“To these players,” says Ed Courtenay, gesturing towards his team coach, “this is the NHL.”

Remember Ed Courtenay? How could you forget. He was our stick tossing, high scoring, play making on/off player coach for three years. He was a line-mate to Theo Fleury, one of the most devastating duo’s ever to play together in British Hockey history. Yep, how ever could you forget. Well, he is still playing, still toiling out there on the minor-pro-bush-league circuit, a mercenary, a soldier of fortune, a one time NHLer now playing at a level below the British Elite League. Courtenay is in it for the money and for the love of the game and Ollie Williams of the BBC ran an excellent article on Courtenay’s journey from the NHL to Altrincham where he continues his playing career alongside the man he replaced as coach at the Giants, Tony Hand.

“As much as I wanted to get to 20 years, I was ready in year 17. But the job market out there is not the easiest, is it? Out there in the real world. And if you do have a job, you’re not giving it up to get on the dole. So it worked out for both of us: the team and myself.

— Ed Courtenay, Oct ’09

Theo Fleury, ex-Calgary Flame and of course ex-Belfast Giant, has been clean from alcohol and drug abuse for over four years now and has decided it is about time for him to get full closure on his past by putting it all in this new book and from what I can tell in the early going, nothing is being left out.

Of course the big story coming out of the book that has been in the news here in Canada is the alleged sexual abuse he was victim of as a teenager by his junior hockey coach which Theo believes triggered his descend into alcohol and eventually drugs. That story is set to run with the announcement yesterday that Theo is considering pressing charges against his former coach.

It has taken a lot for Theo to come forward with all this stuff and put it on paper but he has came along way from where he was earlier in the decade and I know like everyone who has seen him play through the years it is great to see how far he has come and long may it continue.

Now go buy the book. It will be worth it.

Theo didn’t make the Calgary Flames NHL team. He was cut in the final few days of camp after putting up four points in four games as well as a shootout winner. It wasn’t enough for the Flames management who were only going to sign Theo if he could play on the top two lines. It appears he couldn’t in their eyes. Theo addressed this at the start of the week and decided he would call it a day on his NHL career and comeback attempt but was happy to have been given the shot, to have proven to himself he could hold his own in the NHL, to pull on the Flames jersey again and to go out of the NHL on his terms and with class.

This will have done Theo’s chances of one day making the NHL hall-of-fame no harm at all and I hope he does make it in.

So now I have no choice but to root against Calgary in every game this season in the hopes they will see the errors of their way in not signing Theo. This plan is unlikely to go anywhere however because as I type this the Flames are in the middle of their first NHL game of the new season and leading 3-0.

It’s a shame it didn’t work out for the little man because the story of his comeback was of Hollywood proportions and from what I seen there was no doubt he could have hooked onto another team if he had wanted to look for other suitors and at the very least started out in the AHL to prove his worth further. He didn’t seem to want to go anywhere but Calgary and so called it a day … something that only a year or two ago seemed like he would never get the chance to do.

But if Theo wants to play some hockey still he’d be very welcome back in Belfast.

He has worked hard to get himself into good shape and if he does find a roster spot it would be one of the great comeback stories. Not just because he is an old man coming back to the elite level but what he has been through in getting his life together and beating alcoholism along the way. It would indeed make a great movie.

Calgary have their first exhibition game tomorrow night against Edmonton but Fleury is not expected to be on the ice but me might play Thursday against the Islanders. I for one will be doing my best to tune in if he is playing. Calgary certainly didn’t expect this much attention around their training camp before Theo turned up.

Theo was suspended indefinitely by the NHL when he last left the league due to substance abuse problems but has since got clean, thanks in part to his season in Belfast, and is free to play. The hard part is only beginning for Theo who has been out of the NHL for 5-years as he must now head to training camp for a team and try make the roster.

Theo has claimed he has been working out hard and is lighter than he even was in his best years … he has the hands and the head for the game and it would be great if he could indeed find the legs. He has said a number of teams are potentially interested in his services but will not name them publicly at the minute.

Here’s to him getting it done.