Dennis Wideman throws a shirt to fans after after the Calgary Flames beat Los Angeles 3-1 to clinch a playoff spot on Thursday.Derek Leung/Getty Images
The celebratory din from inside the Calgary Flames dressing room could be heard, loud and proud, echoing down the corridors of the Scotiabank Saddledome, and perhaps all the way up the Red Mile.
Against the longest of odds, this plucky underdog group – promising youngsters and resurgent veterans – had accomplished a most unlikely task. The Flames had made the playoffs in a year when most outside observers had them pegged to finish at or near the bottom of the NHL standings – and they punctuated this roller-coaster ride of a season in the most unlikely way, eliminating the Stanley Cup defending champion Los Angeles Kings to qualify for their first postseason appearance since 2009-10.
In the past three years, the Kings had 11 playoff series victories to their credit, which qualifies as a modern-day dynasty in a salary-cap world. And yet, the Flames found the way to knock them out. After all they'd been through – an eight-game losing streak before Christmas, the loss of team captain Mark Giordano to injury just before the NHL trading deadline – it was understandable that they cut loose following the decisive 3-1 victory.
"All the way through the year until probably right now, everybody said we weren't going to make it," Flames defenceman Dennis Wideman said.
"It was great to come through and do it against the Stanley Cup champions and do it the front-door way – and not have to go back-door against Winnipeg Saturday."
Of all the players who have made contributions to the Flames' unlikely run to the playoffs, perhaps no one flew under the radar more than Wideman. At 32, he is the oldest position player on the roster, someone who has been around so long ago that the round in which he was drafted back in 2002, the eighth, no longer exists.
Usually, players drafted 241st overall have only the tiniest chance of cracking an NHL lineup, let alone playing 10 years or becoming a major cog on a team that relies heavily on its defencemen to jump-start the attack.
Wideman is up to 56 points now, good for fourth in scoring among NHL defencemen. Without Giordano, the Flames' playoff push was supposed to fizzle. Instead, coach Bob Hartley turned to Wideman and his partner Kris Russell, increasing their minutes. The pairing has been massively effective over the final third of the season.
If anyone remembers anything about Wideman, it is because of the prank he played at the NHL trading deadline – concocted by him and Hartley, the two of them talking on a cellphone in the midst of a practice, the TV crews wildly speculating about what those conversations might mean. It meant only that Wideman has a wicked sense of humour and doesn't mind showing it.
Hartley put Wideman and Russell together in the third game of the season, after he made Wideman a healthy scratch for Game 2.
According to Hartley, Wideman deserves all the credit for his career about-face and rewarded him for his efforts by appointing him assistant captain after Curtis Glencross was traded away.
"He made the turn," Hartley said. "He made the turn on the ice, but I think before this, he made the turn off the ice. His commitment, his attitude, his demeanour, his body language – I told Dennis, 'Not too many guys get scratched in Game No. 2 of the season and in Game No. 65 or 70, they end up with a letter.' I'm not a big statistician, but it could be a first in NHL history. It's all to his credit."
"He's fun to work with. He's vocal. He's got a great hockey mind. He reads the play very well – just watch him with the puck. He picks up passing options real easily. I watch him in the gym. I watch him in the group. I watch him in video sessions. He's a totally different person – for his own good and more importantly, for the good of the Calgary Flames."
As for the playoff matchup, while the Flames and the Edmonton Oilers may share a province, the Canucks represent Calgary's truest rival. They've met six times previously, and the three most recent series went the distance. Calgary has made it to the Stanley Cup final three times in franchise history; in two of those years, 1989 and 2004, the path started with a seven-game, first-round victory over the Canucks.
"It's a big rivalry and I think it's going to be an exciting series," Wideman predicted. "We definitely earned this. We didn't have a team that scored a ton of goals, or won a lot of games by blowouts. It was great – and it led us to be ready for a game like tonight."