Wayne Gretzky's Ghost by Roy Macgregor Read Free Book Online Page B

into the clearing and blasted a quick shot to Brodeur’s stick side, well …
    â€œI really don’t know what happened.”
    Perhaps it is better, then, that we do the talking for him. Sakic, an amazed New Jersey coach Larry Robinson said when it was over, could have played the game carrying “eggs in his pants” for all his Devils were able to do to catch him. And Ray Bourque, Sakic’s relatively new teammate who played so many years for Boston, suggested that once Sakic gets his full speed up with the puck, even a defenceman of Scott Stevens’s stature is helpless.
    â€œIf you miss,” said Bourque, “forget it.”
    But there is so much more to Joe Sakic’s season than this one night. He might win all four trophies. He will almost certainly win the Hart as the clear MVP of the entire league. He already came second in both the race for that Art Ross Trophy that went to the top point getter (Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr) and the Rocket Richard Trophy that went to the top goal scorer (Florida’s Pavel Bure).
    Joe Sakic is thirty-one years old. He has spent his entire career with this organization, dating back to when the Avalanche were the Quebec Nordiques. He had been a junior sensation with the Swift Current Broncos but, likely because of his slight size, was not even the Nordiques’ first choice in 1987, his draft year. They took Bryan Fogarty, who never worked out, first (ninth overall), and on their next choice—after such names as Wayne McBean, Jayson Moore, Yves Racine, Keith Osborne and Dean Chynoweth had been called out by other teams—they went for the quick little centre from Western Canada with the fifteenth overall pick.
    Thirteen NHL seasons later and Sakic is numbered among the very best players in the league, with an impressive 1,178 points(including 457 goals) in his 934 regular season games played. His playoff performance is equally impressive, his 53 goals (and counting) the most any NHLer has scored over the past decade.
    Yet if he fails to get the public and media attention that such numbers demand, it cannot be said that he has passed unnoticed in hockey. He was, with Mario Lemieux, the most obvious among the first eight chosen to represent Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. It has not been forgotten that, had Sakic not been injured in Nagano in 1998, there might have been no need of a shootout.
    The New York Rangers certainly noticed his worth a few years back when they tried to lure the then-restricted free agent away from Colorado with an offer sheet that forced the Avalanche to match and, for one season, made Joe Sakic hockey’s only $17-million-a-year man. Sakic’s financial value is of increasing interest in hockey circles, for on July 1 he will become an unrestricted free agent, able to choose wherever he wishes to play. He missed full agency by a mere six days last year and elected to sign a one-year deal for $7.9 million in order to be entirely free this summer.
    The Avalanche, however, will do what they can to keep their captain. The franchise is extremely rich and already pays teammate—and fellow former Quebec Nordique—Peter Forsberg $10 million a year. The gathered media wanted to talk about that yesterday afternoon. About that contract and free agency and what he would make and where he would want to play and …
    â€œI haven’t thought too much about it,” he said.
    It sounded much the same as the Joe Sakic of 1996, who was asked how he thought hockey fans regarded him. “I … don’t know,” he stammered. “I guess they can see for themselves on the ice—just a guy who works hard out there.”
    And gets the job done.
    The next year, Sakic was a pivotal player in Team Canada’s Olympic gold medal victory at the Salt Lake City Winter Games,where he was named tournament MVP. He played several more years but back issues finally forced retirement in 2009. He