"Jay Bouwmeester returns to the BankAtlantic Center on Friday night for the first time since he played his final game there with the Panthers on April 11, 2009.

Bouwmeester refused to sign a long-term deal with the Panthers and in June was traded to Calgary, where he almost immediately signed a five-year contract.

One of the reasons Bouwmeester wanted out of Florida was because of the lack of passion that exists for hockey in the sunny South. In Calgary, the hockey team is the biggest thing going. Teammates in Florida weren't exactly surprised when he left after seven years with the franchise.

``I'm used to playing with him, not against him, but when the game starts, that's out the door,'' said Stephen Weiss, who had been Bouwmeester's teammate since 2002. ``We'll get our hellos in before the game, but then it's all business.

``We were pretty close. We came here at about the same time, spent a lot of time in the early years together.''

Said coach Pete DeBoer: I think we're going to see the best of Bo here. He's going to be skating with the puck, moving and jumping into the play.

``When he's at the top of his game, he's hard to handle.''

Yet when the Flames struggle, it's not much fun to be playing in Calgary. On Wednesday, the Flames won for just the third time in 15 games. General manager Darryl Sutter made two big trades in the past week, trading All-Star defenseman Dion Phaneuf to Toronto and former Panthers captain Olli Jokinen to the Rangers."