If I was Iginla, I would have picked the Bruins

[Machiavelli]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Yes yes hindsight, but it did seem weird that he'd turn down the Bruins. Basically Iggy's list was all the teams we knew had a decent shot at the cup. After that, as we all know its a crapshoot on who will get hot and the right bounces. Not like Pitts at least in my mind were so much more likely to win than any of the other teams on his list, and IMO, Boston seemed to be more like the type of team that Iggy's persona matched. Just seemed messed up he wouldn't have taken whatever deal the Flames thought was best for them off of his list.

Shows to me that Iggy was over thinking things and I think you do that when you lose confidence. His mind set should have been, "I will be the difference on whichever of those great teams I'm sent to that will make me win the cup". In doing what he did, it was clear that his mindset was, who can "win the cup for me"

That lack of confidence has likely been reflective on the ice the ice for a while. He looked like a passenger this playoffs, he could IMO still have been a bigger difference maker.

That actually makes some sense.

[Flash Walken]

The hysterics from some of you are exactly the kind of problem some of us were talking about then, and what we're referencing now when we say Iginla's free pass had an adverse effect on his game.

Guy's a -5 on the series, is relegated to fourth line minutes and shows essentially zero emotional, mental or physical moxie out on the ice. He's playing with the league's best players, in the scenario and situation he personally chose to the detriment of the club he'd been captain of for years and he rolled out the same kind of efforts he put forth in key stretch drive games for the Flames.

Haters though. Irrational haters is what posters who question Iginla's game are.

I'm sure there are some gleeful that Iginla didn't win after picking the wrong horse. Some fans feel spurned. There is likely more fans who had their official "What an idiot this guy is," posts drawn up to rebuke 'the haters', just in case Iginla had a good game to show up those other 'haters'. I don't care either way, I have moved on from Iginla years ago.

Now that we're dealing with hindsight, can we dispatch with this absurd "iginla hater" stuff? It's browbeating from the masses and kills discussion.

Here's the news: Iginla was awful this series, not great last series and OK against the Islanders. That's the player he is now at 35, but he was the same player at 33. Is he old? Sure. Does that stop other older players from showing up and contributing more? Not in the least.

I understand these slap in the face realizations are hard to take for some people, especially when their favourite player is the subject of such realizations, but maybe keep that internal strife to yourself instead of the brutal hoop jumping and coach blaming, and chastising others for seeing it long before they did. Is Bylsma now the third or fourth delusional coach that sees Iginla as been a liability defensively? Amazing how it's never, ever the player in this situation, always someone else.

"If only he had a centre to play with."

"He'll put them over the top with leadership."

Time to put these babies to bed, I think.

[PeteLFan]

I'm sure he would have picked Boston if he had a magic ball that told him he would be in the finals.

He lost get over it. He picked a team he wanted to go to, and who wouldn't want to play with Sid and malkin?

Morrow did the same thing and he was trash these playoffs as well.

Iginla is no longer a flame, move on. We don't need 50 threads on him picking the wrong team, where will he go etc.

It's over.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Guy's a -5 on the series, is relegated to fourth line minutes and shows essentially zero emotional, mental or physical moxie out on the ice. He's playing with the league's best players, in the scenario and situation he personally chose to the detriment of the club he'd been captain of for years and he rolled out the same kind of efforts he put forth in key stretch drive games for the Flames.

Aren't you the one who said that Iginla was the most effective offensive player for Pittsburgh in game 2? I know you'll never let your own opinion get in the way of your opinion, though, so I'll stick to the facts. Iginla was not relegated to 4th line minutes. He was dropped to the 3rd line, (which clearly was the wrong decision since 4 of the 5 Bruins goals that were scored after that came against Malkin and Neal) but he played 2-4 minutes more than Morrow, Bennett and Adams last night.

[drPepper1]

I actually ally put 20 bucks down on bruins to win the cup before the playoffs started. If they win payout will be about $210. Fingers crossed

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by gargamel

Aren't you the one who said that Iginla was the most effective offensive player for Pittsburgh in game 2? I know you'll never let your own opinion get in the way of your opinion, though, so I'll stick to the facts. Iginla was not relegated to 4th line minutes. He was dropped to the 3rd line, (which clearly was the wrong decision since 4 of the 5 Bruins goals that were scored after that came against Malkin and Neal) but he played 2-4 minutes more than Morrow, Bennett and Adams last night.

He's also the guy who was drooling over Brendan Morrow despite Morrow being a totally ineffective player in anyway shape or form. An obvious bias comes into play when you see the way he evaluates two players.

[Flash Walken]

Hahaha, when you can't make an argument, make untrue ad hominem statements about a poster to someone you know agrees with you.

[trackercowe]

Acquiring all three older players (Iginla, Morrow, Murray) turned out to be a huge mistake for the Pens, as they really slowed the team down. It also forced them to keep guys like Kennedy and Bennett out of the lineup when they might have done more in limited roles than the other two wingers. They should have kept it to either Morrow or Iginla, but not both.

I actually can't believe they took Kennedy out of the lineup when he's a pretty effective third liner.

Some of the blame should go to Sherro for making these moves, and not just Bylsma and the coaches.

[Cowperson]

Some of the single digit saluting to Iginla in the Boston press. Lots of bitterness.

For for the city, for themselves, for their hobbled buddy Campbell, the Bruins want the Cup.

Of course, so did Jarome Iginla.

The difference is that the Bruins have a real shot. Iginla? He blew his in March.

Who would have thought then that by sabotaging the deal to Boston, he was diving to block his own shot.

http://www.boston.com/sports/touchin...ns-pengui.html

What goes around comes around!!!

Cowperson

[SuperMatt18]

Iginla needs to remember what it takes to win because he clearly has forgotten.

Sometime around the Keenan/Playfair changeover Iginla decided that the best thing for him and the team was to play an offense only style with no attention to detail in the defensive zone.

It was that mindset that led to issues in Calgary the last 4/5 years, and happened to be the same thing that the Pens stars decided to do this postseason.

They thought they could run over teams with their pure talent but when you aren't playing the Isles and Sens anymore and are playing a tean that is just as talented but plays a team game in all three zones they got ran over.

Iggy needs to sign in L.A. where Darryl can re-teach him how to play winning hockey come playoff time.

[Jables16]

The Bruins would have also sent Bartkowski to the Flames in the trade. He stepped in a played well when Seidenberg, Ference, and Redden were all hurt.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

Acquiring all three older players (Iginla, Morrow, Murray) turned out to be a huge mistake for the Pens, as they really slowed the team down. It also forced them to keep guys like Kennedy and Bennett out of the lineup when they might have done more in limited roles than the other two wingers. They should have kept it to either Morrow or Iginla, but not both.

I actually can't believe they took Kennedy out of the lineup when he's a pretty effective third liner.

Some of the blame should go to Sherro for making these moves, and not just Bylsma and the coaches.

I don't know how many Penguins regular season games you watched, but it was evident in April that both Morrow and Iginla were good fits with that team. The problems came when Crosby returned to the lineup and Bylsma played him as if he were at 100% when he clearly wasn't, and then when things went south, Bylsma decided that he was going to live or die with his guys. Rather than trying something crazy like playing a future Hall of Fame right winger at right wing on one of the top 2 lines or going back to the power play lineup that had been devastatingly effective, he just kept rolling Crosby, Kunitz, Malkin and Neal out there and waiting for them to do something. They never did, and it's going to cost him his job.

[CaptainCrunch]

Iginla played a power forward style during the dead puck era and that took its toll.

He decided to to lose a bunch of weight and take up yoga in an expectation of a massive change in the game, what he couldn't forsee was the rise of the high speed big fast power forward would remain prevalent and even gain a greater role in the game. Suddenly instead of going against smaller faster players in the new NHL, he was going against bigger stronger faster players who could keep up to the play. Iginla though over the last few years saw his skating drop to sub par in the NHL levels.

He became a one dimensional sniper instead of a all around powerforward.

I would argue that his vaunted leadership skills which peaked in 2004 were non existent in 2012. To me he kind of gave up anything but his reputation as a great Captain around the Keenan years. Its not that he didn't care, its just that he couldn't make players go through the wall due to his play on the ice. He became a talker and not a do'er.

I love Iggy as a player and as a member of the community, and he'll always have a spot when you talk about great Flames, but the amazing Iginla was replaced by the meh Iginla 4 years ago and he couldn't recapture it.

In a 48 game season with all of the advantages for an older player, he was a very pale shadow of his former self and a borderline NHL'er in a lot of ways.

He either needs to re-invent his game and embrace his 3 zone responsibilities or walk away from the game without a cup and as a caricature of his old self who's biggest debate is did he take too long to leave the game?

With or without the cup the guy's in the hall of fame, now its up to his pride.

[Vulcan]

One thing I try not to forget about the Iginla trade is that it was Feaster who initiated the trade, not Iginla. So there should be no hate directed Jarome's way. Part of his problem may be mental as he gets use to the idea of moving on.

Having said that, I haven't been impressed with Iginla's play in Pittsburgh, it's been even worse than his play in Calgary. In trying to fit in he's deferred to the Penguin's stars and I don't see him hustling for loose pucks or fighting hard in the corners. He needs to be a take charge guy in order to excel, in Pittsburgh he wasn't. His weaker, lighter body is showing bad results. He hasn't done himself any favours in looking for a new contract. It will be interesting to see where he goes and if he can regain some of his dominance.

[Nsd1]

If I was Jarome Iginla I would have never signed that contact extension in 07 and cashed in on my 94 point season (playing mostly with second and third liners) and signed with a team who's management knew how to run a hockey team and a team with actual skilled players so I didn't have to be the go to guy every single game. Then I wouldn't have to spend the next few years of my prime trying to recruit free agents to a failing team because the management was unable to provide me with a proper supporting cast.

Then I wouldn't have to be traded away from a city I loved and the fans wouldn't hate me for making the best decision for my career because I would want to play with the best players in the world and have a shot at the cup but they would want a mid range prospect and a defenceman nobody ever heard if before instead. And then some fans wouldn't freak out because I sold my house that I lived in for a few months a season.

But oh well I guess I'll stay loyal to the team that me and mostly kipper made relevant again and I'll beg the GM to give me five more games to try and turn the season around and maybe we can squeak into eighth every season and try to replicate the 04 run.

[calumniate]

What do you mean? I thought malkin and iginla were getting along just fine

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Iginla played a power forward style during the dead puck era and that took its toll.

He decided to to lose a bunch of weight and take up yoga in an expectation of a massive change in the game, what he couldn't forsee was the rise of the high speed big fast power forward would remain prevalent and even gain a greater role in the game. Suddenly instead of going against smaller faster players in the new NHL, he was going against bigger stronger faster players who could keep up to the play. Iginla though over the last few years saw his skating drop to sub par in the NHL levels.

He became a one dimensional sniper instead of a all around powerforward.

I would argue that his vaunted leadership skills which peaked in 2004 were non existent in 2012. To me he kind of gave up anything but his reputation as a great Captain around the Keenan years. Its not that he didn't care, its just that he couldn't make players go through the wall due to his play on the ice. He became a talker and not a do'er.

I love Iggy as a player and as a member of the community, and he'll always have a spot when you talk about great Flames, but the amazing Iginla was replaced by the meh Iginla 4 years ago and he couldn't recapture it.

In a 48 game season with all of the advantages for an older player, he was a very pale shadow of his former self and a borderline NHL'er in a lot of ways.

He either needs to re-invent his game and embrace his 3 zone responsibilities or walk away from the game without a cup and as a caricature of his old self who's biggest debate is did he take too long to leave the game?

With or without the cup the guy's in the hall of fame, now its up to his pride.

I'm surprised to see you write this, but I agree.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

One thing I try not to forget about the Iginla trade is that it was Feaster who initiated the trade, not Iginla. So there should be no hate directed Jarome's way. Part of his problem may be mental as he gets use to the idea of moving on.

Having said that, I haven't been impressed with Iginla's play in Pittsburgh, it's been even worse than his play in Calgary. In trying to fit in he's deferred to the Penguin's stars and I don't see him hustling for loose pucks or fighting hard in the corners. He needs to be a take charge guy in order to excel, in Pittsburgh he wasn't. His weaker, lighter body is showing bad results. He hasn't done himself any favours in looking for a new contract. It will be interesting to see where he goes and if he can regain some of his dominance.

My gut feeling is that behind the nice words and the Iggy hug fest press conference is that there is a real solid divide behind Iggy and the Flames. The type of divorce where the parents are nice to each other in front of the kids but utterly hate each other and throw stuff at each other behind the scenes.

Feaster and the Owner ship are probably a bit soured on the trade process. Iginla maybe bitter about perceiving that the Flames didn't do enough for him on the ice to win the cup.


There were probably a few angry words between Iggy and the owners when the Flames threw the towel in on this core and told Iggy that he was no longer in the Flames future. And then again when Iggy threw a wrench into the far superior Bruins deal.

I think its going to be a long time before you see Iggy having anything to do with the Flames organization if its his choice to participate.

Oh he'll smile and say nice things when he needs to talk about his time here. But my gut is that there a bridge burning merrily somewhere between Iggy and the Flames right now.

[Azure]

I agree that Iginla is a shell of his former self. He has been for years. Not sure what the issue is, but he didn't show up at all.

That being said, neither did Crosby and Malkin. Zero goals in the series? You are not going to win if your big guns don't show up. LA is figuring that out right now, and Chicago will figure it out as well in the Finals(should they make it) if Toews and Kane continue to do nothing.

Boston big guns are going. That is why they are winning.

[Lucifer]

I jokingly put this as my status update on Facebook yesterday about Iginla going to the finals, and continuing his quest for his first Stanley Cup had he went to the Bruins. Really, anything could have happened. The Bruins could have been eliminated in the first round for all we know.

Though, with how the Bruins have been playing in the playoffs, they may still be going to the finals. I don't know that Iggy going to the Bruins would have changed much.