Cup or no Cup, Jarome Iginla was an all-time great
The former Calgary Flames star refuses to allow the fact that he was robbed of a Stanley Cup and Hart Trophy put a damper on his Hall of Fame career
As the newly minted Hockey Hall of Famers put their fists together to display their induction rings, you couldn’t help but be struck by the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. You had championship hogs Ken Holland, Kevin Lowe, Marian Hossa and Kim St-Pierre flanked by Doug Wilson and also Jarome Iginla, who officially became a part of the Society for the Greatest NHL Players Ever to Not Win a Stanley Cup.
It should not have been this way for Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla. He was robbed of a Stanley Cup in 2004 when his teammate Martin Gelinas scored a goal in overtime of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final against the Tampa Bay Lightning that would have counted if the league had been using video review. Two years earlier, he was robbed of the Hart Trophy when he finished in a dead heat with Montreal Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore, with Theodore winning on the basis of more first-place votes. It was later discovered that a Montreal writer did not have Iginla among his top five choices for the award, which was absurd.
But as Iginla accepted his high honors from the Hall of Fame Friday afternoon with his trademark ear-to-ear grin, he did not look like someone who had been robbed of anything. A biracial son of a single mother making it to the NHL and playing 20 years? No chance that he feels shortchanged.
“No I don’t,” said Iginla whose official induction will be held Monday night. “I would have loved to win (the Hart Trophy), but to me it’s an opinion. The Stanley Cup one obviously hit more. That was a stinger.”
Iginla will have to be content with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, plus his two Rocket Richard Trophies, his scoring title and his Lester B. Pearson (now Ted Lindsay) Award as MVP voted by the players. He didn’t win a Stanley Cup, but he has two Olympic gold medals, a gold medal at each of the World Junior and World Championship, a World Cup and two Memorial Cups. If you’re looking for the good-guy angle, look no further than his King Clancy Award (for humanitarian work), his Mark Messier Leadership Award and his NHL Foundational Player Award.
But perhaps Iginla’s greatest achievement was simply making the NHL. When Iginla was growing up in the Edmonton suburb of St. Albert, he didn’t see a lot of kids playing hockey who looked like him. And if that wasn’t enough, he certainly stood out the first time he tried out for a team. He talked about his hometown and how driven people are there, how good the minor hockey is and how competitive it was. He also talked about his humble beginnings and how it took him a couple of years to play for the rep teams.
“I can only imagine how I looked, I wish my grandpa had taken a picture,” Iginla said. “I had tried once on the outdoor rink, and my grandparents had somebody’s old tube skates in their basement. My aunt and her boyfriend were 20, and they took me down the street and I tried it once. The next year I got signed up to play. I don’t know how that happened. At tryouts it’s only my second time on the ice and my grandpa thought they were going to give us jerseys – which is fair, right? I had no socks, no jersey and I’m out there trying to do my circles. I didn’t know any better. My first year I got placed in the worst league, the second year I got placed in the second-worst league and by the third year I was up with my normal age group.”
And it wasn’t long before Iginla was dominating with his peers. By the time he got to the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League, he was a boy-man playing with future NHLers Shane Doan, Darcy Tucker, Tyson Nash and Jason Strudwick. The day he found out he had made Canada’s 1996 World Junior team was the same day he learned his rights had been traded from the Dallas Stars to the Calgary Flames for Joe Nieuwendyk, who would go on to lead the Stars to a Stanley Cup en route to winning the Conn Smythe Trophy. Upon hearing he had been traded to Calgary, he had two questions. Originally thinking he had been dealt to the Calgary Hitmen, he first wondered why Kamloops would trade him. Once he learned the Stars, who had taken him 11th overall in 1995, had dealt him, he immediately wanted to know what he had done wrong. The Stars had to assure him that he was guilty of nothing. In fact, he had been so good that the Stars were able to get a player of Nieuwendyk’s ilk in return for him.
So, no, Jarome Iginla does not feel cheated or shortchanged. He had a wonderful career and carried himself with as much class as any NHL player has ever displayed. He doesn’t have a Stanley Cup, but he does have the enduring memory of having the puck in the corner and hearing Sidney Crosby say, “Iggy!” before the golden goal at the 2010 Olympics. Crosby was born for that moment. It turns out, so was Iginla.
“I got to be on the ice for that?” Iginla said, still a little incredulous. “We’re throwing our gloves off and it was literally like we were 10 years old again. That’s when you’re on the outdoor rink and how you would imagine it would be. The more on the line, the more fun it is. But it doesn’t always go for you. What’s that line from Wide World of Sports? The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”