'Wear Blasty Every Game'

Ask not what you can do for Blasty.

Ask instead what Blasty can do for you.

For Flames forward Dillon Dube, the team's alternate uniform has brought about an uptick in offence that's become a real conversation starter in the dressing room, as well as the wider fan community.

“When you wear all black, you look a little bigger, you look a little meaner," Dube quipped Friday after practice. "It might have a trickle-down effect on everything.”

Thursday’s go-ahead marker against the Canucks was Dube’s ninth goal in a Blasty uniform since the design was revived in 2020-21 as part of the NHL’s Reverse Retro program.

An odd quirk, no doubt, but the type of quirk that players - and their teammates - notice.

“Truthfully, it is just a jersey,” Dube conceded. “It is funny, you know, all the guys before the game, they get it going a little bit.

“It’s something you can laugh about, for sure; (we should) try and wear Blasty every game, I guess.”

But Dube’s production while wearing Blasty is no laughing matter.

He’s tallied 15 points in his 19 games while wearing the threads, including a five-pack of multi-point contests and a hat-trick performance March 4, 2021 against the Ottawa Senators.

“It feels like a ways back, when I was a young guy, eyes wide open,” Dube said of his first career NHL three-goal game. “It’s always special though, I’ve got the plaque at my house; it’s a cool thing to have, to look back on, for sure."

When he scores goals, good things happen for Calgary. In all, the Flames have suffered only one regulation loss - in any uniform - in the 18 games that Dube’s lit the lamp in since the start of the 2022-23 campaign.

They're slated to wear the all-black alternate uniform a dozen more times over the course of this season, including Saturday night when the New York Islanders pay a visit to Scotiabank Saddledome. Get tickets

“I’d better get 50 goals in 12 games,” Dube joked.

“Hopefully that works out, that’s what I’m praying for.”