Back to the future

As most of you probably know by now, the Flames unveiled their much anticipated vintage getups today in honour of the club's 30th season. The uniforms, complete with red helmets, will be worn five times throughout the season when the Flames play other Canadian clubs, including opening night when they host the rival Canucks. I love the jerseys, and am glad the Flames have finally jumped on the vintage bandwagon, as it seems almost every other Canadian team has already donned their old-school duds. Elsewhere on the interweb, some fans are unhappy with the idea of a 30th anniversary crest, which was revealed earlier this summer by the always knowledgeable icethetics.

The crest can be added to any jersey for free at Fanattic locations citywide, from what I've gathered, and will appear on Saddledome ice for the duration of the season. I have no problem with the Flames celebrating their 30th anniversary, it's an important milestone considering this team almost didn't make it to 20. I actually don't mind the crest, I think it's creative and different, but I can see how it might take some getting used to. Final verdict: Pass. I hope to add one of these jerseys to my collection in the near future.

PS: did anybody else notice how Jim Peplinski is wearing jersey number 24 (now Conroy's number) complete with the captain's 'C'? Irony? Weird future premonition? Me reading too much into an innocent photo op? Who knows.

PPS: Jason Smith retired today. I don't know about everyone else but I totally did not see that one coming. I've always had a certain affinity for the hometown boy, a hardworking, stay-at-home defenceman who never gave anything but his best. It's too bad he spent most of his career as an Oiler. Sad to see him go.

Elsewhere in the league--the Canucks officially announced the signing of Roberto Luongo to a 12-year/$64 million extension today. Another one of those iffy front-loaded deals, not unlike those awarded to Hossa and Pronger earlier this summer, that will see Luongo earn significantly less towards the end of the contract, when the captain will be 42 years of age. Although Luongo's extension won't kick in until the 2010-2011 season, the Canucks are already over the cap, which means they will likely have to shed salary before the start of the regular season.

The Flames rewarded their season ticket holders today by sending Dustin Boyd, Cory Sarich, Curtis McElhinney, and Jamie Lundmark door-to-door to deliver the tickets to a few lucky Calgarians selected at random. I'm assuming Jarome Iginla, Dion Phaneuf, Miikka Kiprusoff, and Robyn Regehr all had other plans? Nonetheless, I'm extremely jealous. The footage of Evgeni Malkin delivering season tickets to unsuspecting Pittsburgh fans still takes the cake, I'm not quite sure he realized what he was getting himself into. So cute. Anyways, now is not the time for details about my embarrassing crush on the goofy-looking Penguins centre; perhaps another day.