"Jay Bouwmeester would like to tell you how special it's going to be returning to Florida to play a National Hockey League game tonight, but he's got too many other things on his mind.

"I haven't really thought about it a whole lot," said the 26-year-old, first-year defenceman with the Calgary Flames, "because we have some things here that are kind of preoccupying things."

Bouwmeester, nonetheless, will be marking his first game back in his old stomping grounds when the Flames pair off against the Panthers tonight at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla.

It was only 57 regular season games ago that the Flames landed the six-foot-four, 214-pounder in a deal that saw Jordan Leopold go the other way. But, more noteworthy, it'll be the 400th consecutive game in which the Edmontonian pulls on an NHL jersey.

All of which is sort of heady stuff because it's the longest iron man streak in the league, a title Bouwmeester inherited when Minnesota's Andrew Brunette saw his 509-game run vanish last February when he suffered a lower body injury in a game against the Flames.

Of course, you don't talk about iron man streaks so as not to jinx the man. But for those wondering, Bouwmeester last sat out a game on March 3, 2004, when he was a healthy scratch for a game against the New Jersey Devils after the Panthers recalled him from San Antonio of the American Hockey League that same day.

The focus, therefore, returns to tonight's game against his former team who, like the Flames, are fighting for a playoff spot. And, like the Flames, haven't exactly been lighting it up, but have been a wee bit more successful of late."