Jarome Iginla remembers being thrilled by the sudden development. Because Team Canada had dropped its opener at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City -- a 5-2 stinker against Sweden--the coaching staff eagerly re-arranged the forwards.

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(L) Rick Nash #61 of Canada celebrates with second goal scorer Joe Sakic # 91 of Canada during the men's ice hockey Preliminary Round Group A match between Canada and Germany during Day 6 of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games on February 16, 2006 at the Palasport Olimpico in Turin, Italy.

Photograph by : Getty Images

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One fresh alignment would see Iginla--and fellow youngster Simon Gagne--shifting to a line with Joe Sakic.

"Whoever I was with, I was excited," Iginla, grinning, recalled Wednesday. "You know, it's the Olympics. You can't go wrong."

The question was -- how would Sakic take the news? How would he like leaving all-world playmates Mario Lemieux and Paul Kariya for a centre-ice perch with two greenhorns?

"I was thinking, from his point of view, 'Oh, I wonder how he feels about it?' '' says Iginla. "But right away he came in and said, 'Hey, guys. I'm excited to play with you young bucks. I think we're going to have a real good line. Flying. Lots of energy. I'm looking forward to this.' It was so disarming.

''I know it was something that made me and Gags feel a lot more comfortable, more confident. If he had've been tight or not talked to us, it would have been a lot harder to play . . . on eggshells and stuff. He just knew how to make people feel comfortable.

"One of my fondest memories."

History, of course, shows the Sakic trio stood out as the Canadians' best line, in their brightest moment, on the biggest stage of them all -- the gold-medal match against the host Americans.

Sakic, not surprisingly, has been on the Calgary Flames captain's mind in recent days.

Today in Denver, the Colorado Avalanche legend plans to announce his retirement from the National Hockey League.

"If that is the case, what an amazing, amazing career," says Iginla, 32. "He's won pretty much everything individually. He's scored a huge amount of goals and points. So many people have looked up to him, guys still playing in the league. Young guys, their favourite player is Joe Sakic. The way he could skate.

His shot. His smarts. "Also, as a person, he's a great leader. Getting a chance to play with him, you see how he treats people, the way he carries himself.

"You know, 20 years? If that's what he chooses--he could have still played(this season), I have no doubts about that --hat's off. Congratulations on an amazing career. Best of luck in the future."

Now, with Sakic, who wore the 'C' for Canada in 2006 in Turin, stepping out of the 2010 Olympic picture, it may fall to Iginla to embrace the captain's role -- despite his straight-faced insistence he'd been merely "hoping" to receive an invitation to next month's orientation camp.

"That's a nice compliment if people are potentially putting my name in a hat (for the captaincy)," says Iginla, the NHL's first-team all-star at right wing. "But Canada, if you look at it, there's so many guys that have played in the Olympics before and been part of the (2002) gold-medal team . . . guys that are captains on their own(NHL) teams, leaders on their own team.

"That stuff takes care of itself. I'm not really thinking about it. I won't act any different to try to be captain."

The national tryout camp is slated from Aug. 24 to 27 at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Iginla, who'll be joined by Calgary teammates Jay Bouwmeester, Robyn Regehr and Dion Phaneuf at the auditions.

"Summer's flying by faster than ever. The Olympics are right around the corner."

Taking a break Wednesday afternoon from his annual hockey school at Centennial Arenas, Iginla chatted with local reporters for 30 minutes, merrily expounding on a number of topics:

-Upgrading team defence under Brent Sutter: "Well, defensively, we can improve. We need to improve. And, I believe, we will improve. I've talked to Brent, and he's definitely talked about the defensive side. Defence is very important, but it doesn't end there. I think the Minnesota Wild were the best defensive team in our conference and they didn't make the playoffs. So (defence) can be a strength of our team--we want it to be and we need to get it back --but we also know it can't end there. We have to be better on both sides of it."

-Shortage of offence without Michael Cammalleri and Todd Bertuzzi: "Our power play can be better. We're going to work on that a lot. We're capable of finding more goals in our lineup. I'm sure Brent's going to put more on us individually as forwards . . . to step up and contribute more offensively. But knowing the makeup of the group we have, guys are going to look forward to that challenge."

-Addition of Bouwmeester: "It was very, very exciting getting Jay to join us. Talking to him, he was very positive, very optimistic, about our team and playing in Calgary, living in Calgary. So (the pre-contract phone call to him) wasn't really about a sales pitch. He knew a lot about it. He's from the area. He knows a lot of guys on our team. Mostly when we were talking to him, it was if he had any questions about our team or just to know the dynamics of our room or that we do get along as a group and we enjoy playing together."

-Conducting his annual hockey school: "I'll be honest. I had one kid come in today. I didn't ask him or anything . . . but he said, 'I just want to tell you, I mean no offence by it, but Sidney Crosby is my favourite player.' I'm like, 'That's all right.' And he's, 'No offence, though.' So it's fun. And they do like to talk hockey, about sticks, or compliment your skates or whether you're using the wrong skates in their minds. I was telling the second group today that I play for the Calgary Flames and I've played 13 years. And then I was thinking, 'They're only 10 years old. I guess I shouldn't say that anymore or I'll age myself.' "