"Sure, you had your reasons. Good reasons, too.

Couldn't tiptoe out of that Chem 20 class. Couldn't sneak another extra-long lunch past the boss. Couldn't borrow the keys to Mom's station wagon.

Which means you missed the unveiling of the Calgary Flames' top unit - Jarome Iginla, Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay - during Monday's intrasquad matinee at the Max Bell Centre.

But fret not - this experiment is going to be long-lived.

Take it from the decider.

"We need to be patient with this now," Flames coach Brent Sutter noted after the annual Red and White game. "We have the opportunity to allow that to happen. So why not? Let them try to work things out. Hopefully, at the start of the season, it'll be where we want it to be. But time's going to tell that. To be quite honest, they're going to tell that by their performance.

"I thought they moved the puck well. On the power play, they made some really good plays."

The newest first line - in a long line of new first lines - was all over the ice and the scoresheet all afternoon

"It feels good," said Iginla. "We want to give a lot (of evidence) that it's going to be a success as a line. Every day, literally, you feel a little better. A lot of it is, we're just trying to play to our own strengths. Olli's flying - let him skate, go with it, big shot. I've got to shoot, skate, get in there, be around the net. And Tangs, he can obviously score, but he's a natural, very gifted passer.

"It could be a really good line."

In Team Red's 3-1 victory over Team White, the talented trio had been on site for Jay Bouwmeester's opening goal, on netminder Henrik Karlsson. After Niklas Hagman's counter - a wicked shot past goalie Leland Irving - Jokinen and Tanguay swept pucks around goalkeeper Matt Keetley."