I’ve been so busy posting Down the Rabbit Hole that I haven’t had a chance to acknowledge the retirement of Joe Sakic yesterday. What is it about Joe Sakic? Is it his massive amount of hardware, including, two Stanley Cup rings and a Hart trophy? Or his six-time 100 point seasons? Or is it the fact that he will go down in history as one of the greatest players to ever play the game? Needless to say, when Joe Sakic is in the building there is an aura of pure awesomeness about him. Not unlike the shroud of wonder that followed around a certain Pittsburgh Penguin bearing the number #66.
Now, as some of you may have noticed, I tend to get around the National Hockey League – and not in the fun skanky way! Hockey players are so much a part of my everyday reality that the reverence that many people have for these athletes is lost on me. I can see them on the street or at a restaurant, and it’s just another day in the life of this Psycho Lady. If I’ve had too much to drink, I will not hesitate to point out their teenstaches! Come on, even Wayne Gretzky doesn’t do it for me! But, one time, and only one time in my entire life, has a hockey player ever made me say, “WOW, look, it’s THAT guy!” That star-struck moment for me was Joe Sakic.
Three years ago, in Nashville, I saw the Colorado Avalanche play live for the first and only time in my life. This road trip had marked the first occasion that I was able to secure fifth row seats at an NHL game. Before that time, I was under the impression that all National Hockey League teams had the same ticket scarcity that plagues the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was long before I had discovered the wonders of Stub Hub, and based all my ticket getting on box office and ebay. I was amazed that I was able to get fifth row in Nashville, and perhaps this is where the hockey addiction really began. Prior to this road trip, I had never seen the big show from closer than the very back of the upper bowl!
Although I was three rows behind the Preds bench, I was nevertheless completely awestruck when the opposing #19 skated by. “That’s JOE SAKIC!” I thought to myself. It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen in my life! Not even the very slow (eeeeeee!) elevator trip with the handsome Avs player earlier that day compared to that moment. And that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t know or care who McHothot was. I just couldn’t believe that THE Joe Sakic was close enough to me that I could have thrown something at him! I’m sure that if I had seen him at the hotel, it would have been very likely that I would have thrown something at him – but it would have been a pelting of love!
Despite the unpleasantness later that evening, (Re: Will NOT have sex for carbs or money!), a new world of hockey filled with Joe Sakics opened up to me. Three months later I was in full fledge NHL road trip mode, and some of the credit for that goes to Mr. Sakic.
Even though Joe has retired, I am sure that if I saw him ten years from now walking down the street, I’d feel that same sense of wonderment that only hockey royalty can evoke. “Wow! That’s JOE SAKIC!” I’d say, and quickly call up anyone I could think of who’d be jealous of my sighting! Either that or I’d hide behind a tree and pelt him with my shoe of affection.
Congratulations on an outstanding career, Joe!
