The buzz that Matthew Tkachuk created in Calgary Wednesday made its way across the entire National Hockey League. But inside NHL dressing rooms, players were also marvelling at 39-year-old Jarome Iginla’s Gordie Howe hat trick in what might have been his final game in Calgary.
Iginla had a goal, an assist, and picked a fight with Deryk Engelland, one of the NHL’s toughest customers who is five years younger and a bigger body than Iginla. But it was the old man who left the ice with the ultimate prize: a uniform stained with the other guy’s blood.
“Iggy still has it, eh? Love it!” gushed San Jose’s Joe Thornton. “He’s a warrior. He scores, he fights, he hits… And he’s still doing it at 39.”
Iginla has entered that rare zone where players are honoured to trade punches with him, as weird as that might sound. He’s a walk-in Hall of Famer, and who wouldn’t want to have a player of that pedigree on their fight card when they’re telling war stories years from now.
“I hit (Anze) Kopitar and I heard him coming,” Engelland told Calgary Herald writer Kristen Odland. “It was memorable, for sure. I don’t think there are many guys that have done what he’s done around the league that are as tough as him and are willing to fight.
“For him to want to fight you, it goes to show how tough he is.”
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Up in Edmonton, big Milan Lucic was glued to his TV as the Kings and Flames played one of the most spirited games on the NHL’s 2016-17 schedule.
“As a guy I really looked up to as a teenager, it was great to see him have a great game back in Calgary,” said Lucic, a teammate of Iginla’s in Boston who has never tangled with the Kings vet. “Stepping up and fighting Deryk Engelland, as a 39-year-old guy he’s shown everyone he’s still able to play and compete. And be the Jarome Iginla that we know in this league.”
“He’s incredible,” said Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, who was 14 months old when Iginla scored his first NHL goal (in the ’96 playoffs). “His stamina… He gets hit in the head and it’s like, nothing. He just adapts. I watched him as a kid, and it’s always cool to play against him. He doesn’t have to fight anyone (anymore).”
Will Iginla hang ‘em up after this season? That’s a state secret for Jarome.
I suspect he’ll talk it out with wife Kara at their Colorado home, and make a family decision. They have two sons and a daughter, and you wonder if another move is in the cards — especially for a short-term deal.
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Hall Shot
Was L.A.’s Drew Doughty taking a shot at Taylor Hall this week, when he was asked if the disappearance of the Kings’ size advantage over the Edmonton Oilers had swayed that rivalry towards the Oilers?
“I don’t even notice that advantage, to be honest,” said Doughty. “The thing I do notice about their team the most is that their top guys — their forwards — want to play defence now. In the past, I feel like their top guys were just worried about getting points and weren’t worried about playing defence.”
It should be said that long-time Oilers Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are both playing a better brand of defensive hockey, even if their production is down. But Hall is the only top-six forward who has departed.
“That’s the biggest thing I see: they’re all responsible in both ends of the ice,” Doughty added. “That’s what creates a winning team, and that’s why they’re in a playoff spot.”
•••
Honest Mistake
Do you ever wonder what happens when an NHL referee flat out blows a call that costs a team a goal? Here’s a story from the other night:
The Oilers were leading the Kings 2-1 game with a delayed penalty coming to the Kings. A pass from behind the net went towards a Kings defenceman in the slot, and referee Steve Kozari must have assumed the Kings player would touch the puck. He blew the whistle as the puck went into the feet of the Kings defenceman, and when he missed the puck and Zack Kassian scored to make it 3-1, a crucial goal had to be discounted.
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What does an NHL ref do? He goes to Edmonton’s bench, admits his mistake, and later apologizes to Kassian. Of course the Oilers are mad, but what are you going to do? Everyone screws up now and again.
Said Kassian, who has had four potential goals disqualified this season for various reasons: “I told him, ‘You can pay me back by, next time when I lose my marbles, don’t throw me out of the game.’”
Notice how he said when and not if?
•••
Time to Leggo
Speaking of referees, Mike Leggo will work his final game this Sunday in Los Angeles, wrapping up a distinguished 20-year, 1,200-plus games NHL career.
“Too many memories,” Leggo wrote in a text, “but mostly the feeling of walking through the tunnel and on to the ice feeling the energy of the crowd, and the anticipation of the challenge. That is a memory I will always keep in my heart and head.
“Getting to be on the ice with Gretzky, Messier etc. was a special memory from long ago. But when I think about it, it seems like yesterday.”
Officials never do playoff games in their final season. That way they can have a definitive final game, with friends and family in attendance. They also get to choose the other three zebras for the game.
•••
Av Nots
So, you think your team should deal for Matt Duchene, do you? Well, before you give up too many first-rounders, check these stats from a guy who gets first-line minutes and top-unit power-play time:
• Duchene is pointless in eight games prior though he did score in the shootout in Colorado’s win Friday over the Blues.
• He has one point in 20 games.
• Normally a 60-point player, Duchene has 17-20-37 this season and is minus-36.
Some in Denver will tell you that Duchene has taken this season too hard. That he hasn’t been able to cope with the losing because he cares too much.
But for $6 million (signed through 2018-19) don’t you buy a little mental resiliency as well? Gabriel Landeskog has just 14 assists and 29 points, way down from his usual 55-60 point production.
“If you look at everybody up and down our lineup, we’re on pace for the worst offensive season of their careers,” defenceman Erik Johnson told the Denver Post’s Terry Frei in a provocative interview last week. “It’s just been a terrible year for everyone.”
Johnson, like everyone, is expecting wholesale changes this summer.
“I think up and down the organization, everything needs to be assessed and I’m sure it will,” he said. “We’re the worst team in 20 years and that falls on first and foremost, the top players on this team.”
Colorado needs a president who knows hockey. A guy like Bob Nicholson, who arrived in Edmonton, watched the operation for a while, then told the owner, “We need a proper, experienced GM, who can hire a proper coach and scouting staff.”
Joe Sakic is that former great player who is not a great GM, in our opinion.
•••
Joonas —–
Do you ever wonder if European players are more open and honest in their native tongue, with reporters from their homeland?
Well, my good friend Jouni Nieminen, who strings for various Finnish outlets, had a nice chat with countryman Joonas Donskoi the other day, and was kind enough to forward us a translation.
On his season (just 6-9-15 in 57 games): “Well, it has gone terribly. I have to improve a lot. The strengths of my game are two-way play, winning one-on-one battles and going to the net. But those have been lacking lately as well, so it is time I look in the mirror. Time to put the work coveralls on.”
On his San Jose Sharks’ slump: “We’re going to stay positive. We are going to the playoffs, we know what the potential of this group is. We have to find our game, get back in the winning ways and move on.
“There’s no reason to put your head in your ass.”
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