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Keenan makes his return to the bench with Calgary

Oct 4, 2007 - 3:41 PM Philadelphia at Calgary 10:00 pm EDT

CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) - Coach Mike Keenan makes his Calgary Flames debut when the Philadelphia Flyers come calling in the season opener for both teams on Thursday.

Keenan takes over a Calgary squad that has failed to make it out of the first round of the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons. Keenan led the New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1994, but has struggled since, going 189-219 in stops at Boston, Vancouver, St. Louis and Florida.

Coaching an NHL-record eighth team, Keenan enters the season ranked sixth on the all-time wins list with 584 career victories.

The Flames return Jarome Iginla and goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, who is coming off his second consecutive 40-plus win campaign.

The 31-year-old Iginla registered a career-best 55 assists and 39 goals en route to becoming one of four Flames with at least 70 points last season.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, opened its wallet with the hopes of bouncing back from last season's disappointing 22-48-12 effort. The team signed scoring threat Daniel Briere to a $52 million contract.

The Flyers also added Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, Joffrey Lupul and Jason Smith in the hopes of returning to the postseason after missing it for the first time since 1993-94.

Calgary and Philadelphia will be meeting for the first time since the Flyers came away with a 1-0 triumph on December 6, 2005.