Ex-Flames goon explains how he orchestrated famous brawl with Canucks

It was one of the most memorable nights at Rogers Arena in the last 10 years. Hockey fans still talk about the night the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames began a game with all 10 skaters dropping the gloves to fight.

Both teams’ head coaches nearly fought, too.

Ten fighting majors and eight game misconducts were handed out on January 18, 2014, after Flames head coach Bob Hartley decided to start his fourth line. Canucks head coach John Tortorella responded by starting his fourth line, and it was clear right away that a line brawl would ensue.

In an interview with Shane O’Brien and Scottie Upshall re-shared recently on the Missin Curfew podcast, former Flames tough guy Brian McGrattan explained that the whole thing was his idea.

Calgary had lost 13 of its previous 16 games before that infamous night, prompting Hartley to start a line of Blair Jones between McGrattan and Kevin Westgarth, with Ladislav Smid and Chris Butler on defence.

“We got called into the office… And Bob said, ‘Listen, nobody else in that room deserves to start the game tonight. You guys had a good game, you have not started a game all season, I’m going to start you tonight in Vancouver.’ And he left it at that,” McGrattan said.

McGrattan and Westgarth were both considered enforcers at the time, though the other three Flames starters were not exactly goons.

But that didn’t stop McGrattan from hatching the plan.

“We left the room and I just pulled everybody together and said, ‘F*ck it, let’s just fight ’em.’ Like, who cares if we lose another game? We’re not making the playoffs. Let’s just fight them. We hate these guys probably more than any other team in the league. And if they dress their fourth line, let’s fight them.”

Tortorella said after the game that he chose not to respond by starting the Sedins because it would have put them at risk.

But McGrattan says he wouldn’t have fought those two-star players.

“Torts got all f*cking out of whack on if he would have dressed the Sedins,” McGrattan said. “Those guys [are] in the Hall of Fame. I never fought or jumped a player like that. If they would have [started] that line, legit I would have dumped the puck in and waited ’til the next shift to fight [their fourth line]. The plan was to fight the fourth line, not the Sedins.”

Tortorella instead responded by starting a line of Kellan Lain, Tom Sestito, and Dale Weise, with Kevin Bieksa and Jason Garrison paired on defence. That was music to McGrattan’s ears.

“They dressed the fourth line, and I was like, ‘Game on, baby,'” he said.

Eight players were credited with two seconds of ice time in the game before getting ejected due to getting into altercations after the first fight had begun. The only two players on the ice to not get ejected, other than goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Karri Ramo, were McGrattan and Sestito because they were technically involved in the first fight.

“They got booted. I planned the whole thing and got to stay in the game,” said McGrattan.

Among the players ejected was Lain, who was playing in his first NHL game. He went on to play eight more NHL games during his pro hockey career.

Bieksa earned the only faceoff win of his career on the play, as the defenceman lined up at centre so he could fight Westgarth.

O’Brien was in Calgary’s lineup but started on the bench and wasn’t expecting to play many minutes. The legendary partier said he stayed out late the night before in Vancouver. He went on to play 21:26.

“I go from f*cking staying out past curfew in Vancouver, thinking I’ll play four minutes, to playing like 24. I’m out there just f*cking dying,” O’Brien said.

Torts storms the dressing room

McGrattan also played a key role in Tortorella’s attempt to fight Hartley during the first intermission. Tortorella tried storming the Flames’ dressing room after the first period ended, getting close to throwing punches with Calgary’s bench boss.

But the 6-foot-4 McGrattan put a stop to that by pushing Tortorella aside. But he thought about doing more than that.

“I was gonna drop my glove and drop Torts,” said McGrattan, who admitted to looking around for a camera, but never found the one in the ceiling. “In hindsight, I’m glad it ended the way it did.”

O’Brien, who was at odds with his own head coach, may have wished for a different result.

“I’m not glad, I wish you would’ve let Torts through.”

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