Calgary Flames Daily: No Jaromir Jagr in the home-opener

The Calgary Flames have their home-opener tonight! But unfortunately, we still won’t be seeing Jaromir Jagr making his debut in a flaming C sweater.

After a dreadful loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place to start their season off, the Calgary Flames will be coming back south to have their home-opener against the Winnipeg Jets. These two teams played in their final exhibition games before the season started.

And the Flames looked real good. Especially goaltender Mike Smith, who also looked incredible – solid and confident – in their season opener. He stopped 42 of 44 shots, but unfortunately the team in front of him couldn’t quite help him out with a win.

Tonight in the home opener, the Flames are looking for a much different outcome. But the absolute legend, Jaromir Jagr, won’t be making his debut as a Calgary Flame just yet.

Related Story: Flames sign 45-year old Jaromir Jagr

Jagr, who just signed a contract this week on Monday and didn’t arrive into Calgary until Wednesday, has already said he won’t be playing until he’s ready. While the other players believe he looks ready to go, we have to remember that Jagr has barely practiced all off-season cause he didn’t even know if he would be playing in the NHL this year. And he missed all of training camp and preseason.

Via NHL.com:

“He’s close, for sure,” Calgary captain Mark Giordano said. “He’s known as a guy who always keeps himself in great shape. I think when you have a guy that’s played as many games as he has you rely on how he feels. But he looks good. He’s made some quick plays.“He’s definitely at NHL game speed right now. It’s just a matter of when he feels ready.”“He lit me up there pretty good in the first few minutes,” said Smith, who did not skate Thursday. “I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s still got it.’ He’s such a good player at his age. It’s impressive to watch how he prepares for practice, even, and gets himself going. He’s excited to be here, I know that just talking to him briefly, and we’re happy to have him. It’ll be nice to see him in the lineup.”

Maybe he isn’t ready, or maybe he just saw the way the Flames played on Wednesday night and completely regrets everything.

While he won’t be making his debut tonight, when Beasley announces #68 as part of this Flames team, it may finally hit me that Jaromir Jagr is a Calgary Flame.

Some links surrounding the Flames

Jagr postpones debut with Calgary Flames, skips home-opener (Sportsnet).

Flames will let Jagr decide when he’s ready to make debut (Sportsnet).

Jagr looks good enough to play Saturday, Flames teammates say (NHL.com).

Calgary Flames top goalie prospect Tyler Parsons loaned to Kansas City Mavericks (Matchsticks & Gasoline).

Some links surrounding hockey and the NHL

Vegas Golden Knights will wear a #VegasStrong sticker on their helmets (FanSided).NHL scoring is up after two nights — does the young talent mean it’s here to stay? (National Post).

With modest paycheque in hand, Canadian Women’s Hockey League players dream of ‘living wage’ (CTV News).

Hockey’s ‘hat trick’ traces roots to cricket (NHL.com).

Next: Five games to circle in your calendar for 2017-18

And that’s all for today’s Flames Daily! I know we’ve been talking about Jagr a lot, but what can we say? He’s a legend. How can we not?