June 9, 1996

Soft-spoken Joe Sakic makes noise on the ice TORONTON SUN

 MIAMI (CP) -- Joe Sakic is wise beyond his 27 years. He has an appeciation for 
life that those who have experienced personal tragedy understand all too well.
   Sakic lost his innocence on the night of Dec. 30, 1986, when a bus carrying 
the Swift Current, Sask., junior hockey club towards Regina slid off the Trans-
Canada Highway in a snowstorm and rolled into the ditch. Four of his teammates 
were killed. He was 16.
   So, if the captain of the Colorado Avalanche gets to hoist the Stanley Cup
 over his head tonight, anybody watching on Hockey Night in Canada will be able 
to fathom how much he cherish's the moment.
   "Something like that changes you, especially as a kid," he said in an 
interview Sunday on the eve of Game 4 of the NHL's championship series against 
the Florida Panthers. "It was the first tragedy that ever really happened to me.
   "You just learn to deal with it and you learn to be more careful in things
you do."
   More careful. More thoughtful. More determined to succeed. More appreciative 
of a precious life's ups and downs.
   "I've always been quiet," he says when asked about his subdued off-ice
manner. "I don't think I can be any other way.
   "I don't want to be any other way either."
   The bus crash, all the disappointing seasons as a Quebec Nordique and in 
particular his second year when the team won only 12 games, being cut from his 
country's team that won the Canada Cup in 1991 . . . Joe Sakic has paid more 
emotional dues than most in hockey.
   When he speaks, his teammates listen attentively, but chooses to make most of 
his noise on the ice by scoring goals. He has 18 this spring. Only two players, 
Reg Leach with Philadelphia in 1976 and Jari Kurri with Edmonton in 1985, have 
ever scored more -- they had 19 -- in a playoff run.
   "I just try to lead by example," he said. "I don't say too much unless  
there's something that needs to be said in the dressing room.
 "I'm pretty quiet in the dressing room."
 He's never been voted to an NHL all-star team but he's one of the most 
respected players in the league and he does not consider himself underrated 
where it counts most to him.
 "Not among the players in the league, I don't think," he says. "Obviously, 
maybe in the media because when you're never fighting for that big prize . . . 
this is the first time we've ever been in a run for the Cup and if you're not in 
the spotlight, you're not going to get as much attention from the media."
 The Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP will be his if the Avalanche prevails in 
this final, and Colorado does not appear willing to allow Florida to become the 
first team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to rebound from a 3-0 deficit in a 
seven-game series to win the title.
 "Obviously, not as much as the Cup," he replied when asked what the MVP award 
might mean to him. "First things first -- we've got to win the Cup.
   "If I do get that, it'd be something I'd be proud of for a long time."
   The 1991 Canada Cup disappointment might have been a blessing in disguise.
He really bore down after that.
   "One of the trainers told me I didn't have any leg strength and I knew I'd 
have to do more off-ice work in the offseasons to get better."
   Work he did.
   Now hockey's ultimate prize is within his grasp.
   "It's something you dream about as a kid. Every since I turned pro, that's 
all I wanted. Early on, (as a Nordique) it didn't look like we were ever going 
to get there.
   "But we're here now. We have the opportunity. Just to have my name on the 
Cup, at least once, would be something special."