In NHL debut, lifelong Flames fan Cale Makar scores playoff winner — against the Flames
He started the weekend by winning NCAA player of the year before flying to Denver to make his pro debut
Tiger Woods' weekend had nothing on Cale Makar's.
The 20-year-old Calgary native —and former Brooks Bandit — launched his NHL career Monday night with the Colorado Avalanche against his favourite childhood team, the Flames, in positively Hollywood fashion.
He scored his first NHL goal, which turned out to be the winner, as the Avs defeated the Flames 6-2 in Game 3.
Colorado now leads the best-of-seven series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Wednesday night at the Pepsi Centre in Denver.
Cale's euphoric father Gary, in a Tuesday-morning interview with the Calgary Eyeopener, described the events of the past three days as "surreal."
Here's why.
Cale started the weekend on Friday night by winning the Hobey Baker Award for outstanding college player in the NCAA.
On Saturday night, he played in the NCAA hockey final, where his No. 1 ranked UMass Minutemen lost to Minnesota-Duluth.
The on Sunday, he signed a three-year contract with the Colorado Avalanche.
And on Monday morning, around 10:30 a.m., Cale received a phone call from Avs president Joe Sakic, informing him that he was dressing for that night's game against the team he grew up following — the Calgary Flames.
He made it to Denver and was in the lineup for Game 3 of the first-round series.
Expecting to take a few shifts and not much more, Cale instead was cheered wildly by Avs fans every time he touched the puck, who erupted when he scored the goal that turned out to be the winner.
For father Gary — who, until Sunday, was a huge Flames fan — the experience was a bit of a fever dream.
"It's quite a little crescendo when you sit back and look at it," he said.
At the same time, he said the trick to managing such a series of extraordinary events is to stay in the moment, like a certain golf legend managed to do on the back 9 at Augusta Sunday, when he held off a new generation of golfers to win the Masters at the age of 43.
"You take it one moment at a time," Gary said about his son's approach to hockey.
"But it really is about having that growth mindset to be able to just make sure you can deal with things — and there's going to be a ton of good and bad coming at you. ... He's done a pretty good job of doing that."
As far as being mom and dad in the stands of a playoff frenzy in Denver, that was something else altogether.
"Honestly I don't know if I've ever even heard a building that loud," he said. "Not even in the world juniors in Buffalo [in 2018, where Cale represented Canada as an 18-year-old and made the all-star team, as Canada won the gold medal]."
"It's just that's the way the Pepsi Center is designed and everybody with the white pom-poms is absolutely insane. So just really a surreal moment."
As far as Cale goes, Gary said he's cool as ice on blades.
"Nothing really fazes him," Gary said. "He never gets too excited and never gets too down and just goes about his business."
On the other hand, he is 20. And that was his first NHL goal.
In the playoffs.
Against his favourite team.
"Was he excited?" his father said. "Absolutely. And he maybe said he was going to get a framed puck."
Cale's typically even-keeled demeanor came from growing up and being taught to take the good and bad in stride by his parents and grandparents — and through exposure to the upper echelons of Calgary's hockey community.
Both Makar boys — Cale and brother Taylor — got a first-hand look at a player like Matt Dumba, a few years older, who went from playing in the Crowchild Minor Hockey Association to the NHL, where he's now with the Minnesota Wild.
"Matt was '94 born, so to see a local kid right near you having great success, it kind of brings the realization home," Gary said. "With hard work, great attitude and proper guidance and a good team around you, things are possible."
As of Tuesday, Cale's parents don't even know if he'll be in back the Avs' lineup on Wednesday, but the Makars are making the best of it in Denver.
"The Avalanche have been fantastic and they've they've brought us in here and put us up and we definitely will be going to the Wednesday game and, at this point, don't know if he'll be in the lineup or not," Gary said.
The challenge remains, however, of choosing which team to root for in the rest of the series: Their hometown Flames? Or their son's Avalanche?
"We're huge Flames fans and have closets full of stuff so, yeah, I'm sure there's a few people that aren't too happy with us," said Gary, who admitted to waving Avs' pom-poms and donning a glowing wristband during the Game 3.
When pressed to pick a side, Gary aimed for the middle of the fairway.
"I don't even want to go there," he said. "Make it a long series, and either way, it's going to feel like we won."
— With files from the Calgary Eyeopener
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