SB Nation User Blog: David Driscoll-Carignan

Joe Sakic Retirement Video

David Driscoll-Carignan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:05:10 -0000

In case you missed it, here's Joe Sakic's press conference again. It is just Sakic's part of the press conference - Pierre Lacroix's touching speech and Woody Paige's embarrassing one (and the terrific tribute video) are not shown.

Joe Sakic Retirement Press Conference Thread

David Driscoll-Carignan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:33:32 -0000

This will be the live thread for Joe Sakic's press conference, 1 MT / 3 Eastern.

Where to watch:

For those in the Denver area, Altitude will be showing the conference live:

Altitude will televise the Avalanche Press Conference for Joe Sakic on Thursday, July 9 at 1:00 p.m. live. Kyle Keefe will host the event, with Peter McNab and Norm Jones at the desk and Mike Haynes conducting interviews.

The also will be replaying it at 6:00 pm, 10:00 pm, 12:00 am and on Friday at 7:00 am (all Mountain Time).

TSN.ca has a note up that they will be streaming the altitude feed on their site, although I believe that feed will be just viewable to Canadian viewers (please correct me if I'm wrong).

ColoradoAvalanche.com is also going to be streaming the presser. I'll update that link with a direct link to the stream as soon as it's available. [Update: Live Link]

Also, Adrian Dater is tweeting the event (something new for him)

I believe it is also on the NHL Network, but can't confirm that. [Update: it is on NHL Network and also apparently NHL.com]. Additionally, NHLN will also be replaying the press conference like crazy, and is also throwing a bunch of Sakic related programming up this weekend.

NHL Network US will re-air the Joe Sakic tribute program at 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET tonight, and at 10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday, July 10. NHL Network Canada will re-air Sakic's press conference at 10:00 p.m. ET tonight, and at 1:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m., ET on Friday, July 10.

To continue the celebration, NHL Network will air 12 hours of Sakic-themed programming Saturday and Sunday from Noon to 6 p.m. ET. The full schedule of NHL Network Presents: A Sakic Salute is as follows, all times Eastern and subject to change

Sakic Articles

While waiting for the ~~festivities~~ sad event to start, here's a few Super Joe articles to peruse (let me know in the comments if there's some others I'm missing).

Retirement Press Release.

Statements of praise from former teammates and opponents.

Statement from Gary Bettman.

His number is going up to the rafters on opening night. (Denver Post)

Another Side of Joe (Jim Kelley / Sportsnet) Touching article touching on the Swift Current bus tragedy.

Sakic Thrived in the Clutch (Dater / Denver Post)

Joe Sakic - Humble Champ, constant winner (Paige / Denver Post) (Welcome back to the bandwagon, Woody)

Forsberg recalls fond memories (Denver Post)

Sakic Quietly Excelled (Krieger / Denver Post)

Where will Joe Sakic rank among the elite (Dater / Denver Post)

They just don't make 'em like Super Joe anymore (Denver Post)

Goalies say Sakic's uncanny accuracy made him great (Dater / Denver Post)

An offbeat Sakic Tribute (Anyone But Detroit)

Godspeed, Super Joe (jibblescribbits)

Joe Sakic (Real Denver Sports)

It's all in the wrist - not mouth - for Sakic (Ryan Dixon/ The Hockey News)

As Joe Sakic retires, a look back at Quoteless Joe (The Forechecker)

Sakic Videos
Career Retrospective (NHL.com)

600th NHL Goal (NHL.com)

It's Official: Sakic Has Retired

David Driscoll-Carignan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:32:05 -0000

It's Official: Sakic Has Retired

"Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic announced today that after 20 seasons and 1,378 games with the same organization, he has played his final game in the NHL."

And my heart is broken.

Avalanche Will Again Play In Frozen Fury Game

David Driscoll-Carignan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:48:47 -0000

Avalanche Will Again Play In Frozen Fury Game

"On Saturday, Sept. 26, the Kings and Colorado Avalanche will meet in sin city for Frozen Fury 12 - the annual preseason game that combines fast paced NHL hockey with the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas."

The 2009-2010 Avalanche [Updated]

David Driscoll-Carignan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:53:20 -0000

A few changes now that we have the Jones contract numbers. For now, I'm penciling in Willsie as the 4th line center, even though he only played 8 games there last year (btw, CapGeek.com is listing Willsie has having a 2-way contract, as we suspected). I've moved Stewart over to the right side so that Doc will stop nagging me and I've penciled in Galiardi and Stoa onto the left wing...for now.

	LW		C		RW
1	T.J. Galiardi	0.875	Paul Stastny	6.600	Milan Hejduk *	3.900
2	Cody McLeod	1.033	Wojtek Wolski	2.800	Marek Svatos	2.050
3	Ryan Stoa	0.850	T.J. Hensick	0.850	David Jones	0.838
4	Darcy Tucker	2.250	Brian Willsie	0.600	Chris Stewart	0.850
Res	David Koci	0.575

	D		D
1	Scott Hannan *	4.500	John-Michael Liles *	4.200
2	Brett Clark	3.500	Ruslan Salei	3.025
3	Adam Foote *	3.000	Kyle Quincey	0.525
Res	Kyle Cumiskey §	0.523	Tom Preissing	2.750

	G
1	Craig Anderson	1.813
2	Peter Budaj	1.250

	Under Contract	23
	Estimated Hit	49.156
	Estimated Cap	56.800
	Cap Space	7.645
	Change	-2.557

	* denotes NTC
	§ denotes RFA

	Other Notables
D	Wes O'Neill	0.815
D	Ray Macias	0.585
D	Derek Peltier	0.512

Development Camp Is Underway

David Driscoll-Carignan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:44:48 -0000

Development Camp Is Underway

"A total of 15 players will be in attendance from July 7-12 when the Colorado Avalanche holds its annual player development camp. The camp will be held at the team’s practice facility in Centennial, Colo., with the first day of on-ice drills set for Thursday, July 9.

Players are currently scheduled to be on the ice Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, and fans are encouraged to watch at no cost."

It's Over

David Driscoll-Carignan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:52:40 -0000

View full size photo uploaded July 7, 2009

I've had this screen open for a good 20 minutes now, and I'm still not sure what to write. Honestly, I've tabbed over to to Adrian Dater's Denver Post story several times just to see if maybe there was a late breaking "wait, not so fast" update. I'm grasping for any thread of hope that the "special announcement regarding his hockey career" on Thursday is something other than Joe Sakic's retirement.

I know that it's not going to happen, no matter how many times I close my eyes and tap my ruby slippers together.

My favorite player is retiring. I've idolized exactly two athletes in my life: Tony Dorsett and Joe Sakic. #33 was my favorite player as a kid, and #19 has been my favorite player as an adult. I am not the idol worshiping type, and it is doubtful that I will ever again cheer for a hockey player like I have for Joe Sakic. I know that this is the right time, that it would be wrong to ask Sakic to endure what would no doubt be a difficult season next year. Yet I still feel like a teenage girl who has broken up with her boyfriend right before the prom; I just want to lock myself in my room tonight with a bowl of ice cream, fighting back the tears as I clutch his picture in my hands.

For me, it goes back to the fall of 1991. I ran a couple of fantasy baseball leagues with some friends, using my Apple IIc to calculate the weekly stats (my NL team was called the "Draft Dodgers" which is where my old screen name came from). Anyway, we were big fantasy geeks, watching SportsCenter every night and pouring over box scores and pitching probables every morning. One of us decided we should come up with some sort of fantasy league for the baseball offseason. We thought about doing basketball, but ultimately settled on hockey. There wasn't any established format for fantasy hockey back then and we didn't really know much about the sport, but we decided to give it a whirl.

I don't recall many players from that first Screaming Ice Demons team, but I do remember one: Joe Sakic. I had no idea who Sakic was when I drafted him. In fact, I think I assumed he was European. I just knew he scored a lot of points on a terrible Nordiques team and had a brutal +/- (-102 for his career at that point). Over the years, through different fantasy teams in different fantasy leagues, I always seemed to end up with Sakic. Needless to say, I did rather well, but the incredible numbers Sakic put up year after year is only a small part of why he became a favorite.

I'm a relatively quiet guy. I tend towards boisterous and gregarious when with family and friends, but, among more casual acquaintences, I tend to keep to myself and I don't really like to talk about myself in any situation. I think that's what I've admired the most about Super Joe. He's one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the league, but he's not a fist pump type of guy. He just played the game. He didn't spend the game chirping at refs or other players, he didn't talk himself up to the press, he didn't get caught in hotel rooms with a couple of hookers and a bunch of blow. He just went out and kicked ass every night, quickly raising his stick when the team scored and that was that. My admiration was as much for the way Sakic carried himself - on and off the ice - as it was for the tremendous skill that he possessed. Not surprisingly, my favorite Joe Sakic moment was in 2001 when he held the Stanley Cup for about 19 milliseconds before handing it off to Ray Bourque. Other players might have done that, but no one could have made it look as natural as Joe Sakic did.

The above photo was taken by me on my birthday in 2007. It was the one and only time I got to see Joe Sakic play in person. My idol didn't score any points that night, but that didn't matter. I was simply ecstatic to be watching my favorite player and my favorite team with my favorite person - my wife - by my side. It doesn't get any better than that.

And it didn't get any better than Joe Sakic. Thank you, Joe, for the Cups, the inspiration and all the great memories. I wish you were sticking around a while longer *tear drops dripping into the ice cream*, but you have to do what you have to do.

It's a sad day for Avalanche fans. The franchise's greatest player of all-time is finally saying goodbye. I just wish I could allow myself to let go.

SB Nation Adds Mobile Commenting and Retweeting Features

David Driscoll-Carignan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:35:38 -0000

SB Nation Adds Mobile Commenting and Retweeting Features

"We are very excited to introduce mobile commenting to the platform. You can now sign in to each blog you are a member of and comment in GameThreads from the game or the bar or participate in an interesting discussion happening on a blog from anywhere with your phone."

Now all I need is a cell phone...

Victor Hedman And The Lightning To Play Preseason Game In Loveland

David Driscoll-Carignan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:17:01 -0000

Victor Hedman is coming to Colorado after all. For reasons I'm not quite sure I understand, the Phoenix Coyotes and Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing an exhibition game on September 23rd in Loveland, Colorado. Why? I have no clue. The Lightning are also playing in Winnipeg, Regina and Everett, Washington. They are only playing one preseason game in Florida.

Get Your (Incorrect) Matt Duchene Gear!

David Driscoll-Carignan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:24:01 -0000

Let's see how long this link will remain active. I'm guessing not long. Kids, if you act now, you can get your ugly Avalanche MATT DUCHENE unipron from the NHL Store. You think Matt's decided to honor David Aebischer instead of Rocket Richard?

via nhl.imageg.net

For what it's worth, Duchene and John Tavares seem to be the only draftees to have their jereseys up and Tavares' is correct (albeit equally as ugly).