Hockey Card of the Day: Joe Sakic

1989-90 Topps Joe Sakic Rookie Card

2012 HHOF Induction Celebration

On Monday the Hockey Hall of Fame welcomes it's four newest inductees:

Joe Sakic - No Ordinary Joe
Pavel Bure - Russian Rocket
Adam Oates - Hall And Oates
Mats Sundin - Welcome Mats

No Ordinary Joe: Joe Sakic

Joe Sakic was born July 7, 1969, in Burnaby, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. The son of Croatian immigrants, young Joe learned English as his second language (Serbo-Croatian was spoken in his home). As a result, he was a very soft-spoken youth, a trait he carried with him through to his hockey career.

Sakic turned a lot of heads during his junior career, culminating in a 160-point explosion and the Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year award playing for the Swift Current Broncos in 1987-88. He made his NHL debut with the Quebec Nordiques the following season. Quebec traded Dale Hunter, their long time tough guy and heart and soul player, to the Washington Capitals to get Sakic in the 1987 Entry Draft.

Sakic joined a Nordiques team clearly on the decline. By 1988, Quebec had clearly fallen out of the top tier of NHL teams. The new decade saw the team's two franchise players, Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet, playing elsewhere. Young Sakic quickly found himself carrying les Nords all alone.

In spite of that, Joe performed remarkably well. He notched 102 points in 1989-90, not bad for a second-year player under any circumstance, but quite extraordinary considering he did it playing for a team that posted a pathetic 12-61-7 record. The next season, Quebec went 16-50-14 as Sakic scored 109 points, coming just two goals shy of a 50-goal season in the process (a distant second in scoring on the team, at 59 points, was a promising Swedish rookie named Mats Sundin).

Extraordinary numbers in the face of adversity, yet a lot of people didn't even notice. Why? The fact Joe was playing for a terrible team in a small market certainly didn't help matters, but Sakic also proved to be near fanatical about shunning attention, preferring instead to express himself with his trademark wrist shot. Some years later, one former teammate commented that Sakic, who despite being by this time well-established as a team leader, rarely made locker room speeches more profound than, "OK boys, the bus leaves at noon."

Sakic led the Nordiques in scoring in four of their final five seasons, with Sundin besting him by 11 points in 1992-93. The fortunes of the Nordiques changed dramatically after the blockbuster trade with Philadelphia for Eric Lindros, as did the personality of the team. When the franchise moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche, it became known for outspoken, animate players such as Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux and Peter Forsberg, as well as its storied and often bitter rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings. Yet in marked contrast, it was the quiet Croatian-Canadian who wore the "C" for the Avs throughout.

It wasn't until Joe’s Conn Smythe Trophy-winning performance with the Avalanche in 1996 when he finally got his due from the mainstream sports media. Since then, Sakic has been the team player everyone wants to have. Neil Smith and the New York Rangers tried to lure him away in the 1997 off-season, but Colorado matched the Rangers’ offer sheet – and their multi-million dollar signing bonus up front – to keep him in Denver despite being in the middle of constructing a new arena at the time. It’s worth noting that it was Joe Sakic, not John Elway, who captained a Colorado-based team to a major sports championship first.

He would go on to win another Stanley Cup championship in 2001, the same year he won the Hart and Byng trophies. He was the hero in 2002 when he led Canada to the Olympic gold medal. He was named as the tournament MVP.

His 625 goals and 1,641 points in 1,378 games place him 6th all time in NHL scoring history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne, Steve Yzerman and Mario Lemieux.

Yet a story book ending was not in the cards for Sakic. A debilitating back injury - coupled with a freak snow blower accident - allowed him to play in only 15 games in his final season, and just 44 in the season before that. Sakic desperately wanted to conclude his career with a chance to play in the Olympics in his hometown of Vancouver in 2010, but the injury would not allow him. When it became obvious he would not be able to play in the Olympics, he tried desperately to rehab his back enough to play in late 2009 season farewell games in Vancouver and in Denver. Again, no go.

Fate deals a hard hand sometimes. It's too bad Joe Sakic, like so many hockey players, never got to finish his career under his own circumstances. The classiest player of his generation left the game quietly, but a first ballot Hall of Fame ticket was waiting for him in 2012.

Hockey Hall Of Fame Weekend Coming Up

On Monday, November 12th, the Hockey Hall of Fame will induct it's newest members. GreatestHockeyLegends.com will have many special features over the coming days leading into the special event.

The Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2012 features Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Pavel Bure and Adam Oates.

Joe Sakic was about as perfect a hockey player you could ever have. He was an even better person. He is the 6th member of Canada's gold medal winning 2002 Olympic team inducted. | Full Joe Sakic Biography |

Mats Sundin was the consummate pro, carrying Toronto teams on his back without a lot of help. He is almost underrated to some degree. | Full Mats Sundin Biography |

Pavel Bure and Adam Oates have waited far to long for their rightful inclusion.

Pavel Bure  was the most electrifying player of his era. Every goal, heck every rush, was an event. | Full Pavel Bure Biography |

Adam Oates  was a brilliant tactician and the second best playmaker of his era - behind Wayne Gretzky. | Full Adam Oates Biography |

Sakic, Sundin, Bure, Oates Inducted Into HHOF

The Hockey Hall of Fame announced the class of 2012 today. Congratulations goes out to Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Pavel Bure and Adam Oates.

Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin are deservedly inducted in their first year of eligibility, while the likes of Jeremy Roenick, Curtis Joseph, Markus Naslund, and, surprisingly, Brendan Shanahan were not. Sakic was a no-brainer if there ever was one. But the Shanny omission certainly raises a few eyebrows.

Joe Sakic was about as perfect a hockey player you could ever have. He was an even better person. He is the 6th member of Canada's gold medal winning 2002 Olympic team inducted. | Full Joe Sakic Biography |

Mats Sundin was the consummate pro, carrying Toronto teams on his back without a lot of help. He is almost underrated to some degree. | Full Mats Sundin Biography |

Pavel Bure and Adam Oates have waited far to long for their rightful inclusion.

Pavel Bure  was the most electrifying player of his era. Every goal, heck every rush, was an event. | Full Pavel Bure Biography |

Adam Oates  was a brilliant tactician and the second best playmaker of his era - behind Wayne Gretzky. | Full Adam Oates Biography |

It is an especially exciting day for Oates, who earlier in the day was named the new head coach of the Washington Capitals.

Of course, Hall of Fame induction announcements are often overshadowed by the selection committees omissions. Shanahan will be a much discussed exclusion, while the likes of Eric Lindros and international stars like Sergei Makarov continue to wait.

The selection committee failed to included anyone in the builder's category. Pat Burns and Fred Shero have very vocal support from the public, while women's builder Fran Ryder continues to be completely ignored.

No female hockey players were included in the Hall of Fame again this year. It is not like there is a lack of candidates. But there is a serious lack of knowledge of the female game amongst the old boys network that comprises the Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

Great Photos In Stanley Cup History: Joe Sakic and Ray Bourque

Joe Sakic, hockey's classiest captain, hoisted the Stanley Cup twice, first in 1996. There was not a fan in hockey who was not happy for 'Burnaby Joe.'

Joe Sakic would captain the Avalanche back to the Stanley Cup championship in 2001, but this time he sheepishly accepted Lord Stanley's mug, only to hand off it quickly to Ray Bourque. Bourque, one of hockey's greatest players ever, finally celebrated a Stanley Cup win after 22 seasons in the NHL.

Joe Sakic

Joe Sakic was born July 7, 1969, in Burnaby, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. The son of Croatian immigrants, young Joe learned English as his second language (Serbo-Croatian was spoken in his home). As a result, he was a very soft-spoken youth, a trait he carried with him through to his hockey career.

Sakic turned a lot of heads during his junior career, culminating in a 160-point explosion and the Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year award playing for the Swift Current Broncos in 1987-88. He made his NHL debut with the Quebec Nordiques the following season. Quebec traded Dale Hunter, their long time tough guy and heart and soul player, to the Washington Capitals to get Sakic in the 1987 Entry Draft.

Sakic joined a Nordiques team clearly on the decline. By 1988, Quebec had clearly fallen out of the top tier of NHL teams. The new decade saw the team's two franchise players, Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet, playing elsewhere. Young Sakic quickly found himself carrying les Nords all alone.

In spite of that, Joe performed remarkably well. He notched 102 points in 1989-90, not bad for a second-year player under any circumstance, but quite extraordinary considering he did it playing for a team that posted a pathetic 12-61-7 record. The next season, Quebec went 16-50-14 as Sakic scored 109 points, coming just two goals shy of a 50-goal season in the process (a distant second in scoring on the team, at 59 points, was a promising Swedish rookie named Mats Sundin).

Extraordinary numbers in the face of adversity, yet a lot of people didn't even notice. Why? The fact Joe was playing for a terrible team in a small market certainly didn't help matters, but Sakic also proved to be near fanatical about shunning attention, preferring instead to express himself with his trademark wrist shot. Some years later, one former teammate commented that Sakic, who despite being by this time well-established as a team leader, rarely made locker room speeches more profound than, "OK boys, the bus leaves at noon."

Sakic led the Nordiques in scoring in four of their final five seasons, with Sundin besting him by 11 points in 1992-93. The fortunes of the Nordiques changed dramatically after the blockbuster trade with Philadelphia for Eric Lindros, as did the personality of the team. When the franchise moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche, it became known for outspoken, animate players such as Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux and Peter Forsberg, as well as its storied and often bitter rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings. Yet in marked contrast, it was the quiet Croatian-Canadian who wore the "C" for the Avs throughout.

It wasn't until Joe’s Conn Smythe Trophy-winning performance with the Avalanche in 1996 when he finally got his due from the mainstream sports media. Since then, Sakic has been the team player everyone wants to have. Neil Smith and the New York Rangers tried to lure him away in the 1997 off-season, but Colorado matched the Rangers’ offer sheet – and their multi-million dollar signing bonus up front – to keep him in Denver despite being in the middle of constructing a new arena at the time. It’s worth noting that it was Joe Sakic, not John Elway, who captained a Colorado-based team to a major sports championship first.

He would go on to win another Stanley Cup championship in 2001, the same year he won the Hart and Byng trophies. He was the hero in 2002 when he led Canada to the Olympic gold medal. He was named as the tournament MVP.

His 625 goals and 1,641 points in 1,378 games place him 6th all time in NHL scoring history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne, Steve Yzerman and Mario Lemieux.

Yet a story book ending was not in the cards for Sakic. A debilitating back injury - coupled with a freak snow blower accident - allowed him to play in only 15 games in his final season, and just 44 in the season before that. Sakic desperately wanted to conclude his career with a chance to play in the Olympics in his hometown of Vancouver in 2010, but the injury would not allow him. When it became obvious he would not be able to play in the Olympics, he tried desperately to rehab his back enough to play in late 2009 season farewell games in Vancouver and in Denver. Again, no go.

Fate deals a hard hand sometimes. It's too bad Joe Sakic, like so many hockey players, never got to finish his career under his own circumstances. The classiest player of his generation left the game quietly, but a first ballot Hall of Fame ticket was waiting for him in 2012.

HHOF Worthy - Joe Sakic?

Duh!

That should have been the first word in your mind after reading the above head line for this week's HHOF Worthy? feature.

Joe Sakic is an absolute, guaranteed, first ballot Hockey Hall of Famer. Two Stanley Cup championships. A Conn Smythe Trophy. A Hart Trophy. A Lester B. Pearson Award. A Lady Byng Trophy. Three first-team NHL All-Star honors. Twelve All-Star game appearances. Olympic, World Junior and World Championship gold medals. 625 goals, and 1641 points in 1378 games. 84 goals, 188 points in 172 playoff games.

And counting, maybe.

We all know Joe Sakic's terrible injury problems in the past couple of seasons. A debilitating back injury and weird snowblower accident have limited him to just 59 games in two seasons. He's back skating and hoping to finish off this season.

If the surgery does not relieve his pains, we could have seen the last of Joe Sakic. It is always a shame when one of the all time greats' careers is ended on anything but his own terms.

Hopefully Sakic can come back for his intended final season in 2010-11 and a spot on the Canadian Olympic team. But don't bet on it.

Another Weird Hockey Injury

Back in October I posted some of the weirdest injuries that have sidelined hockey players, whether it happened on the ice or not.

It looks like we can add Joe Sakic to that list, thanks to a snowblower:

Avalanche vice president Jean Martineau said the accident happened to Sakic’s left hand, and that severe tendon damage occurred to one finger. That same finger and two others were broken.

He's out for three months.

Now don't laugh too hard. James Mirtle points us in the direction of an Adrian Dater article that says:

"According to a 2005 Consumer Products Safety Commission study, snowblowers were the 'fourth leading cause of finger amputations' at more than 1,000 per year and more than 5,000 emergency room visits. And, that from 1992-2005 there were a reported nine deaths from snowblower accidents."

1996: Changing Of The Guard

The year is 1996. It is the year of the rat.

The Stanley Cup finals see two non-traditional markets square off, as the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers battle for supremacy. The Avalanche swept the Cats 4-0.

Quebec's loss was Denver, Colorado's gain, as the old Nordiques franchise was relocated to the old home of the Rockies. The Nords/Avs were stacking a great team, headlined by Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Mike Ricci and the line of Peter Forsberg, and playoff legend Claude Lemieux.

Oh. And they brought in Montreal goaltending legend Patrick Roy, a trade that certainly would not have happened had the franchise remained in Quebec City.

Sakic would win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, scoring a league best 34 points, including 18 goals, just one off of the single post-season record. Six of his goals were game winners.

The line of Forsberg-Kamensky-Lemieux was dominant, as was Roy in nets. He had a 2.10 GAA, with a minuscule 0.85 GAA in the finals. He had a .921 save percentage and 3 shutouts.

Lemieux was another strong playoff force, becoming the first player in 35 years to win consecutive championships with different teams. But Lemieux will forever be remembered for his dirty and vicious hit from behind on Detroit's Kris Draper during the nasty but memorable conference finals.

Uwe Krupp scored the memorable Cup winning goal. The decisive game 4 remained scoreless entering the third overtime period before Krupp's point slapper found its way past John Vanbiesbrouck.

"Beezer" was the main reason the team from Miami debuted in the Stanley Cup. Other than their goaltender and a young Ed Jovanovski, the Panthers truly were an overachieving group of journeymen.

The most famous of the Panthers was undoubtedly captain Scott Mellanby. Mellanby immortalized himself in Florida hockey and Stanley Cup lore when he killed a bothersome rat that frequented the Panther's dressing room. The story created the craze of throwing 1000s of plastic toy rats on the ice after every Florida goal.

Stanley Cup Playoff Heroes: Joe Sakic Strikes Again

Colorado captain Joe Sakic bettered his own NHL record on Wednesday night, scoring his eighth career playoff overtime goal. The goal came at 11:11 of the first overtime stanza, giving the Avalanche a 3-2 victory in Minnesota in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinal.

Sakic scored two overtime goals during Colorado's run to its first Stanley Cup in 1996, had one each in 1998 and 2001, notched two in 2004 and passed the legendary Rocket Richard with his seventh career tally in 2006.

Here's a listing of the NHL's all time career playoff overtime goal scorers:

8 - Joe Sakic
6 - Rocket Richard
5 - Glenn Anderson
4 - Bob Nystrom
- Dale Hunter
- Wayne Gretzky
- Stephane Richer
- Joe Murphy
- Esa Tikkanen
- Jaromir Jagr
- Kirk Muller
- Jeremy Roenick
- Chris Drury
- Jamie Langenbrunner

The goal also moved Sakic moved into seventh place on the all-time playoff goal list with 83, once again passing Maurice Richard (82).

Obviously his goal was the game winner, giving him 19 playoff game-winning goals in his career and tying him for third overall with Claude Lemieux. Only co-leaders Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull (24 goals each) have more.

Joe Sakic Reaches Milestone

Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic became the 11th player in NHL history, and the only active player, to reach the 1,000-assist plateau. Sakic has assisted on goals by 132 different players, most often for Milan Hejduk (93), Alex Tanguay (46), Peter Forsberg (45), Adam Deadmarsh (39) and Owen Nolan (38).

Also this weekend, Alex Ovechkin scored his 59th and 60th goals of the season in Washington’s win at Atlanta on Friday night. Ovechkin, who was 22 years, 186 days old when he did it, is the fifth-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 60-goal mark in a season. The four players younger than Ovechkin at the time of their 60th goal were Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82 (20 years, 359 days) and 1982-83 (22-41), Pavel Bure in 1992-93 (22-11), Mike Bossy in 1978-79 (22-62) and Mario Lemieux in 1987-88 (22-167).

Oilers rookie Sam Gagner had his first two-goal game in the NHL to lead Edmonton to a 7-5 win over Colorado on Saturday. Gagner, age 18 years, 225 days, was the youngest player ever to score two-or-more goals in an NHL game for the Oilers, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s mark which had stood for over 28 years. Gretzky was 18 years, 280 days old on Nov. 2, 1979, when he recorded his first multiple-goal game in the NHL by scoring twice against Chico Resch in a 7-5 Oilers win over the Islanders in Edmonton. Gretzky (six times) and Gagner are the only players to have a multiple-goal game for the Oilers as an 18-year-old.