This post is a bit of a reversal. I will be praising someone, specifically Joe Sakic. Joe Sakic is one of the greatest hockey players of my lifetime. He doesn't hold the record for most goals, assists, or points (though he is 14th, 8th and 11th respectively), but he was a consummate professional, never once involved in any type of scandal or me first scenario and he played his entire career with the same franchise, the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche.
It is a rarity in sports today where you have an athlete spend their entire career with the same team. To me, this says a lot about Joe. Joe chose to be loyal to his team, even through the recent bad years. But if you look at it another way, his team chose to be loyal to him. Why did Joe stay when Forsberg left, Foote left, Tanguay left, etc. To me, this says even more about Joe. Even as his skills were declining (sorry but it's true) the Avs wanted Joe to stay and you never once heard his name in any trade rumours and always sort of knew he'd retire with his team.
So cheers to Joe. We'll miss you, especially this February in Vancouver.
4 comments:
So...lemme play this card, coz it ties into something I've been mulling about.
Joe Sakic: Good guy, class act, decent player, never a record breaker. He's what they would call in hockey "a good boy" despite being, by my calculations, about 73 years old.
Hall of Fame?
See, in most sports you'd have a big debate, but for some reason in hockey being a "good boy" gets you in there.
It's not as bad as it used to be, but there are times I wonder if some guys can just kinda coast in there. Not saying Joe is one, it just got me thinking. (I think the constant bedate about Paul Henderson is a great example: mediocre career, but he scored ONE GOAL...okay...that's for another time and place.)
And this is from a baseball fan who grew up loving the Expos but still wonders if Gary Carter got into Cooperstown based on the same thing.
I like Steve Yzerman for basically the same reason, even if I really don't like Detroit.
G: There is no argument about Joe. He deserves it on accomplishments alone (top 10 in assists, 1st playoff overtime goals, 1st active points and assists, 2nd active goals, though i know he's not active now, 2 cups, 1 gold medal, etc).
I agree with you about Henderson. Though the team should be enshrined.
James: I suspect, and hope, that Iginla will also be that kind of player, though he was drafted by Dallas. And I don't like Calgary.
See...I disagree about the team even more than Henderson, but I'll get to that in a post. We can toss goats at each other blogwise then!
Post a Comment