The news came last week that two memorable hockey players would call it quits.  Joe Sakic and Claude Lemieux, former Colorado teammates, are retiring after 40 years of combined experience.  As different as these players’ reputations might be, these two men have certainly left their mark on the NHL.

Claude Lemieux started his NHL career in 1983 with the Montreal Canadiens.  Since, he has played for New Jersey, Colorado, Phoenix, Dallas and San Jose.  He won the Stanley Cup four times, scored 379 goals, had 407 assists, took the Conn Smythe Trophy, retired in 2005 only to return for the 08-09 season and racked up 1,777 penalty minutes over his career.  The latter figure is what most people will remember him by and a good reason why he earned the title of “The Most Hated Player in the NHL” as named by ESPN.

He’s famous for his epic on-ice scuffles, including a fight in which he bit Jim Peplinski’s finger, and the infamous shot on Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings.  The latter served as the catalyst for the “Brawl in Hockeytown” and spurred on one of the biggest rivalries in NHL history between Colorado and Detroit.  But as he leaves all of this behind to perhaps try his hand at coaching, I think it’s best to remember his better side.  He’s one of only eight that has won the Cup with three different teams and the fifth to win it back-to-back with different teams.  He is also one of the top playoff players of all time, logging in 234 post-season games, which puts him behind only Chris Chelios, Mark Messier, Nicklas Lidstrom and Patrick Roy.

On the other side of the coin, NHL nice guy Joe Sakic announced on Thursday that he would be retiring from hockey.  He played all 20 years of his distinguished career with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise.  He won two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP, a Hart Trophy as the regular season MVP, is eighth in career points with 1,641, 11th in assists with 1,016, 14th in goals with 625 and seventh in playoff goals and points.  He became known for his deadly accurate wrist shot, which is now touted as one of the best of all time.  He was also known as a tremendous team leader.  This is something that he solidified in the 2002 Olympics when he helped to lead Team Canada to their first gold medal in 50 years.

However, my favorite Sakic moment (and I’m sure many other fans out there) was in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals when the Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils in Game 7.  As tradition dictates, Sakic (being the captain) accepted the Cup, but rather than hoisting it for a victory round, he quickly passed it on to Ray Bourque, saying “This is for you”.  It was the end of Bourque’s 22- year career and the moment that he had waited 22 years to achieve.  It spoke volumes about Sakic and is only one of the many reasons why he became one of the most loved players in the game.

So, hats off to two memorable NHL players that have had drastically different careers, but will both be missed just the same.

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