Al MacInnis: Forever A Flame

On February 27th the Calgary Flames will honor Al MacInnis with Forever A Flame.  In a game against St. Louis Blues, Al MacInnis will be honored with a pre-game ceremony with his family in the Saddledome.  MacInnis will be the first member of the Forever A Flame program in what the Flames hope will be a very successful program in the future with all the great talent the team has.

Drafted in 1981, MacInnis endeared himself to the Flames family, assistant captain who helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 1989, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

As I continued reading the press release something struck me as surprising:

"The Flames have established a tradition that permits Flames of the future, with an opportunity to proudly wear the numbers of some of the Flames all-time greats. A special banner for the honouree will be hoisted and remain on permanent display at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “Forever A Flame” is also the beginning of an on concourse display area being created and dedicated to past and future honourees."

Flames, there is already a wide spread practice of honoring players.  It’s call retiring their number!  I know you guys know how to do this, you’ve done it twice before with Lanny McDonald and Mike Vernon.  The whole idea is to honor the Flames for what they’ve done, to acknowledge that no one else can reach their level of achievement, there by making them unworthy of the number.

Looking at Flames of the past and present, I’m disappointed to see only two numbers hanging in the rafters.  In addition to MacInnis, shouldn’t Theo Fleury, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Doug Gilmour be up there?  And the present Flames, will Jarmoe Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff be up there?

As nice as this Forever A Flame program is, the ultimate honor a team can give a player is retiring their number and MacInnis is more than deserving of this honor.  The St. Louis Blues have given him this honor already, it’s about time the Flames did the same.

Go Flames Go!