I just finished watching the retirement ceremony. God damn...that was an excellent tribute by the Flames. Powerful stuff. Jarome the player, and Jarome the human. You'd be hard pressed to find a better ambassador for Calgary during his tenure here.
I still remember his first game vs Chicago in the playoffs. My mom forced me to wash the dishes at the time, so I had Peter Maher on the radio. I remember Iggy's first point and asking 'who the heck is this guy we traded Nieuwendyk for?'. Never in my life could I have imagined what would happen.
I remember following his Art Ross run in '01-'02. To me it was unreal a Flames player leading the race. A Flames player?? Unreal stuff.
I still remember his first game, and now it's all come full circle with his jersey hanging from the rafter. I'm sad to see it end. But so happy I got to experience all of it.
Next stop, HHOF.
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Ceremony was great, and clearly happy to have been there in person.
Maher was on point and didn’t ramble. Conroy with the story we’ve heard a few times these past months, the new twist was what he said to the Wings bench after the Hatcher fight game 2 after the Wings were up and winning that game....”you guys are done”. And the captaincy handoff story from Controy, mainly driven because Doan got it in Phoenix.
Iginla very good too, prepared and direct and avoided cliche as much as possible in his words.
Things I found a bit odd. Yes, Dingman, doesn’t look like a big history here, played part of 3 seasons here, then to Colorado in Fleury trade and onto Tampa. Lots of other candidates from 1996 to 2002, what about the guy he was traded with, Millen? Though even guys like Simpson. No Kiprusoff, that would’ve taken away from Iginla. My guess is the Flames do a 2004 reunion in 5 years and that is when he comes back. But Langkow, Tanguay?
Iginla almost cracked a couple times when talking about team, but otherwise no emotion.
While the Flames didn’t give him so big materialistic gift, just the donation to kidspsort in his behalf, pumping up some local artist doing a 3hr art piece got more time and significance then deserved,IMO.
Thought there would be some video comments either during the ceremony or maybe scattered through the game from others around the league.
Obviously ran over and late by probably 10 mins, and seemed to be a rushed finish or something got botched. Watching the banner go up, and then they headed back towards the seats. Iginla turned right and kept walking while his family wasn’t sure where to go. Iginla didn’t stop, kept walking, and a brief pause before leaving the ice. Not quite sure that’s how the ceremony was supposed to wrap up, as I said it seemed a bit unorganized.
But a great video from Lanny, a proper send off, and all in all a class act from the Flames without being too drawn out or laborious, as some of these tend to be..
The artist at the game, David Arrigo, did a phenomenal job last night. Incredible talent.
Wow that is amazing!! Such an amazing experience/memory last night.
__________________
"They canned a head coach, the GM is on the firing line, they're 12th in the West and just lost at home to the last place team in the NHL.
And (I am not making this up) statistically this is the Edmonton Oilers fourth best season in the last 13 years." via Rob Tychkowski's Twitter 1-23-2019
Jarome Iginla gave me this jersey a week after I had my stroke in 2002. I’ve always treasured it because it meant so much that he and his wife visited me in the hospital during such a challenging time in my life. Congratulations on the jersey retirement and thank you for so many great seasons. All the best to you, Kara, and your family. Bret
Spoiler!
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While the Flames didn’t give him so big materialistic gift, just the donation to kidspsort in his behalf, pumping up some local artist doing a 3hr art piece got more time and significance then deserved,IMO.
Excellent post, although I didn't mind the artist; btw it was David Arrigo (as Scorp posted above) -- he actually paints goalie masks for a few NHL goalies, including Mike Smith.Pretty neat he did that in less than three hours -- apparently the mural he did for Iggy's luncheon the day prior sold for $47k, Pretty impressive:
Scott Cruickshank, in the comments section of his ATHLETIC article.
Quote:
One thing Iginla definitely did not like? Getting asked about his slow starts. And so it was at the 2002 NHL Awards, with Iginla making his acceptance speech for the Lester B. Pearson Award (now Ted Lindsay) at the Hockey Hall of Fame after his 52-goal season, that he said: “My first four games, I had no goals and I remember opening the paper and reading, 'What's wrong with Jarome Iginla?' I could never have dreamed that it would go like this." In the middle of that quote, he paused and briefly, yet deliberately, made eye contact with the two Calgary reporters on site. A subtle dig, for sure. Fair enough.
Quote:
At the 1995 Memorial Cup, the writers voted on the awards as the championship game was nearing its end. As soon as the ballots had been collected -- with most reporters picking Iginla as the most sportsmanlike player -- we looked down ... and, sure enough, there was Iginla fighting one of the Detroit Jr. Red Wings.
Apologies if already posted but can someone please provide a link to the Iginla tribute video narrated by McDonald? I want to show my son before he goes to bed but for the life of me I can’t find it.
Apologies if already posted but can someone please provide a link to the Iginla tribute video narrated by McDonald? I want to show my son before he goes to bed but for the life of me I can’t find it.
28 min mark, but I rewatched the entire ceremony.
Nice to revisit a night like that - god it feels like a million years ago sitting in the dome.
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