MONTREAL — It is justice that Calgary’s Murray Edwards and Boston’s Jeremy Jacobs, the two owners who were most prominent in sniffing haughtily at the players across the table during collective bargaining meetings in New York the first week of December, were undone last week by, of all people and of all things, a player exercising his rights.
The Flames, mismanaged to an amateurish degree almost all the way back to their last playoff series victory in 2004, wanted to trade Jarome Iginla to the Bruins, a club that has overcome its equestrian owner on the way to becoming a model operation.
You may have heard something about that.
You may have heard something about Calgary general manager Jay Feaster informing Boston counterpart Peter Chiarelli during midday on Wednesday that the B’s in fact had won the limited bidding for Iginla, who had a no-move clause but who had included Boston as one of the four teams for which he would have been willing to waive it.
The Bruins were on the list, yes, but the likelihood is Iginla included Boston (as well as Los Angeles and Chicago) as a safe haven only if he could not get to Pittsburgh. Apparently that never occurred to Feaster or any of the other people in Calgary’s upper (lower case)management.
Feaster made his verbal commitment to Chiarelli even though he had not gotten authorization from Iginla to do so. Moreover, Chiarelli somehow accepted this as a done deal even though he as a done deal even though he was denied permission to speak to Iginla, which should have prompted flags — as red as the ones that flew from every vehicle in southern Alberta during the 2004 run to the Stanley Cup final — to go up in the Boston executive suite.
Iginla wanted no part of Boston when Pittsburgh, and the chance to play with Sidney Crosby and to play with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, became an option. Evgeni Malkin, became an option. Or, as Iginla said at his farewell press conference on Thursday in Calgary, “The opportunity to go play on a team with the two best players in the world … as a player I wanted that opportunity.”
Chiarelli was left empty-handed. Feaster was left with a whole of ’splainin’ to do, which, much like Lucy Ricardo, he couldn’t begin to accomplish. Did someone say, Ryan O’Reilly?
Calgary and Boston had it all figured out. Employees of Mr. Edwards and Mr. Jacobs were on their way to a deal. But then Mr. Iginla asserted his rights, and the two owners were left at the table without a chip to play.
It wasn’t New York in December anymore.
Gordie Howe turns 85 today just 11 days after Bobby Orr celebrated his 65th birthday.
It is worth noting in tributes to Mr. Hockey, who is spending his days in Texas living with his son (and one-time linemate) Marty, and in bitter-sweet recollection of No. 4, that Howe played his final NHL season in 1979-80, one year after Orr was forced to retire.
The man who defined the Original Six Era still was going at it at age 52, while it was over at the age of 30 for the playerwho changed it all and created the modern game at the dawn of expansion before it was snuffed by trap-happy, safety first zealots behind the bench.
Imagine Howe wielding those elbows now to create space for himself. Imagine Orr going coast to coast. They are from a different time, theseGods of Hockey, but they are ours to cherish and to thank and to wish good health forever.
Would the Rangers take impending free agent winger Ryan Clowe from San Jose in exchange for, say, Brian Boyle and a third-rounder? Sure thing. But would the Sharks make that deal? Extremely unlikely. And why in the world would Rangers general manager Glen Sather be willing to yield more than that when not even Hans Brinker, let alone Clowe, could close all the holes springing in the Blueshirts’ dike?
The Rangers don’t have a first rounder in the upcoming draft— sent to Columbus in the Rick Nash deal—but have a couple of extra thirds coming their way, one from Florida for Wojtek Wolski, another from Nashville in a selection swap last year.
The Blueshirts will forfeit their third to Columbus as part of the third to Columbus as part of the Nash deal if they reach the — ahem—conference finals.
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. Meanwhile, in 2008 and 2009 when the Penguins first lost the final in six to Detroit before capturing the Stanley Cup a year later by winning in seven,Marc-Andre Fleury was 30-14 witha 2.31 goals against average and .919 save percentage. In the three years since, during which the Penguins have won only one series, Fleury is 12-14 with a GAA of 3.12 and a savepercentageof .879. Just a buyer beware disclaimer.
larry.brooks@nypost.com