Flames to honour legends at camp

There are few figures who tower quite as high as Lanny Mcdonald and Jarome Iginla in the history of the Calgary Flames.

Geoff Ward, the Flames' head coach, wants his players to understand that history.

When the Flames take to the ice for the first day of training camp on Monday, the team's going to be divided into two groups that will be named after the two iconic Flames.

Team Iginla will practice in the morning. Team Mcdonald in the afternoon.

It's a convenient way to break the 41 players who will be at the first day of camp into two groups, but it means more than that to Ward.

“I think it's important to have tradition involved in what you're doing now,” Ward said. “Tradition brings prestige to your club. I think it brings an awareness for young players of what they want to aspire to. When you're talking about these two players, they're franchise players. We want our players to aspire to be franchise players.”

Team Iginla and Team Mcdonald will face off in two intrasquad games on Thursday and next Monday. Competitive to the core, the two Flames legends are apparently already placing wagers on the teams that bear their names.

“In texting with Lanny and Jarome the other day, they've got money on the intrasquad games,” Ward said. “There's just a lot of fun that's built into it what will carry over to our players.

“It will bring attention to the history of the Flames that maybe some of our young guys haven't researched yet.”