'Won’t open them until we win': Flames fan hopes to pop Champagne bottles meant for '04 Stanley Cup run
'Won’t open them until we win': Flames fan hopes to pop Champagne bottles meant for '04 Stanley Cup run
It was almost exactly 18 years ago when Calgary Flames fan Shane Byciuk managed to sneak two bottles of Champagne into the Saddledome for Game 6 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals.
He had hoped to pop them if the Flames hoisted the Cup that evening, but those same bottles still remain in his fridge to this day.
“I won’t open them until we win the Stanley Cup and hopefully it’s this year,” Byciuk said.
“I still remember that night, we brought those mini bottles fully expecting to crack them. I cracked off the top of the bottles when the game went into overtime just waiting for that goal, but it never came.”
June 4, 2004 is a night many Flames fans will never forget thanks to a controversial call on a play where it appeared the Calgary forward Martin Gelinas was able to sneak the puck past the goal-line.
That goal was called off by the referee, much to the dismay of Calgary fans who watched as their team lost that game and fell in a devastating Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Everybody thought it was in,” said Byciuk.
“You know, that’s like a huge circumstance and when that goal was called back, everybody was disheartened, it was just complete silence and anger, right? Even to this day, people are still saying that that goal was in.”
Byciuk says the 2004 playoff run was one of the most exciting memories he has of the team he’s been cheering for his entire life.
Fast-forward to 2022 and the Battle of Alberta has now amplified that excitement in the hopes that those Champagne bottles can get one step closer to being opened with a victory in this playoff series.
“If we don’t win, they're going back into my beer fridge, but I can’t wait to open them up,” said Byciuk.
“I don't know what the Champagne would taste like after all those years and I wouldn't want to find out. I won’t drink it, but I’ll spray it outdoors if they win the Cup or maybe on some Oiler fans,” he joked.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government plans to launch a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office, amid ongoing scrutiny of allegations that Beijing interfered in recent federal elections.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
The Pizza Hut employee who was shot at his workplace earlier this month is on the long road to recovery, his sister has confirmed Tuesday to CTV News Edmonton.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Authorities are asking witnesses to come forward after security at Simon Fraser University discovered the head of the school's Mahatma Gandhi bust had been removed.
Almost three years after a man disguised as a Mountie started murdering people in Portapique, N.S., on the night of April 18, 2020, the senior RCMP officers and staff involved in the tragic case have all either retired or moved into new jobs.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
New Brunswickers suffering from a mystery neurological disorder are calling for an investigation into potential environmental causes of the health problems they've been living with for more than two years.
A Victoria landlord and property management company must pay more than $30,000 in damages and rental reduction to a tenant who complained of exposure to asbestos and excessive noise while their apartment building was renovated.
British Columbia wants a federal government clamp down on prescription rules after thousands of doses of the hyped weight-loss drug Ozempic went to Americans, doled out by a single practitioner in Nova Scotia.
The man who killed a 16-year-old boy remembered as an avid adventurer has been wanted on an arrest warrant issued in a Newfoundland courtroom for nearly two years.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
A Toronto man is wanted for a February incident in which he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman he followed off public transit before taking her phone and sexually assaulted her again, police say.
A Quebec provincial police officer was fatally stabbed Monday night while performing an arrest in Louiseville, west of Trois-Rivieres, Que. The Surete du Quebec (SQ) has confirmed the identity of the officer, Sgt. Maureen Breau, who had been on the force for over 20 years. She was assigned to the post of the MRC de Maskinonge. Another officer was injured during the incident, but their life is not in danger.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
A 22-year-old McGill student who suffers from a terminal disease could soon lose access to the medication she needs because she's graduating from university.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
One person is dead after an early morning fire in Kanata, while another person is being treated for smoke inhalation after being rescued from the burning home by a bystander who spotted the fire while driving to the gym.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
A Saskatoon couple says they felt ignored by police after their five-year-old foster son was attacked by a dog outside the Meadowgreen Confectionary on March 22.
The driver of a pickup truck, a 47-year-old woman, has died after a crash with a tanker on MR55 in the Greater Sudbury community of Lively on Tuesday morning, police say.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Regina Mayor Sandra Masters said the city will more than likely continue to follow Health Canada guidelines when it comes to asbestos cement pipes (ACP) that carry drinking water to residents’ homes.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
