'Going To Be Special'

Robyn Regehr is excited that Miikka Kiprusoff is getting the praise he so richly deserves.

The pair were teammates for seven of the puck-stopper's nine seasons with the Flames, including a magical run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2004.

And with Kiprusoff's No. 34 set to be retired in March, he can't wait to re-live those memories and celebrate alongside him.

"I'm really excited that he's back, because he was such a huge part of the Flames when I was around," Regehr said. "The '04 team and the next few years, Miikka was a massive part of that. We wouldn't have had close to the success we did without him. I'm happy he agreed to come back and we can have a celebration with him and his family. It's going to be special for us and the fans to get him back in the building for his jersey retirement.

"Hopefully we can get him to talk a little more than the speech for the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. I think they got 13 words from him, so hopefully we get more than that," he added with a laugh.

Indeed, Kiprusoff was certainly not known as much of a talker, but Regehr says sometimes all you had to do was ask the right questions.

"We were in the back of the plane after a game on the road," Regehr explained. "I asked him, 'Who do you like to play in front of?' - because, as a goaltender, it's an interesting position. Everything is in front of you and you have to read everything. He told me he likes playing behind me because he knows how to read my mistakes, which I kind of took as a bad thing at first - but he told me you're pretty consistent the way you play, I realize what your strengths and weaknesses are, so I know what mistakes you're going to make so that's easy for me to deal with as a goaltender.

"He said the unpredictable players were harder to play with. So, we have this long convo at the back of the airplane as we were traveling. I really enjoyed those. He was a quiet and not a super engaging person out in public, but if you got him in the right frame of mind, we had really good conversations."

Regehr also adds that despite his quiet demeanor off the ice, he was anything but quiet when the game began.

"What was really interesting about Kipper is that he didn't speak a lot off the ice," he said. "But playing in front of him, he was one of the most vocal goalies I've ever played for and I enjoyed that. If a point shot was coming, he would yell at you if he couldn't see. If someone was at the back post, he would yell at you. It was really helpful. In his interviews - if you could get five words out of him - you were doing well, but he was very helpful on the ice, vocally."

Kiprusoff was an incredible goalie on the ice, but what Regehr says led to his ability to play so well was his commitment to the game off of it.

"His level of commitment to his routine, I've never seen players stretch as much as him," Regehr said. "When he got out of bed at home, he would stretch and then (again) at the rink. It showed with his durability and how many games he played every year. That doesn't happen by accident.

"One time, his goalie coach came in and chatted with Miikka about going through video of shooters and powerplay of the other team and Miikka kind of chuckled, so I knew something was going on and I asked Miikka, 'Why were you chuckling when he asked to look at these shooters?' He said he pre-tapes all the games and watched these players and plays at home. 'I know everything that he's going to go through already,'" he said.

"It really just goes to show what his commitment level was."

Kiprusoff played nine seasons with the Flames and after retiring in 2013, holds the franchise record for wins (305), shutouts (41), goals-against average (2.46), save percentage (.913) and games played by a goaltender (576).

His No. 34 will be the fourth jersey retired by the Flames on March 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.