After 20 years, hockey still fun for Jarome Iginla

BOSTON --Game No. 1 doesn't really count.
It's an odd quirk, but the first game Jarome Iginla played in his NHL career -- one among the 1,500 he will have played after the Colorado Avalanche face the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, CITY, TVA Sports, ALT, NHL.TV) -- isn't actually among that 1,500.

That's because his first game was a Stanley Cup Playoff game, Game 3 of the first round between the Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks on April 21, 1996. Iginla had an assist and three shots; with that, a career that would last at least 20 seasons, 614 goals, 665 assists, and those 1,500 regular-season games had commenced.
"The night before I didn't expect to play, and to get called up … I'm literally watching highlights and all of a sudden I got to play with Theoren Fleury and shooting against Ed Belfour and going down on [Chris] Chelios and battling against [Jeremy] Roenick," Iginla said. "It was literally like one night you're just a fan, watching the highlights, and all of a sudden I'm playing."
He had been called at 1 a.m. that day, his contract negotiated but not signed, by then Calgary general manager Al Coates. Iginla landed in Calgary from Kamloops, British Columbia, at 10:30 a.m. for the 1 p.m. playoff game and was brought down to the dressing room to be introduced around.

As Coates recalled three years ago, "He's going around and shaking everybody's hands, introducing himself to the team and Fleury said to him, 'Sit down, put your stuff on, we don't have time for this. You can meet everybody after the game.'
"I remember Theo saying to me either after that first [game] or the second game, 'You can play that guy with me any day. I'll take it.'"
They played together for three more seasons in Calgary, starting with 1996-97, when Iginla played all 82 games and scored 21 goals. Iginla has rarely stopped playing since. He has played a full 82 games in 11 of his 20 NHL seasons, including each of the past two, and has played in all 25 games for Colorado this season.
That's why this milestone is, perhaps, different than some of the others, those for goals or points.
"I think it's more of an appreciation," Iginla said. "Just makes me look back and realize and know and remember how fortunate I've been to get to play that long. Every year has been a ton of fun. Every year. Lots of them didn't go the way we would have liked, but they're still fun. It's been a great job and I've been extremely blessed to stay healthy. … To play and be healthy, a lot of that is even more so out of my control. So I probably feel even more appreciative of that one."
He dreamed of playing in the NHL his whole life, but he never really dreamed of playing this long, playing this many games. He just kept playing, kept succeeding, kept going. He played with guys he idolized, guys whose hockey cards he collected, all of whom -- with the exception of Florida Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr -- are now retired.
"I was actually looking to get his rookie card when I was younger," Iginla said of Jagr. "That's the only guy left. And it's gone fast. It really has. And I guess that's the way life goes."

No. 1,500 will move Iginla past Mike Modano for 16th all-time in games played; Steve Yzerman is up next at 1,514 and Brendan Shanahan after that at 1,524. Last week he passed Phil Housley (1,495), which he said was special because the two were once teammates with the Flames.
Should Iginla play in the remaining 57 games on Colorado's schedule, he would end up at 1,556 games played, moving him past Johnny Bucyk (1,540) and Alex Delvecchio (1.549), and putting him 12th in NHL history.
There is no telling how many games he will play beyond that.
Iginla will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, his 40th birthday, and has made no decisions on whether he will play a 21st season.
"I remember watching guys like when [Teemu] Selanne was debating and [Nicklas] Lidstrom and Mark Recchi; it's year-to-year," Iginla said. "I'd always be like, 'Oh, they know for sure if they're playing or not.' Now I totally understand it, I totally do. And I realize that they didn't [know] because I don't know.
"I know I'm not playing that much longer no matter what it is, and then take it as it comes. I don't know. I don't know if I'll play again, or I may."

Either way, he knows that it will leave a void, when he leaves the game behind. He will get a chance to spend more time with his family, with his wife and kids. He will get to watch them compete, and feel the joy that he has always known that his parents and grandparents have felt in watching him.
But it won't be the same, not after two decades and at least 1,500 games; wins and losses, exhilaration and defeats, with many of the latter still crystal clear in his mind -- the loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, the four-game sweep by the Boston Bruins of his Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2013 Eastern Conference Final, the Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Second Round to the Canadiens with the Bruins in 2014.
"I realize that I'm going to miss it," Iginla said. "People retire, you hear about the adjustment of oh, well, it's been what we do and all that. But I'm also going to miss it because it's fun. It's a ton of fun. It's not just what I'm used to, it's fun to come to the rink and compete and get ready to battle and win, and I'm going to miss that. But hopefully for now, just looking forward to literally next game."
No. 1,500.