Reunited on the Calgary Flames beat

Joining The Hockey News online to bring more to your Calgary Flames coverage

Hello, Hockey News.

I’m no stranger to this outlet. As a huge fan of The Hockey News’ printed materials as a youngster, it was a thrill to see my byline in the publication as a slightly older variation.

Honestly, it still is.

There’s something nostalgic about printed words, even if they’re also available digitally.

But this piece isn’t about print.

I’m excited to share something else with a hint of wistfulness. A reunion of sorts. I’m joining one of my NHL mentors and Calgary Flames beat partner of more than seven years by teaming up with Randy Sportak — Sporty, as most in the business call him — to bring fresh perspectives to all things Flames-y on the Calgary site of this Hockey News umbrella.

Sporty was a veteran on the Flames beat when I moved into the same role at the Calgary Sun right after the 2004 lockout. He quickly became a mentor, full of important knowledge that he shared without hesitation.

“Don’t be the last person on the bus or Darryl (Sutter) will leave without you,” he told me before my first charter flight with the team during the 2005-06 season.

That’s a real quote — and one I panicked about in so many road cities, writing running copy and calling in quotes from the bus in places with short turnaround times. San Jose was particularly brutal because of their strict flight departure deadlines.

There were other handy tips. You can eat on the plane, just not until all the players are done. What happens on the plane, stays on the plane. Pack light because you have to haul everything on and off the plane.

Plenty of actual hockey-writing and team insights would be come, too, as I learned to navigate the locker-room in my first year as a full-time NHL beat writer.

I was Sporty’s protégé.

I was also his mule.

That same first trip with the Sutter warning happened to be to California, where former Flames favourite (with the fans and media members) Craig Conroy was playing. Always thinking about others, Sporty met me at the private airstrip where the players parked and handed me a giant tin of Tim Hortons coffee.

For Connie. I had no idea how I would even get it to him, but I managed to figure it out. Some things you just have to learn on the fly.

That first season together seems like a lifetime ago. Even further back was my start in Ottawa as a community paper scribe who audibly dropped a lens cap behind Alexei Yashin during a televised news conference. I really felt like I’d made it to the big time when the Ottawa Sun had me cover the Jason Spezza signing.

His nervous laughter somehow took away any of my own anxiety at that scrum.

Now, I’m joining Sporty in a new era of hockey writing. The online-only version.

I left the Sun before he did, and I’ve been privileged to keep writing about the Flames with some great outlets. I was part of Bleacher Report’s foray into the NHL, freelanced for Flames Nation before it blew up into a multimedia monster, and most recently launched the Calgary Hockey Now site — pumping out content for a couple of years before finally taking a break the past few months.

Through it all, The Hockey News has been a constant in the background. And I’m thrilled to join them in this online venture with one of the best beat guys in Flames history.