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Freddie Sjostrom still counts Henrik Lundqvist among his close friends.
But if there's a secret formula for consistently sliding pucks past the New York Rangers netminder, Sjostrom insists he doesn't know it.
"He's in Kipper's class -- one of the best goalies in the league, for sure," Sjostrom said. "It's like any good goalie -- if you come one-on-one and you shoot, probably eight out of 10 times, he's gonna save it. You've gotta get screens and you've gotta tip pucks. Dirty goals, that's how you score on those guys."
Even it the goal had to be ugly, you get the feeling Sjostrom would love to tickle the twine behind his former Rangers teammate.
Sjostrom spent a season and a half on Broadway and will be facing his old Blueshirts buddies for the first time tonight at the Saddledome (8 p.m., CBC).
Ditto for winger Nigel Dawes, who called Madison Square Garden his home rink for parts of three seasons before being shipped to the Phoenix Coyotes last March and eventually claimed on waivers by the Flames in the summer.
Dawes was drafted by the Rangers in 2003 and climbed the minor-league ladder with several of the players he'll face tonight.
"When you play in the minors with them and then you play in the NHL with them for a couple of years, you kind of grow up together with them," Dawes said. "It'll be fun to play against them, but I think it's just like any other game.
"There's not too much different, other than the fact that I've played there before and I probably know a little bit more about the guys on the team."
