This story, by Larry Wigge, first appeared in the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of The Sporting News, under the main headline “Sneaky good,” making the case that Denver icon Joe Sakic was the all-action, no-talk leader of the Colorado Avalanche. Sakic the season before had won the Byng, Hart and Pearson (now Lindsay) trophies and finished second in Selke voting as the Avs won their second Stanley Cup in six years.
He's quiet and unassuming. At 5-11, 195 pounds, he often plays against players a couple of inches taller and 15 pounds heavier. He usually blends in with the rest of the guys, seemingly nothing special. Joe Sakic is hockey's Clark Kent.
"Then he steps out of a phone booth and it's like he's Super Joe," says Red Wings defenseman Uwe Krupp, a former teammate of Sakic's in Colorado. "Suddenly he skates away from everyone and he's Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and John Elway rolled into one, leading the Avalanche up and down the field of play.
"You shake your head and say, "Where'd he come from?’"
"Joe Sakic is a guy you don't even notice on the ice — and then you turn around and he's scoring a huge goal," Blue Jackets G.M. Doug MacLean says. "It's kind of like his career. He's been a star for years, but nobody noticed."
Teams are going to have to start paying more attention. With Peter Forsberg on sabbatical and Ray Bourque retired, Sakic is being counted on more than ever to deliver. And so far this season he's doing it with the talents of a magician.
The magic is in how a 50-goal scorer can be invisible one minute and break into an opening and slide the puck past a stunned goalie the next. In this game, it's often the element of surprise, the time and space a player can create, that is most important.
Sakic shrugs and smiles when asked about his ability to be so elusive.
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Then he remembers a conversation he had with Hall of Fame winger Michel Goulet, the Avalanche's director of player development, at breakfast in April 1996, the team's first season in Colorado.
"I left the table in silence," Sakic says. “Michel said I was as good as Mario Lemieux, but that I just didn't know it yet. He said, 'I know you don't believe me, but you've got that kind of leadership inside of you. You can lead this team to the Stanley Cup. Now it's time to show the world how good you are.’
"My mouth must have been open in awe. No one had ever said that to me before."
Not long after that Sakic accumulated a record-tying 18 goals in the playoffs, including six game-winners — two of them in overtime — to lead the Avalanche to its first Stanley Cup.
It wasn't a fluke. Last spring, he led the Avalanche to a Game 1 win over the Devils in the final series, then added a goal and an assist in a 3-1 victory in Game 7 that gave his team its second Cup in six years.
There's nothing quiet about winning. And for Joe Sakic, there's nothing quiet about his past, either.
***
Sakic grew up quickly on a gray and snowy Dec. 30, 1986, on an old bus taking him and his Swift Current Broncos to Regina, Saskatchewan, for a Western Hockey League game.
No one paid much attention to the weather, because it was typical of the travels for these teenage boys playing junior hockey in western Canada. As a result, the day started out lighthearted. Soon, however, the tone changed drastically.
Sakic was seated in the front of the bus with teammate Sheldon Kennedy. As the driver lost control of the bus and it slid toward a railway overpass, he yelled, “Hold on!”
The bus skidded off the end of the overpass, scattered sign posts and hurtled into the air before crashing onto a side road. The driver went through the windshield, and the bus toppled onto its side.
“After everything seemed secure, we started to file one-by-one through the windshield — not knowing what had happened at the other end of the bus,” Sakic says.
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Teammates Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Brent Ruff and Chris Mantyka were playing cards in the back when the bus crashed. Two of the four, Ruff and Mantyka, were thrown from the bus and pinned underneath it. Before the players found out about the condition of their teammates, many were rushed to the hospital. It was there they learned all four had died.
Those close to the scene say Sakic became the team's true leader for the rest of the season. It was an emotional time; the Broncos were given a standing ovation in each rink they played in after the accident. Additional off-ice troubles made Sakic's leadership even more necessary. Graham James, the Broncos coach at the time of the crash, later was convicted of sexually abusing two of his players.
Once you hear Sakic's story, you learn to appreciate the man for who he is not what he says. The most important things in life are obviously burning in his big heart.
"Clearly, you grow up in a hurry after something like that," Sakic says of the crash. "It changes your whole outlook on life and makes you appreciate what you have even more."
***
To know and further appreciate Sakic, you have to meet his parents. Marijan, his father, is a carpenter and commercial fisherman, and Slavica, his mother, a housewife. Both settled in Burnaby, just outside Vancouver, after leaving their native Croatia.
The language of choice around the house was Croatian. So you can imagine a timid youngster blending into the crowd of children in school, listening and learning another language, another culture, in silence.
“We never had it easy growing up,” Sakic says. "Dad worked for everything we had. He never let me off the hook. In hockey it was the same thing: Get out there and work.
"Even today, after a bad game, there are times when I won't answer the phone. I know who it is. Even though I'm all grown up, I know it's my dad calling to tell me he had seen the game, and he's going to tell me I didn't work hard enough."
Sakic learned from his parents that talk is cheap, performance is precious. Hard work wins every battle in hockey and in life.
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He may be "Quoteless Joe" to most of the media, but there is a hard-working, caring individual beneath that reserved exterior.
"He used to jab with one-liners pretty good." says Blues winger Mike Keane, who was with the Avs in 1996. "Don't let that quiet demeanor fool you, he's always been one of the guys."
And he still is, apparently. Success has not spoiled him.
"Joe knows a little bit about everything," said teammate Rob Blake after a practice last month. "Just look at him over there. Go over there and listen. You'll learn something. I promise."
At the time, linemate Milan Hejduk was going through a scoring drought. He had lost his confidence, and Sakic was trying to pump him up, talking about the new one-piece sticks that are all the rage in the NHL.
"But don't just switch because I said so," he told a wide-eyed Hejduk. "Patrick (Roy) says he notices the difference in the shots he's facing. He says there's no difference in speed with the wrist shot, but the slap shots he's facing now are definitely harder and get to him quicker than before."
That night, with the new stick, Hejduk ripped a shot past Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek in a big Avs victory. Sakic had chipped in with a different kind of assist.
***
Quiet leadership. That's Joe Sakic.
"Some players feel they have to be running their mouths all the time, and it gets old,” Roy says. "Joe picks his spots to say something and when he does, you can put about six exclamation points behind it.”
Sakic isn't another ordinary Joe with a wicked wrist shot. He's not vanilla — he’s got more moves than Baskin Robbins has flavors.
You don't have to be selfish to be a star. You don't have to talk trash to show how assertive you are.
"Just because you're a quiet person, it doesn't mean you're not aggressive," says Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix. "Inscrutable is also indestructible. You don't judge a man on what he says, you judge him on the size of his heart."
"I remember when he came into the NHL in Quebec," Hall of Famer Peter Stastny says. "He was a little quiet around people until he got to know you. What I liked most was he was a determined player. He didn't have a chip on his shoulder because scouts said he was too small or maybe a little lazy. He had an I’ll-show-you attitude and never stopped working."
"The ultimate working star," says Blue Jackets goalie Ron Tugnutt, who played with Sakic in Quebec. “Pure class, on and off the ice."
Sakic's actions last June, when he accepted the Stanley Cup from commissioner Gary Bettman and immediately handed it to Bourque, speak volumes about class.
"Believe me, Joe Sakic would rather go one-on-one with a goalie than a reporter," Bourque said after Sakic's selfless act. “I've played with and against the best leaders in the game. The glare of Mark Messier, the ferocity of Scott Stevens, the unspoken confidence of Mario Lemieux or Steve Yzerman. None of them can beat the honest but steely leadership by example of Joe Sakic.
"You've got Patrick Roy and other leaders in this locker room, but Joe's been the unquestioned leader. ... Some people wondered why I didn't ask for the captain's C. But this team already had the best leader I've ever played with."