Barn Burner: Miikka Kiprusoff stories as jersey retirement approaches (featuring Jamie McLennan)

On today’s episode of Barn Burner, Boomer, Pinder and Rhett had TSN Insider Jamie McLennan on the show to reminisce about his former teammate Miikka Kiprusoff ahead of his jersey retirement night on March 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

McLennan, a teammate of Kiprusoff during both the 2003-04 and 2006-07 campaigns will be speaking during the pre-game celebration of the legendary Flames goaltender. He led by sharing a story about former equipment manager, Mark DePasquale, and a one eyed hamster he got for his children.

“That game, every time Kipper came to the bench for a TV timeout to drink water. He would be staring at [DePesquale] and have one eyed closed. He would ask for a towel, a water, whatever, but always had the one eye closed. He did it all game. I think we went into overtime and then a shootout that night. Kipper comes to the bench and he’s staring at [DePesquale] with his eye closed and he didn’t say a word, he just skated back to the net. That was Kipper in a nutshell.”

One thing that made Kiprusoff so popular amongst his teammates was his ability to be one of the best at his positions, while also keeping things light in the process. Rhett, also a former teammate of Kiprusoff, hammered that point home later in the conversation:

“That’s part of his strength as a goaltender and as an athlete. Even though he’s having fun with it, he’s not failing at what he’s good at. It doesn’t take him away from his performance.”

McLennan, a journeyman in the NHL playing for six different franchises during his 12 year career, was amazed at the ability of Kiprusoff to never waiver his emotions whether the team was up three goals or down three.

“It was just incredible how cerebral he was and how he saw things with the game that were so far ahead…. It was always cool. I never had that ability I was a nervous player, I overthought the game a million times in my head where Kipper was the other way. He knew how good he was and that he could perform to his capability while also keeping it light.”

Check out today’s episode in full here:

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