It might be surreal for Jarome Iginla, one of the most revered hockey players the game has ever known.
The Pepsi Center on Saturday night will be the ideal venue and evening for the future Hall of Famer to score his 600th goal, becoming just the 19th player to do so. It would be grand celebration for Iginla and anyone who understands his legend and the situation.
Iginla and the Avalanche host the Calgary Flames in a Hockey Night in Canada telecast, capping a doubleheader shown across the country. Iginla is from Edmonton, a three-hour drive from Calgary, and scored the first 525 goals of his career with the Flames over a 16-season stint in which he served as captain for the last nine.
Indeed, Avs players — and perhaps the Flames, too — want to see this happen on this night.
“That’s what we were saying,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said of Iginla’s glorious opportunity. “Yeah, I think that would be pretty sweet. I think he’d like that.”
Iginla, 38, has seen 600 scored before. He was playing for the Flames in 2006-07 when Avalanche star Joe Sakic, now the team’s general manager, reached 600 with an empty-net goal in Calgary.
This season, Iginla scored two of his 10 goals against Calgary in a 6-3 win on Nov. 3 in Denver. It was his only multiple-goal game in 2015-16 thus far. He reached goal No. 599 in Sunday’s 2-1 overtime loss but did not light the lamp in the past two games, a 6-3 win at San Jose on Monday and a 4-3 overtime loss to Chicago on Thursday.
Against the Flames, he will again play right wing on the Nathan MacKinnon-centered line with longtime linemate Alex Tanguay. Iginla and Tanguay also played together in Calgary.
“You look at how you have to do it: it takes 30 goals for 20 years,” Tanguay said. “He’s been scoring 30, 35 and even 50 at times. So it’s pretty remarkable and I’m hoping I get an assist on it, like everybody else.”
Iginla scored 29 goals for the Avalanche last season, his first in Colorado. It marked the first time in 12 full NHL seasons he didn’t get to 30. He has scored 40 goals in a season four times and reached 50 twice — with a career-high 52 in 2001-02.
The last player to reach 600 goals was Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks in 2010 — against the Avalanche in southern California. Selanne, who was 39 at the time, finished with 684.
Iginla would be the third Avalanche player to score No. 600. Jari Kurri reached the milestone on Dec. 23, 1997, in an Avs game against the Los Angeles Kings at the old McNichols Sports Arena.
Sakic was the first to congratulate Kurri.
Kurri played just one season in Colorado, scoring five goals in 70 games, and retired after the 1997-98 season.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers
CALGARY AT COLORADO 8 p.m. Saturday, ALT2; 950 AM
Spotlight on Juri Hudler:
The veteran forward from the Czech Republic still plays on the Flames’ top line with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau but has just one goal in his last 23 games, and only five for the season. Hudler, who turns 32 on Monday, won the Lady Byng Trophy last season after finishing with a team-leading 76 points (including 31 goals). He is tied with David Jones for Calgary’s highest-paid forward at $4 million (Jones signed his contract with the Avs) and is in the final year of his deal.
NOTEBOOK
Flames:
They are on a two-game losing streak, beaten by Anaheim and Los Angeles at home, after winning 11 in a row at Calgary’s Saddledome. … Leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau had an NHL-leading 12 goals in December. … The Flames visit the Pepsi Center for the second time this season. They lost 6-3 on Nov. 3. … Calgary has scored just one goal in its last two games, after producing nine in its previous two. … Former University of Denver forward Joe Colborne is playing right wing on a line with center Mikael Backlund and Michael Ferland.
Avalanche:
Semyon Varlamov will start in goal Saturday. … Defenseman Tyson Barrie, who missed Thursday’s game against Chicago because of flulike symptoms, is questionable. He stayed away from the team Friday during off-ice training. In Barrie’s absence, top-pairing D Francois Beauchemin and Erik Johnson logged 28:49 and 27:59 of ice time, respectively, in the 4-3 overtime loss to the Blackhawks. … Colorado has scored first in 11 consecutive games and finished 9-3-2 in December. … Defenseman Nate Guenin played in his 200th NHL game Thursday after getting late notice that he would replace Barrie.
