Whether he knows it or not, the man is on a hunt for lodgings in the high-rent district. Strictly Central Park West real estate calibre, understand.
Jarome Iginla(notes) starts off the 2010-11 National Hockey League season Thursday night 89th in career points, at 920, five ahead of Bobby Orr.
Even a decent season will see him pass, among others, Davey Keon (a nostalgic name for us oldsters, who, while stopping short of keeping the buzz cut, stood by the unspeakably bad Leafs in the post-'67 Cup fallout, wore No. 14 jerseys on the road in street-lamp light as if they'd been spun from holy cloth and scoured Canadian Tire for those increasingly elusive straight-bladed sticks).
Forty-six points away from Iginla is a man iconic enough to command what was in essence a state funeral, an estimated 115,000 people filing past the coffin to pay their respects at the Bell Centre. Regardless of the folly in comparing statistics from differing eras, is it no small thing to pass the Rocket, Maurice Richard.
And clutch? Iginla's 34th in game-winning goals at 70, four away from tracking down a Calgary Flames star of a bygone era, Joey Mullen. Five shy of—wait for it—Super Mario Lemieux and Marcel Dionne. A third 50-goal season and he's tied for 43rd in career snipes with Jean Ratelle. Fourteen, nothing more than a spiffy month, and he's put Theo Fleury(notes) in his rear-view mirror.
A point-a-game pace and the incandescent 1,000-point plateau is breached, too.
These are touchstone names, significant numbers.
Iginla goes in search of big game this season while attempting to rediscover his own game. It seems crazy to say, for someone who has done so much, meant so much, but this is a significant year for the captain.
You know all those bounce-back years media types keeping talking about with this club? Well, he has to bounce the highest and the furthest.
"The obvious milestones, like 1,000 points, you keep track of. But I didn't know any of those other stats,'' stammers the Flames' captain. "I honestly wasn't aware. That's … hard to believe. The names you just mentioned. To be near any of those players in any category is … so cool.
"You never think of yourself in that way. In those terms. You just don't. You just play. You just keep going. You don't stop to think. Those guys you mentioned are legends. So, yeah, it feels weird. For sure. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was just trying to get in the league. Then I had a 13-goal second season and was still wondering what kind of player I'd be. I'd always dreamed of being a goal scorer. Who doesn't? But after that second year I remember, just for a fleeting moment, thinking, 'Gee, maybe I'm not that guy.'
"Luckily for me …" He was that guy.
Flames fans pray he still is that guy.
This town became so accustomed to Iginla swooping down at the nick of time—like some chiselled Stan Lee superhero creation in tights and cape to rescue the innocent bystanders from the skyscraper inferno or halt the commuter train careening for disaster after the nefarious villain had detonated a time-controlled bomb on the tracks —that when this time the burning building actually caved in, the bystanders all perished, and the train plunged into the abyss, it was as if all the oil in the province had dried up.
Sixty-nine marked the captain's lowest point total since '05-06. Thirty-two, his fewest goals in eight seasons. One goal and a pauper's five points over the final 16 games, as the team he symbolizes found itself trapped in a messy death spiral. Hardly inspirational leadership stuff.
The ongoing rumours of friction with coach Brent Sutter's batten-down-the-hatches philosophy kept cropping up. There were too many nights Iginla had a stale, worn, jaded posture. A lack of— for want of a better term—"lift" to his game.
Vowing to be more consistent after failing to score in 32 of 82 games two years back, he came up empty in an astonishing 39 last season.
Nearing his mid-30s, on a declining team, these little peccadillos tend to get noticed.
We openly wondered if maybe he wouldn't be better off somewhere else, if only to refresh and renew (hell, he might've too, at least privately). The trade-speculation questions he fielded at season's end were unthinkable in seasons prior.
"The hardest year?'' Iginla, sitting in a blue folding chair outside the Flames' dressing room as a heavy metal rock concert sets up at the Pengrowth Saddledome, nods. "Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. For me. For the team. We had those seven in a row without making the playoffs, but in those years you were pointing upwards, trying to go from here to there, to get somewhere. You're young, you keep telling yourself, 'We're gonna get there.' Last season, with high expectations, a good team, we hit rock bottom.
"It was stressful.
"Part of my job is to score goals and we struggled in that area. I felt it. Big trades down the stretch. The pressure to reach the playoffs got to us a little bit. 'We can't miss the playoffs, we can't miss the playoffs, we can't miss the playoffs …' And we did. We weren't good enough. I wasn't good enough.
"It's tough. People laughing at us, saying, 'How could they miss the playoffs? These guys are terrible.' But we've dealt with it.
"I took a little longer break than usual. Cleared my mind. I'm ready to go. I'm excited about this season, about a philosophical shift that should make us a quicker, better offensive team.''
Alex Tanguay(notes) wasn't around the Pengrowth Saddledome last season, of course. Has no firsthand knowledge of his former and current linemate's struggles. He had his own performance issues in Tampa Bay to wrestle with.
"There are always different things that go into a season that people on the outside, reporters and fans, don't get to see or understand the way people close to him do,'' says Tanguay. "And Jarome is a pretty reserved guy. He's always trying to do what's best for everybody, so I'm not sure he'd tell you he was hurt this way or he had that problem. He's not going to let you guys know how much stuff bothers him.
"He understands last year wasn't his best and is fully aware of what he has to do to help this team. He's eager. He's motivated. Believe me, just watching him and talking to him throughout camp, he's fired up.
"Everything runs through him. He's our best player. We all got a job to do, and we'll all try to support him as best we can. But there's no doubt he's determined to play the way he's capable of, the way everybody in this city is accustomed to seeing him play, and show people that, hey, last year was a fluke.''
A self-deprecating laugh.
"He's not the only one in that situation, you know.'' Despite the accusations of dwindling motivation, due largely to the nosediving fortunes of the franchise, Iginla says he's never been more chipper.
"I have a goal of playing until I'm 40. I think I can do that at a high level. It's funny, you don't think of yourself as 'old.' But more and more of the guys I started out playing with keep retiring, even coaching in the league now, like (Bob) Boughner. Each team has so many new young guys, you can't keep track. I guess that's the progression.
"Sam Gagner (of the Oilers) was six or seven years old when I first saw him. His dad, Dave, was my first centre. I loved playing with Dave. I remember him bringing Sam down to the rink, just a kid. And now …
As we embark on another season, the mega-watt smile has returned. The glow of inner optimism has regenerated.
How long it all lasts will likely be directly correlated to what kind of season this team can carve out for itself. Iginla seems genuinely undisturbed by mushrooming doubts that these Flames are too old, too slow, and destined to miss out on the Top 8 yet again.
"Not having the same kind of outside expectations is not such a bad thing,'' he reasons. "I don't mind pressure, don't get me wrong, but let somebody else take it on for a while. As athletes, we love to compete, have fans watch us, and it's an odd thing to realize people maybe don't expect much out of our team or myself. But that's fine. Go put that pressure on the Vancouver Canucks. Let them deal with it for a while.
"I still enjoy myself. My mid-30s through to 40, I want to be productive. I want to score goals. I want to win games and Stanley Cups. The desire to do those things doesn't change just because you get older.
"Maybe it only intensifies.
"I appreciate things more now. Even if I am fortunate enough to play seven more seasons, they're going to go like''—a snap of the fingers—"that. Before you know it, it'll be over. The years go by fast.''
Too fast to let another one slip away with such little personal protest.
George Johnson's sports columns appear regularly in the Herald.
- - -
Iginla's totals
Full NHL seasons under belt … 13
Full seasons in Calgary … … . . 13
NHL games played … … . . 1,024
Goals scored … … … … … 441
Assists tallied … … … … . . 479
Points produced … … … … 920
Minutes in the sin bin … … . 726
Career playoff games … … . . 54
Playoff snipes … … … … … 28
Playoff helpers … … … … … 21
Playoff points … … … … … 49
Playoff penalty minutes … … 70
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99
Babe Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
No comments:
Post a Comment