Red Deer pride

The view from Red Deer is pretty good these days, for a number of reasons.

1)Both the Flames and Oilers are leading their series. That's good news because fans in this city are split pretty evenly, which is fitting for a city located smack-dab between Cowtown and the City of Champs. The Flames car flags have been out since the beginning of the playoffs, mostly because they've been sitting in the glove box for two years. Oilers car flags are available too, and are starting to make up ground on their Flames counterparts. And the Oilers fan have one up on their Red Mile rivals in terms of TV coverage, as Shaw Cable transmits the Edmonton CBC feed as opposed to the Calgary feed. Thus, in instances such as Tuesday and Thursday of this week, we see the Oilers game while Flames fans are forced to continue whining.

2)Red Deer native Chris Mason is getting his time in the spotlight as Nashville's starting goalie. Certainly, Nashville was disappointed when Tomas Vokoun went down with blood clots in his groinal region. But they knew they had a good one in Mason, who has plenty of AHL playoff experience and could be a #1 on many NHL clubs. He faced a tough test fending off the Sharks, one of the hottest teams coming into the second season, but has performed admirably.

3)Former Red Deer Rebels are also performing admirably. Everybody now knows about Dion Phaneuf and how he can kill the chances of an opponent. What they may not have known is Cam Ward can do the same thing from between the pipes. Some say he is strong, determined, willing - you can count on him. That's exactly what the Hurricanes need, after Martin Gerber decided the regular season was where his brilliance would end. Ward made several magnificent saves in getting his mates back in the series with Montreal.

All in all, Red Deer is nuts for hockey right now.