WILMINGTON, Mass. — Someone once said of Sinatra: “It’s Frank’s world and we just live in it.” For 16 years, our world was Jarome’s world and we just shared it, vicariously. The goals, the fights, the odd slump, the high-beam smiles, the awards, the gold medal-euphoria, the seventh-game heartbreak. All of it. Every blessed bit. “Well,” jokes Jarome Iginla, on a drizzly early December morning at the Bruins’ practice facility, the Ristuccia Memorial Arena, a half-hour’s drive outside Boston, “I don’t think I’ll cry. “I’m not an extremely emotional person. Nostalgic? Well, my wife says I am. I’m not a hoarder, by any means. But I do like to look back on things. I really don’t . . . know how it’s going to feel. I know it’s coming up, fast. I know that as we get closer, get into Canada, I’ll start feeling it more. Going down the wrong tunnel to the ice. Visiting dressing room. “So I’m not sure. It’s going to be all new to me. So I’m just not . . . sure.” Cut the man some slack. Next Tuesday (7:30 p.m., TSN, SN960) will be his first time back. “I want to go,” protests Iginla of his highly-anticipated competitive return to the Saddledome as the Bruins visit the Flames, “and just enjoy myself. Just play. See the guys. See the staff. See the people around the rink. I don’t want to build it up; turn it into a big deal.” Oh, but it will be a big deal. First there was Vinny in Tampa Bay. Then Alfie in Ottawa. And one week from today, Jarome. Comparables. Captains all. Leaders all. Icons all. Returning to the scenes of past glories. The most popular athlete Calgary has ever known returning to take a bow. The chance for the Scotiabank Saddledome to give him the proper send-off they were denied after the rebuilding Flames dealt their franchise leader in virtually every offensive category to the Pittsburgh Penguins in late March. A very big deal, indeed. “Oh, I knew the date,” concedes Iginla. “It’s something I looked at right away, on the calendar. I know my family did, too. My friends. At first, you know, I thought ‘It’ll be really cool.’ And then I went back to Pitt, earlier in the year. I’d only been there for, oh, a couple months and it still felt really different. And then I thought ‘Oh my God, if this feels so weird, how weird is Calgary going to feel?’ “That was an eye-opener.” Iginla has yet to really catch fire offensively in Boston. So far, he’s registered five goals, 15 points and team-leading plus-11 playing right wing on the B’s big line alongside slick centreman David Krecji and the menacing Milan Lucic. Yet the Bruins are winning a ton, leading the Eastern Conference with a 18-7-2 record. “Getting to play with Krejci and Lucic has been great. Would I like to have scored more? Sure. It’s not like I’m not getting opportunities, or the line isn’t getting opportunities, though. I think of some of the golden chances I’ve missed this year. “Overall it’s been positive and it’s pretty cool to be on a roll as a team and be at the top of the standings.” Lucic doesn’t seem overly concerned.

“Obviously you want to produce and contribute, and it kind of slipped away there for a little bit,” he acknowledged Monday. “But we were able to find it again in the second half of (November). I guess you could say as a line we’re still trying to find that chemistry to be a great line. all three of us are working hard at it. There’s no doubt in my mind, if we keep working at it, we have the potential to become a great line.” The fact that Iginla landed here in Beantown, after all, is a bit shocking in itself, considering he nixed a done deal to the Bruins at the March witching hour in order to hitch his Stanley Cup-cart to Sid, Malkin and the Penguins. Yet when it became clear he and Pittsburgh were going their separate ways after the failed title push, he boldly made overtures back to Boston, admittedly unsure of whether the Bruins would react with anger, laughter or what. “Going into free agency, I wasn’t sure I’d have this opportunity,” he admits. “But after (Nathan) Horton left, they had a spot open on right wing. I was wondering if they thought I might be crazy. Honestly. I had no clue if they might be thinking ‘He can go screw himself.’ And I would’ve understood. “When I made the decision (for Pittsburgh), I was trying to ride the hot hand. They’d won 15 or 16 in a row, Malkin was out for nine of them. I’d only heard great things about Boston from (Chuck) Kobasew and (Andrew) Ference. I know Mark Recchi pretty well. “But the Penguins were HOT going into the playoffs. I wasn’t trying to think of the future, I was just trying to go for it. “So, afterwards, I thought ‘Maybe I kinda burned that one.’ But I’m very thankful I’m here. And I haven’t taken too much ribbing about it. The odd one. A little bit. But not bad, considering.” The notoriously-tough Bruins fans didn’t seem to hold any grudges, giving the recent pariah a lusty ovation for initiating a slugfest in his B’s debut on Oct. 3rd after being hit by Tampa D-man Radko Gudas (“I didn’t think it was a dirty hit at all,” said Iginla later. “It just felt like it was a good time. You want to respond. With Bruins hockey for a long time, guys stick up for each other. But you also want to stick up for yourself. Just part of the energy, part of the emotions, part of the battle. It’s cool. I haven’t played a ton of games here, but over the years I have been here and it’s a tough building to play in. It’s always a good crowd. They’re into it, they’re yelling. It’s always tough hockey in here. It’s nice to be on the other side and feed off of that”). They’ll be standing at the Saddledome on Tuesday, you can wager the kiddies’ college nest egg. And he won’t even have to shuck the mitts to have ’em eating out of the palm of his hand. For all that he meant, all that he did, the way he reflected a community through 16 years. They might hear the echoes of the din as far away as Okotoks. “Going back,” Jarome Iginla is saying, a week away from the return of the prodigal, “makes me realize how fast the time does go. I remember older players telling me that when I was young and I was like ‘Yeah, whatever.’ Now I’m telling 26-year-olds the same thing! They’re telling me ‘Ah, I’ll only play until I’m 31 or 32.’ And I’m like ‘OK, we’ll see.’ Funny, the way your perspective shifts.