With His Career Winding Down, Iginla Focuses on Winning a Stanley Cup WILMINGTON, Mass. - Jarome Iginla calls it "the driver." It has nothing to do with golf clubs or chauffeurs, but instead refers to a mind-set, a laserlike pursuit of the missing item on an almost certain Hall of Fame résumé: a Stanley Cup title. He was close once as a member of the Calgary Flames a decade ago. He thought he would get that elusive ring last season when he chose the Pittsburgh Penguins as his new employer at the trade deadline. Now with his third team in less than one year, Iginla is once again focused on having his name engraved on the Cup. He signed with the Boston Bruins in July for one year, joining the team he spurned last March to join Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin & Company. No hard feelings, right? "A few jokes," Iginla said, referring to the avalanche of text messages and voice mail messages he received after signing with Boston. I appreciated that, although you never know how it's going to be or how they're going to react. You're just not sure. Would they think I'm crazy? Realistically, I thought they might be thinking that, and I'd have totally understood if they did. The Bruins were more than happy to forgive and forget. They needed a bruising right wing after losing Nathan Horton. They have a history of bringing in almost certain Hall of Famers at the ends of their careers; they traded for Jaromir Jagr last season after Iginla chose the Penguins. A few months did nothing to change their minds. General Manager Peter Chiarelli was in pursuit of Daniel Alfredsson at the time, but changed direction quickly. On the day the Bruins signed Iginla, the soon-to-be 41-year-old Alfredsson left Ottawa after 17 seasons to sign with Detroit, hoping, like Iginla, to finally win a Stanley Cup. Bruins Coach Claude Julien said: "I put myself in his shoes. We were struggling at the end of the year, and Pittsburgh was playing really well. He went with the odds and he thought he had a better chance with Pittsburgh. How can you a blame a guy for doing that? I would have done the same thing. Iginla has fit in seamlessly on the right side of the first line, replacing Horton and teaming with David Krejci and Milan Lucic. He is living up to his reputation with almost as many fights (three) as goals (four.) "I know he's not shy about getting into fights," Krejci said. He battles hard. He hits hard. He protects his teammates. You can't ask for anything more than he has shown us. Iginla looks to Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk for inspiration. Like Iginla, they entered the N.H.L. at 19. Bourque played almost his entire career in Boston, and then was traded to Colorado and won his only Stanley Cup with the Avalanche at 40. Andreychuk won his only Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 (over Iginla's Flames.) He, too, was 40. Iginla is, by comparison, relatively young, having turned 36 on July 1. For 15-plus seasons, he was the embodiment of the Calgary franchise, an Alberta native raised on the outskirts of Edmonton. He led the Flames to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in 2004, losing to Tampa Bay. But in those 15 years, there were only six playoff appearances - the last four were first-round exits - and none in his final three seasons. The combination of time, Iginla's desire to play for a contender and the Flames" decision to rebuild worked against him retiring there. "It didn't make sense to stay," he said. I want to win, be a part of a championship team. Winning a championship, it's a big driver for me. That wasn't happening in Calgary. He said he loved playing in Pittsburgh, but "it was tough the way it ended," in a sweep in the Eastern Conference finals against the Bruins. The high-powered Pittsburgh offense scored two goals in the series; Iginla, Crosby and Malkin went pointless. The Bruins went on to lose to the Chicago Blackhawks in a tight Cup finals. "Who knows what would have happened if he had picked our team last year," Krejci said. But that's in the past. We have a pretty good team this year, and I like our chances. Left unsaid is what happens to Iginla if this season, his 17th, turns out to be just like the 16 that preceded it. He laughed when asked if thought of himself as the N.H.L."s version of Charles Barkley or Karl Malone, Hall of Famers who went championship shopping at the ends of their careers and came up empty. Iginla said he would like to stay with the Bruins regardless of what happens this season, knowing full well he is in a locker room full of hungry, competitive, talented and successful players. He called the atmosphere "addictive" - in a positive way. "I plan on being a part of a championship and I believe we can do that here," he said. That's how I'm looking at it. That it's going to come.