from Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe,

“I remember saying when I was younger if I had a choice I’d rather win it (Stanley Cup) near the end of my career than at the beginning and never win again,” Iginla said. “I maybe shouldn’t have said that. I should have said I’d rather win at the beginning and the end and the middle.

“That’s what I should have said. That’s what I was really hoping for.”

He laughs now, ruefully. He has come from a post-practice workout with Zdeno Chara, another 36-year-old trying to hold back the hands of time. Iginla has left a place that was his home for nearly half of his life, coming to a new team and a new country, searching for what he couldn’t find with the Flames.

On his last day in Calgary, Iginla couldn’t play, couldn’t risk being injured, so he didn’t get to skate with the Flames a final time. It was just over. Conroy remembers him saying, “It’s disappointing. I just wanted to do it for the city. They’ve been so great to me. I wanted to be able to give them back a Stanley Cup, and I wasn’t able to do it.”

He always wanted to win it in Calgary, to justify that love affair. He couldn’t. Now he moves on, and tries to win one for himself.

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