17 Years Ago Today: Flames Trade for Jokinen/Leopold

[Strange Brew]

Yeah that was a glorious deadline day.

Goes to show that you can't always judge these things in the moment. Although hard to be critical of what they did, even in hindsight.

[Yeah_Baby]

What's ever weirder is a few seasons later when they traded Jokinen at the deadline and then he came back on July 1.

[MPE907]

That Flyers game on March 5 was my first ever Flames game I saw live. Flames were up 4-0 after the first, went on to win 5-1. Jokinen Cammalleri and Iginla looked dominant and I thought for sure that team was going on a deep playoff run that year.

Awesome memories from that game but that season still haunts me

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Man having Kipper in net was the best thing to happen for a Flames fan.

You just knew he would never give up any soft goals and never worried about goaltending for all those years.

Too bad we couldn't score.....

Kipper gave up some softies. His kryptonite was a bad angle goal from the icing line.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

I'm pretty sure the first OJ game was a PPV that we all happily paid for.

We were so horny for a number one centre to finally play with Iginla. Turns out they fit was awful and OJ just wasn't enough of a disturber.

That payoff series against Chi though. That's when I truly started to lose Chelsea Dagger.

In hindsight I don't know why it was thought they would be a good fit. They both seemed to be puck carriers and shooters. Didn't complement each other well at all.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

In hindsight I don't know why it was thought they would be a good fit. They both seemed to be puck carriers and shooters. Didn't complement each other well at all.

Because he was a big centre and they're hard to find.

But yeah, we had beer goggles.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Kipper gave up some softies. His kryptonite was a bad angle goal from the icing line.

When you're playing 70+ games a year you are bound to give up a few softies. There were always a few posters that never seemed to appreciate him for some reason.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

I remember that first Jokinen game too. We were cup bound!
Oh how sports can be so cruel, absolutely no where near it then or since.

The Flames finally had that elusive #1 centre to play with Iginla.....

To be fair though Jokinen was the Flames leading scorer that playoffs, with 5 points in 6 games. This was an era where only about 10 centres a year had 80+ points.

The Flames lose two 1 goal games at the beginning of the series in heartbreaking fashion, claw their way back to a tied series, but then come out totally flat for the last two games:

https://www.nhl.com/schedule/playoff...-vs-blackhawks

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

When you're playing 70+ games a year you are bound to give up a few softies. There were always a few posters that never seemed to appreciate him for some reason.

Sebc! where is that dude?

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Most people agreed that we were cup bound.

I remember the exchanges in the few days following with friends, frenemies and complete randoms. That was the only time calgary sounded like edmonton does every spring.

Jokinen's debut performance was massive too. Felt like we finally had it figured out.

[redmile04]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

The Flames had a bunch of injured guys on the back end after the TDL. I feel like they could've gone on a bit of a run if they were a bit healthier.

Big time especially since we lost the division because of the injuries/not enough players, went from St. Louis to Chicago..

[OldDutch]

It was actually the Toronto game where Joker scored after flipping the puck over a Leafs defender and wacking it in. That was when I hit peak delusion.