Tribute to two grand men of the NHL

Joe Sakic, center, Colorado Avalanche captain 1992-present

William Shakespeare once wrote, “In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.”

Ah humility, a concept seemingly forgotten and/or taken for granted in the world of professional sports.

Yet there exists a few athletes who give honor to their sport and individual legacy by swallowing pride and existing for team instead of self.

Two athletes in particular, who just happen to have applied their trade in the NHL, epitomize class, dignity, honor, and selflessness, all concepts that encompass and give meaning to humility.

Back in the 1983 NHL Draft, the Detroit Red Wings, with the 4th overall pick, added Steve Yzerman to the roster. Four years later with the 17th pick, the Quebec Nordiques selected Joe Sakic.

What followed was nothing less than transcendence in both statistical dominance and public adoration.

Few NHLers past or present can boast the kind of numbers Yzerman and Sakic put up; Stevie Y finished his career sixth all time in points, Super Joe is currently eighth.

Even fewer still can be considered the leaders that Yzerman and Sakic became. Yzerman captained the Red Wings for twenty years, from 1986-2006, the longest such tenure in the history of North American sports. Sakic has worn the C for sixteen years since 1992.

And yet fewer still have gained the respect these two gentlemen have earned. Sakic and Yzerman are/were revered icons in cities where bigger name athletes plied their trade. Denver had John Elway, yet Sakic was more admired. Detroit had Barry Sanders, yet Yzerman was more beloved. In Denver football is king yet Joe was the first to bring a professional sports championship to a sports crazed city. In Detroit, the Red Wings rule the roost, due in no small part to Yzerman’s deification as a hockey god.

Linked together through one of the nastiest rivalries in sports at the time, the infamous Avalanche-Red Wings enmity that spanned the years 1996 through 2002, Sakic and Yzerman were the ice to the fire of a blood feud.

Between the two of them is 36 years of captain’s experience, five Stanley Cups, two Conn Smyth trophies, two Lester B. Pearson awards, 22 All Star Game appearances, over 3300 career points, and 2800 games played.

Both turned a Stanley Cup celebration into a touching tribute to a teammate. After the Red Wings 1998 Cup win, Yzerman

Hall of Fame center Steve Yzerman

placed the Cup in the lap of stricken teammate Vladamir Konstantinov, and there was not a dry eye in the house. In 2001 Sakic forsook the first lap out of reverential deference to Ray Bourque’s first Cup, and once again, tears were shed.

But that is/was the kind of players these two were, gentlemen through and through, two grand captains playing an impossibly rugged game, and they played it with class, giving honor to the sport they loved.

Anyone who makes the argument that these two were the best captains in the history of North American sports would get no argument here.

They played their sport about as well as anyone who has ever laced up skates and did it without clamoring to be traded, never took steroids, never made headlines for anything but their play, never said “Me first,” never cheated on their wives, never tried to hurt anybody intentionally, never got arrested, and never got caught up in the egotistical cult of personality that permeates contemporary sport.

Fitting they wore the same number. Fitting they were both 5’11” and 190 pounds. Fitting they both won championships. Fitting that Sakic will walk into the Hall Of Fame someday not long after his retirement a place where Yzerman has already been admitted. Fitting that Yzerman’s number was retired by the Red Wings and that Sakic’s will follow suit someday.

Yzerman is missed horribly by anyone who cares about hockey and thinking about the imminent retirement, which now appears certain, of Sakic produces goose bumps and a lump in the throat.

So, pay honor to these magnificent captains, for they are national treasures, athletes who played in a day and age when good guys still finished first, when dignity and humility were still revered, and when grace was personified by two men who wore #19.