when he scores. It’s priceless. We need this.”
Fleury is now, like a growing number of Canadians — yes, even in Edmonton — simply a Flames fan. As such, he can’t help but become a huge Gaudreau fan.
“He’s got big skill. Like, big, big skill,” Fleury said. “He can do things at a high speed. It helps to play with (Sean) Monahan and (Jiri) Hudler, good players, and that makes a big difference too. People you can share the pucks with, when you give it to them they give it back to you in a good position.”
Size and skill has always worked in inverse proportion in the NHL. That is, the smaller you are, the better you have to be. As tough and unpredictable as Fleury was, it was his point-per-game production (1088 points in 1084 games) that made him so valuable.
Gaudreau has similar skills in an era where points don’t come nearly as easily. The spark he and his over-achieving teammates have brought to Calgary is quite similar, however, to what happened back in the late ‘80s.
“They’ve upgraded their talent significantly, they’ve gotten great goaltending, and they have a team that is absolutely relentless,” Fleury said of today’s Flames. “They’re not intimidated. Every team that comes into Calgary, every building they go into on the road, if they’re not prepared to work for 60 minutes, they’re not going to beat the Calgary Flames, that’s for sure.”
Against all odds, on St. Patrick’s Day the Calgary Flames went into their game Tuesday night against St. Louis holding down third place in the Pacific Division. And the little Leprechaun isn’t leading Calgary in scoring but Johnny Gaudreau is next in line behind Hudler (60 points).
Really the story is amazing.
“Remember when the Oilers beat the Montreal Canadiens (in 1981), three straight in a five-game series?” Fleury asked. “You can’t buy that type of playoff experience. If they get into the playoff and get some of that? That would be awesome.”
Awesome indeed. For little guys everywhere.
