Joe Sakic Top 10 Moments Video

Given Sakic’s retirement last Thursday, it is only appropriate to show a video of the top 10 Joe Sakic Moments as produced by The Sports Network.

Sakic is truly a classy individual and one of the most revered and respected player to play in the National Hockey League. Often referred to by the media as “Quoteless Joe”, he said all he needed to on the ice. [Faceoff.com]

He was “Quoteless Joe,” as Sakic jokingly called himself over and over at his retirement Thursday. He let his play do the talking for him for two decades, and arguably nobody ever had the combination of speed and hands. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, big Jean Beliveau and Steve Yzerman had the hands. Mark Messier had the speed, but Sakic’s patented play where he would roar down the right side, a left-handed shooter, and effortlessly slide around a flailing defenceman, then whip that wrister under the crossbar, was a thing of beauty.

Enjoy the video!

Joe Sakic and Claude Lemieux Retirement Thoughts

The following is a compilation of links gathered on the NHL Digest Twitter feed today. If you want to see these stories and much more in real time, please follow NHL Digest at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.

Claude Lemieux and the Hall of Fame

Should Claude Lemieux make the hockey hall of fame? Is 4 Cups and a Conn Smythe enough? http://ff.im/-519vo

RT @joereiter Claude wasn’t an elite player. Butch Goring has 4 cups 1 Conn Smythe and 100 more points in his career and isn’t a Hall Of Fame player.

Your Thoughts:

What are your thoughts on inducting Claude Lemieux into the Hockey Hall of Fame? Is he worthy, or not?

The Joe Sakic Retirement Press Conference

A touching moment from Avalanche fan @voteforgrant “Get your hankies ready… Sakic’s announcement starts in less than 10 minutes.”

We talked a lot about Joe Sakic Statistics yesterday, but one we didn’t mention was that Joe Sakic ended his career at +30 after registering a combined -102 over his first 3 seasons in Quebec.

ESPN is known for giving hockey the cold shoulder so @TheProspectpark said “STOP THE PRESSES ESPNews just did 15 seconds on Sakic’s retirement”

A great link from @MileHighHockey : Joe Sakic Retirement Press Conference Thread (Plus lots of Sakic related links) http://sbnation.com/e/707553

A touching comment by Gary Bettman quoted from the retirement ceremony by @voteforgrant : Bettman on Sakic-”While the ‘C’ on his jersey stood for captain, it also stood for courage, character, class, Canada & Colorado.”

Your Thoughts:

Speaking of the Hall of Fame – Do you think there is any chance that Joe Sakic gets inducted before the mandatory waiting period?

Free Agency Links

Globe and Mail staffer @mirtle “Doug Wilson announced today that the Sharks have re-signed unrestricted free agent defenseman Kent Huskins to a two-year contract”

According to Sportsnet, the Maple Leafs have lured the Swedish teammate of Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, Rickard Wallin http://ff.im/-51NPH

@kyleroussel heard this quote referencing the Canadiens decision to let go of their Captain Saku Koivu (who signed with Anaheim) on the radio and decided to share:
Mark Recchi live on @theteam990 : “I’d take Saku Koivu on my team over Scott Gomez any day, and that’s not to knock Gomez”.

LegendsofHockey.net chronicles each player’s day with the Stanley Cup over the summer months. @Sean_Leahy linked us up to Phillippe Boucher’s day with the Stanley Cup http://bit.ly/5Rz6J

I won a book today from @hockeyplayermag and they say they’ve got more giveaways coming. Follow them on Twitter if you want to win some cool hockey prizes.

Joe Sakic Versus Steve Yzerman

The following is a compilation of hockey links from the NHL Digest Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.  I’ve added some additional comments around these links.  I hope you enjoy them!

Joe Sakic’s Retirement

With Joe Sakic expected to officially retire on Thursday, Adrian Dater wants to know who was better – Sakic or Yzerman? http://ff.im/-4Yxzr

That’s a tough call.  Both had the intangible qualities of leadership and both are certainly in the best class of people both on and off the ice.

Adrian outlines some statistics in his article- They are eerily similar!

Stanley Cups Yzerman 3, Sakic 2.
Career pointsYzerman 1,755, Sakic 1,641.
Career playoff points: Sakic 188, Yzerman 185.
Postseason goals: Sakic 84, Yzerman 70.
Conn Smythe trophies: Sakic 1, Yzerman 1.
Olympic MVP awards: Sakic 1, Yzerman 0.

Sakic’s retirement and the turnover rate of Avalanche coaches got me thinking. How cool would it be if Joe Sakic pulled a “Gerry Cheevers” becoming the team’s coach the following season after his retirement?

According to @weeklyslapshot the name even (kinda) works: “Easy to confuse Joe Sakic with Joe Sacco… LOL”

Both players were very influential to me as a young hockey player and their careers so close statistically, it comes down to just Stanley Cups. That said, if I had to choose, I choose Steve Yzerman.

Free Agent Signings

@dchesnokov reported that former Detroit Red Wing and free agent, Jiri Hudler, will play for Dynamo Moscow of the KHL (per Sovetsky Sport).

Kuklas Korner had a translation of Hudler speaking on why he signed in Moscow  http://ff.im/-4YxWa

The article at Kuklas Korner has some great speculation as to the actual advantages to this signing for the Detroit Red Wings.  In particular, Detroit doesn’t have to give up anything in the form of money or draft picks and they retain Hudler’s NHL rights.  It is possible that when Detroit clears some salary cap space, in a year or two, that Hudler could be lured back to the Red Wings.

The Anaheim Ducks have signed Saku Koivu to a one-year, $3.25 million contract. via TSN http://ff.im/-4XYB4

There was much speculation that Koivu would go to Anaheim to play with Teemu Selanne for one season prior to Selanne’s retirement.  That speculation came true and Koivu stated for the record that Selanne did influence his decision to join the Ducks.

According to @TBLightning http://twitpic.com/9pn47 – The Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms with former Minnesota Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster.

More Hockey Links

RT @BladeTape Gillian Ferrari & Jayna Hefford have signed with BladeTape for the ‘09-’10 hockey season! 2 of the best female players around!

Does anyone know of any certified medical doctors that have played in the NHL other than Randy Gregg?

Wednesday was also useless NHL Trivia day over at the NHL Digest Facebook page – check it out!  http://bit.ly/a7LfI

NHL Quick Hits

Joe Sakic will not return to the Colorado Avalanche this season.

Sakic Not Returning This Season

According to Adrian Dater, Joe Sakic will not be playing this weekend.  Many fans were hoping he would come back from injury to close out the season, and possibly his career, with the Avalanche.

NHL Players Going Green?

Andrew Ference, Zdeno Chara and Mark Stuart make a habit of riding their bikes to practice, and sometimes they convince Boston Bruins teammate Chuck Kobasew to use pedal power, too.

This comes on the heels of Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Ducks trading in his truck for a hybrid Toyota Prius. Apparently in the NHL, it’s cool to go green!

Power Play Efficiency Up!

According to John Kreiser at NHL.com, power plays around the NHL this season are doing more with less. As the season winds down, power plays are converting at a rate not seen since 1992-93, a season that included two expansion teams (Ottawa and Tampa Bay).

The San Jose Sharks are converting their chances at a clip of 18.9% – a rate that hasn’t been seen in over a decade!

Engraving The Stanley Cup

Joe Pelletier, the Hockey History Blogger, knows as well as anyone that getting your name engraved on the Stanley Cup is hockey’s equivalent to immortality.

But it wan’t until reading his article, that I learned that The Cup was first awarded in 1893, and the name of the team and championship year were engraved from the start. But it was not until 1907 that the practice of engraving players individual names started?

Sakic Signs With Avalanche

Shane Giroux of the Colorado Avalanche Blog submits:

Holy out-of-the-blue, Batman! Joe Sakic has signed on with the Avalanche for one more year. Thanks to Sully for the tip in the comments of my previous Sakic post.

Honestly, I thought the press conference Sakic had scheduled for tomorrow would be uneventful. Maybe I was getting apathetic about the whole “Will he or won’t he?” angle. Or maybe I’m in that weird limbo phase of being disappointed about summer coming to a close but excited about hockey coming back causing my emotions to neutralize.

But it turns out I was dead wrong and couldn’t be happier. And with a price tag of $6M, I bet Francois Giguere is whistling zippety-do-da all day long today. I’ll take Sakic for $6M over Sundin for $10M any day of the week, twice on Friday and three times on Canada day.

At a cap hit hovering in the $50M area ($4,6M according to nhlnumbers.com, $50M according to nhlscap.com and $52M according to DD), the Avalanche have left themselves with plenty of wiggle room. Sources tell me Gomez is on the block but I hear he’s going to Phoenix straight up for Kurt Sauer.

And can you believe he signed with the Avalanche? Man, I know Vancouver was in the running until the very end and so were the Rangers but he pulled a 360 and went back to the Avs. Shocking.

I wonder where all the prognosticators will put the Avalanche in their pre-preseason rankings now.

…Actually, I don’t care.

Crosby Not As Perfect As You Thought

Shane Giroux submits:

I’ve been shocked once already this offseason. Then shocked again after hearing about Forsberg skating in Sweden (because there was no “He’s injured!” followup story). I fully expect the trifecta of shockingness to come into play at some point, but today is not that day.

Sid The Kid Vs. Burnaby Joe

The National Post is running an article titled “Sidney Or Sakic: Who’s More Likeable?” and the results are as un-shocking as they get. Joe Sakic had a “Q score” of 26 while Sid the Kid fell behind with a 22. Poor Sid, for all the hype and marketing – and his 3 full seasons in the NHL -, is less likable than one of the quietest players to ever play the game. Who knew?

Honestly, I didn’t need a survey to tell me that people would think more highly of Joe Sakic than Sidney Crosby. Crosby came into the league as a whining 18-year old, was given an “A” in that same year, had the captaincy foisted upon him at the age of 20 – to which they called a press conference to announce -, and has been anointed as the next Great One since he was a young teenager. In other words, he’s been shoved in our faces. Contrast that with a man such as Joe Sakic, who has quietly gone about his business and proven himself a winner at every level and you might get an idea why Sakic is more likable.

Is There Such Thing As Over-Marketing?

Now, I have nothing against Crosby. The problem is that he was so darn good at a time when the league – and the Penguins – needed it. Coming out of the lockout, they needed a face to market the game on. They needed a savior. An icon. Ok, I don’t actually believe that but nonetheless, many people – including the NHL and most of the mainstream media – did and they began shoving him down our throats. And nobody likes anything being shoved down their throat.

For a quick refresher on how the media treats their golden boy, look no further than the end of the National Post article:
“Crosby’s numbers should jump once he gets his first ring.”

Sigh. There is no guarantee that Sidney Crosby will ever win the Stanley Cup. He’s not guaranteed to win another Art Ross. He may never again win the Lester B. Pearson. But the way people talk, it’s as if he’s entitled to everything just because his name is Sidney Crosby.

See, it’s not so much that people dislike Crosby. It’s that they dislike the hype that goes along with his name.