Joe Sakic - A Great Captain?

Most people who have known me for any length of time know my position on this, but with all the Sakic fellatio going on in anticipation that he might finally shove off, I feel compelled to write this up for posterity.

Joe Sakic is commonly seen as one of the best captains in NHL history. Why? Because he is commonly seen as one of the best captains in NHL history. Nobody can point to any actual leadership traits that he possesses; their arguments simply revolve around Sakic's achievements, with the argument that everyone else thinks he's great and his teammates think he's great, so I am obviously wrong.

There's an old saying that is so true that I have repeated it enough times for it to be considered my personal motto - "The plural of 'opinion' is NOT 'fact.'" To put it another way, I don't give a rat's ass what everyone else believes. Nobody has ever accomplished anything meaningful in life by going with what everyone else says. Think about it.

Sakic doesn't have any fire. Never has. He's always been a good performer, one of the best players in hockey history, but he's never really been able to inspire others to the extent that it elevates their level of play. And I've never heard of anyone who was afraid to look Sakic in the eye after they put out a poor effort for fear of what Sakic would say. As a matter of fact, everything I have seen, heard and read states that Sakic is a quiet person in all aspects of his life. That's not leadership.

When confronted with the facts on this particular issue, Sakic-lovers always revert to the "well, he's a lead-by-example type of leader." In other words, he doesn't exhibit any sort of leadership traits, but he plays well and is well respected, so he's a good leader. Sorry, but that's a bullshit argument. There are tons of well-respected players who play well and aren't seen as leaders. Milan Hejduk, for example. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are two more.

"But he's been the captain for ten years." And? He was named captain of a team that had no other logical options. It's extremely rare for an NHL player to be stripped of the captaincy, so it would have basically required a trade for Sakic to have lost the C. That doesn't mean he's a leader, it means that the Avs didn't want to offend him.

"He led Team Canadia to their first gold medal in blah blah blah." He wasn't the captain of that team. He played well as a cog. The next Olympics, he was named captain of Team Canadia, and despite being the heavy favorite for the Gold, Team Canadia finished seventh. Coincidence? I think not.

Joe Sakic was a great player. If anything, he was a lead-by-example type, and that only works when you have a team of self-motivated players (which, other than in 95-96, 98-99 and 00-01, they have never had). More realistically, he was a lethargic, lame-duck captain to whom the other (better) team leaders always deferred to out of respect to Joe and to the detriment of the team.

Yes, I hope the predictions are true and Joe finally hangs 'em up after this season. I will miss Sakic for the player he used to be. But I am downright giddy at the idea of the Avs possibly having a captain who will hold players accountable for poor efforts. Because we all know damn well that with this team, we're going to see a whole hell of a lot of poor efforts.

Wow. Series Post-mortem.

Worst effort I have ever seen from a hockey team. Ever.

I am writing this as the game is going on, and it's currently 8-2. I knew this team had given up a couple games ago, but I didn't think they would just drop their shorts and take a dump on the ice like this.

Bright spots -
After that first weak goal, Theodore looked really good. Idiot obviously disagreed, but that's why he's called Idiot.
Liles is playing like a guy who wants a big contract next year. He's been very good. I'd like to see him back with the Avs next year, but he'll probably leave.
Jones and Hensick have been playing pretty well, and Hejduk has been at least TRYING to score.

Ugliness -
Sad that Sakic could end his career on the injured list. What? He's not injured? Wow, hadn't noticed.
Arnason...wow, scored a goal and cost us two more. Maybe we'll call that a Tyler Arnason Hat Trick from now on.
Budaj - It's absolutely AMAZING how awful he has been tonight. Just disgusting. He has to go.
Forsberg - Why'd we even sign him in the first place?
The defense was ridiculously bad.
Turnovers.
Idiot - If FG doesn't fire him (or, rather, choose not to re-sign him) after this debacle, I don't think I will be able to support this team anymore. He HAS to go.

At the end of the day, it's shitty that the series had to be like this. I'm not upset or anything, I was actually rooting for the Wings to score a shorty when Franzen put that one in.

It's just a shame that the most classless, uneducated, lowbrow fanbase in the league gets this sweep. Red Wing fans don't deserve their team. But hey, that's life, and this is all they have.

That said, GO STARS!

Game Four

Game Four is tonight. Whoopee.

Luckily, Forsberg has ended all doubt and has taken himself out of tonight's game with an injury to his who-the-fuck-cares. Snasty is out. Smyth is out. Sakic might as well be out - we haven't seen him this series anyway.

If Idiot were smart, he'd put out a first line of Stewart-Hensick-Jones. But there's a reason why his name is Idiot. I expect to see Forsberg replaced with Wyatt Smith. Or maybe he'll dress Budaj and put him at wing.

The Sakic-Hejduk-Whomever line has not earned the right to be the #1 line this series. We need to start thinking for the future and hope that Sakic gets the hint and hangs em up after this season. We need to start getting Jones, Hensick and Stewart ready for NHL duty, and we need to do it tonight. Baptism by fire. They've shown energy and drive, something we haven't seen from Sakic in many many years (if ever). They deserve their shot.

Can we win tonight? Of course.
Can we win the series? Yes.
Will we? Nope.

Hopefully, we'll see Sakic, Forsberg and Idiot's last games with the Avs tonight. I'd rather get the series and season over with than to drag this out any further, to be quite honest. I'd love nothing more than to have them win this series, but I'd also like to win the lottery and play goal for the Avs next year, but none of those things are going to happen.

Go Stars!

I want a new coach and captain.

This is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

Game One wasn't too bad. The Avs had a goalie who got pulled because he was so sick he could barely stand. Nevermind the fact that our idiot coach let a guy WITH THE FUCKING FLU into the dressing room DURING THE FUCKING PLAYOFFS no less. Regardless, despite that and a bad 1st period, the Avs still nearly came back in the game. Not too bad. Avs showed some heart.

The Avs showed NO HEART today. This is nothing new; the team has played like this the whole time Joe Sakic has been captain. Sakic just doesn't have any sort of fire. If a player went out and slacked off, he was afraid to look Patrick Roy in the eye after the game. Nobody's afraid to look Sakic in the eye after a shitty performance.

"Lead by example" only works with a self-motivated veteran team. The Avs are neither, and except for 95-96, 98-99 and 00-01, they never have been (hmm...seems they were successful two of those three years). This team needs someone to light a fire under them, and there is no fire in Idiot or Sakic.

That leads us to Idiot. I've already mentioned how he let JoeTed into the dressing room when he had the flu, and how he doesn't hold his players accountable for anything. Both of which are inexcusable. Beyond that, he has allowed Tin Dome Tony to remain in control of the powerplay, despite the fact that the PP has been just fucking atrocious all year. He clearly doesn't understand the concept of line chemistry, as he can't seem to leave a line together for more than one shift. He took a very gifted Jaroslav Hlinka and screwed the guy over so badly that I'd be surprised if he didn't tell the Avs to go fuck themselves as he heads back to the Czech Republic.

Idiot's not going anywhere. Our GM lacks the balls and the creativity to can the asshole and replace him. And the fans and media are too dumb to realize what a piece of garbage he is.

I can only hope Sakic will finally retire at the end of the year. All the "thank you for the memories, Joe" BS that people will spout will drive me up a fucking wall. But I'd gladly tolerate that if it meant the Avs could finally turn the page on that shitbag. Great, great player. One of the ten best ever, possibly. But just an awful, AWFUL leader.

Edit - Upon further thought, perhaps it would be better to have Adam Foote as captain than to pluck one out of free agency. I have been amazed at how well he has played for the Avs since his acquisition. He was a shell of his former self after the lockout, but he looks like the old Adam Foote now. He'd be a great captain.