wow, nicely said. what a sad day. :(

The Nords Sakic jersey is coming out tomorrow for work. I hope there is a press conference too, because I will cover it in the jersey. So long Joe…stay away from the snowblowers!

like my friend working at the coffee shop I’m at right now concernedly asked what was wrong

I can’t say that I blame him at all, but this still hurts like hell.

This is a very sad day, not just for Avalanche fans around the globe but hockey fans in general. The greatest player to ever wear #19 is done. A true gentleman on and off the ice, Sakic is/was pure class.

Ahhh, the good old days…

Well that was certainly tear-jerking.

Well, that sucks.

Fuck.

Give me a minute.

Nope, still sucks.

Damnit.

I’m waiting til Thursday, nothing is official until Joe says it.

I’m speechless.

While this is a great loss to the sport as a whole, I think it was probably a good thing. We will finally see a reboot of the franchise, and his “secret” decision is probably what lead the brass to start to really clear house. Hopefully in 2 years (little optimistic I know) we will have a team that is as fun to watch as the Hawks.

Until then I will be sitting at the Can cheering them on with lots of extra room around me. I just wish he could have gotten a “final” game in. He deserves all the cheers in the world.

Very nice DDC. I’m glad Super Joe brought you into the Av fan fold.

There won’t be another 19 in burgundy and blue. And I hope to be in the Can when they raise his number to the rafters. Which should be before the first home game of the regular season.

I have a promo pic of Sakic, Forsberg and Foote on my machine from when FG tried to “get the band back together” for one last magical run in 2008. Had that team stayed healthy, I still think they could have given Detroit a run. Now, with Foote the only remaining original Av, Forsberg almost surely done, and the loss of our Captain, the band is definitely finished. Their last song was the playoff round victory over the Wild. Very sad day indeed.

I was choked up watching the end of the last game of the season, when Super Joe was the last one out to give away his jersey. I kinda had the feeling then that it would be the last time… but it still hurts today.

*sniff.

well said DDC. respect.

Number 2 on the Top 19 list tomorrow.

Number 1 will be on Thursday.

Absolutely no coincidence whatsoever.

Man tears.

I’ve been a huge Avs fan since I saw my first NHL game in Denver in 1995. I knew we had a great team watching all of the regular season games. I knew we had the best team in the first round of the 1996 playoffs. The Avs were playing the Canucks in the first round. The series was back and forth the first 4 games, the series was tied 2-2. Super Joe took command of the entire series and you could tell just by looking at him that we’d win the cup. In game 5, the series went to overtime. This was my first experience in NHL playoff overtimes, and perhaps one of the best. Sakic scored and won the game. That goal made me a life long hockey fan, Avalanche fan, and Joe Sakic fan. I have heard nothing but good stories about what a great human he is, but for me it was that goal.

I don’t want to be sad that Joey is doing what he needs to do. I am grateful for the memories he gave us hockey fans. John Kelly said it best – “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

I didn’t comment when Lappy left, or Ben "the moustache" Guite, or Smyth or even the Raycroft or Arnie signings. (those took real will power – Smyth and Arnie) But this is it. I can’t hold it in any longer.

DD – well played sir

I had a friend of mine say to me over email today "It’s the darkest before the dawn". I agree to a point but the news about Sakic is hard to take. I’m not sure where the franchise goes from here (and if current PR decisions are any indication- it could be a long few years).

I guess the Flyers successfully rebuilt in a year and half or so, maybe we can as well.

Here’s to hoping

(more snarky comments to follow)

Ben

Thanks DDC.

I don’t really know how to express how I feel, but I can say that it feels alot like the day my boyhood dog died.

No one will ever fill Joe’s skates, but the great thing about him is that he makes so many want to do so, not only with respect to his amazing gifts, but especially in the way that he employed those gifts to the betterment not only of his teammates and his organization, but the town in which he lives and society at large. I need not remind anyone here of how hard Joe & Debbie work in order to help those that don’t have enough and the truth of the matter is that we don’t know the half of what they do. Nor would they have us know, because they know its the act, not the recognition thereof that is the point.

In a sport that stands head and shoulders above all others in its nurture and perpetuation of a culture that breeds character, integrity, diligence and a host of positive traits that are simply everything that every father hopes his son may someday become, Joe stands at the pinnacle of that proud sport, not by virtue of his prodigious skills alone, but by operation of the fact that he doesn’t count himself better than the least or the youngest of those who look up to him and acts accordingly.

Joe, you’re a paragon. Thanks for showing us not just the way the game ought be played, but the way that life ought be lived. Thanks for giving us a sports star that we can love in the game and out, somebody and to whom we can point and say, without compunction or reservation to our kids “that’s the way to do it. Try to be like Joe.”

Godspeed SuperJoe.

I’m 23 and been a Nordiques fan since I was a little boy, and switched to the Avs when they moved. I wasn’t a Nordiques fan because I liked Quebec (although I am sort of a francophile). I am a Nordiques fan because I loved Joe Sakic.
The last couple years felt like I was waiting for a sick relative to die. I was waiting for it, I prepared for it, I knew it was coming…and it didn’t do any good. I will miss Joe Sakic profoundly. Hockey has lost a great ambassador in a time where it’s being run by goons.

Bye bye, Super Joe. Thanks for everything.

I started watching the Avs/Nordiques because of guys like Sakic, Forsberg, and Foote. Then Roy helped them keep my attention. But I only have one of their jersey’s…Joe’s. It’s the only jersey I haven’t gotten on sale/clearance. It’s really the only one I wear…

There just isn’t words to describe….

I’m a huge Patrick Roy fan but missed the opprotunity to purchase his jersey while he was still playing so I spent some of my tax returns on an Authentic Joe Sakic 3rd jersey so I wouldn’t miss the opprotunity to buy his jersey before he retired. I pretty good consolation prize.

He is Mr. Colorado Avalanche and will be missed on the ice dearly. Thank you, Joe Sakic, our captain!

Fantastic story on one of the all-time greats in hockey, and Avs history. I’m a first time poster on this blog, but wanted to show my support.

Yet I still feel like a teenage girl who has broken up with her boyfriend right before the prom; I just want to lock myself in my room tonight with a bowl of ice cream, fighting back the tears as I clutch his picture in my hands.

This excerpt made me think of all the other times our favorite athletes retire, are injured, or pass away. It reminded me when my favorite football player of all-time, Walter “Sweetness” Payton, died from a very rare disease well before his time.

Thanks Joe for all those quick released, rocket-launched wrist shots. Your stats, championships, and other accomplishments will never outshine your class and dignity as a person.

For sharing your memories.
I met Joe Sakic once. I have told this story before, but not here.
In the summer before the lockout I was working graveyard shifts. One of my friends needed to go to Denver (about 2 hours away) to pick up her kids from Grandma’s house. She really didn’t want to go alone, so I agreed to go with her even thought I knew it meant no sleep that day. We had errands to run and by the time we were leaving Grandma’s house we were in the middle of rush hour. We had told her 6 year old son that we would take him to Casa Bonita for dinner. We anticipated making it there at around 4pm and then heading up the mountain. By the time we got there it was close to 6. I was understandably very tired by this time and didn’t really want to stop but we didn’t want to dissappoint the kiddos. So, while my friend wrangled her 6 year old out of the car and up the parking lot, I got her 2 year old out of her carseat and headed toward the front door. Standing in front of the restaurant doors was a guy holding a kid on one hip and talking on his cell phone. I actually stepped around him to get into the building because he was standing right in front of the doors. I turned and looked up at him and stopped and stared. My friend said " what is it? Did he say something? Kick his ass!!" I just continued to stare and she looked up and said “Hey, thats Joe Sakic!!” I said “I know!” Somehow even though I had cut him off to get inside, he and his family ended up in front of us in line. With the dinner rush, we stood in line behind his family for about 45 minutes. His kids were playing with my friends kids. Her son was bumping into him, until I forced him to stop. He was so gracious, at some point in the line another kid who was about 10 realized who he was and stopped and asked if he could take his picture. Joe of course graciously posed for several pictures for this kid. I still couldn’t get up the nerve to even say Hi. It was obvious that we knew who he was and that I was a total drooling idiot by this time. Finally, we were at the front of the line and about to pick up our food and my friend relented and asked him for his autoraph for me. She isn’t a hockey fan but knew what it would mean to me and that I would never get up the courage to do it for myself. Of course he graciously signed my paper menu. He actually walked past our table a couple of times and acknowledged us each time. I will just never forget how genuinely nice he was and how kind to the little kid who just wanted to take his picture. He never got frustrated that he was just trying to have dinner with his family and was being recognized. But, I do have to give the average diner at Casa Bonita credit also, I didn’t see anyone approaching his table and interupting his dinner or anything like that either.
Anyway, that’s my Joe Sakic moment. I will never throw out that cheesy Casa Bonita menu with his scrawl on it! It’s one of my more treasured posessions.