SAKIC FACTOR

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 3, 2006 | by DAVID RAMSEY THE GAZETTE

ENGLEWOOD - Ian Laperriere smiles as he considers reports of the Colorado Avalanche's impending doom.

Sports Illustrated and The Hockey News see the Avalanche as the 13thbest team in the NHL's 15-team Western Conference. Even optimists wonder if the franchise's 11-season playoff run will end.

Laperriere, a 12-season NHL veteran who plays right wing for the Avalanche, offers a rebuttal to all the gloom.

"You got Joe Sakic on your team, you got a better shot at winning than the other team," he said.

Ah, yes. The 37-year-old Super Joe, the Avalanche's best hope yesterday, today and maybe tomorrow. The Avalanche opens at home Wednesday vs. the Dallas Stars.

Laperriere has a point. From 1996 to 2001, while the Avalanche romanced millions of Colorado sports fans, Sakic served as captain for teams that won two Stanley Cup titles and took five trips to the Western Conference finals.

He's scored 1,489 points. And he's not all about yesterday. He led the Avalanche with 87 points (matching his 2003-2004 total), and carried the Avalanche on a late-season run to the 2006 playoffs.

But is even Sakic enough to rescue a franchise many believe is sinking?

Sakic has heard the skeptics, and they fail to bother him. He expressed his faith in the Avalanche during the offseason by signing a one-year $5.75 million contract.

He could have gone virtually anywhere. Instead, he returned to the team he calls "my home."

"The future's bright here," he said. "The present's fine. I love the guys we have here."

He looked around a locker room filled with young players. He saw defenseman John-Michael Liles and right wings Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski, all 20-something.

He didn't see Adam Foote, Rob Blake, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy or Alex Tanguay.

All played beside Sakic on the 2001 Stanley Cup championship team.

All are gone.

"Nothing has changed," Sakic said. "We're expecting a lot of everybody. We're expected to perform and to win."

Nothing has changed?

Sakic shrugged as he surrendered to reality. He knows expectations are tremendously altered.

"When you had Forsberg and Roy and all those guys, you were picked to be one of the top favorites," he said. "Now, is there really any one favorite out there?"

Good point. Since the 2004-2005 lockout, the NHL has restricted teams with a salary cap, giving rise to an era of parity. The days of free-spending, talentpacked teams -- like the 1996-2001 Avalanche -- are gone.

But are the Avalanche anywhere close to the top in this era of enforced thrift?

Bill Clement, a veteran of 11 NHL seasons, offers TV commentary for Versus (formerly OLN). He calls Sakic "one of the 10 greatest two-way centers ever to play the game, maybe one of the top five."

He still doubts the Avalanche.

"It ain't going to be easy because there are multiple teams in the West that improved, and I don't think Colorado is one of them," Clement said.

It's unfair, Clement said, to expect Sakic to carry the Avalanche.

"It's got to be hard on him," Clement said. "As Joe may be declining, the demands are increasing, and that doesn't lend itself to a sure-fire formula for success."

Liles laughs when he hears rumors of Sakic's decline. Liles remembers a skating drill at a recent practice. Sakic lapped many members of the Avalanche.

"People say he's lost a step," Liles said. "You might see he's got a little bit of gray hair or a wrinkle around the eyes."

Liles shook his head.

"But he hasn't lost a step."

Sakic also retains a distinctive approach as he prepares for his 14th season as captain. No one accuses Sakic of a talking-too-much leadership style.

He leads by laboring relentlessly and passionately. And he cares about every game, every practice. At Friday's session, he was sulking after failing to beat goaltender Jose Theodore with a wrist shot.

Theodore sat in the locker room, removing his pads while glancing at Sakic's corner locker. He cherishes a glove save he made against Sakic as the Montreal Canadiens goaltender in 2002.

"The only reason I remember that save is because it was against Joe Sakic," Theodore said.

When teammates see Sakic working with such diligence, they face a challenge.

"You know when you have a guy like Joe on your team who works so hard, you have no choice but to do the same thing," Theodore said. "You have to do the same thing."

On rare occasions, Sakic turns to words.

On Dec. 30, after a 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, players found an angry captain waiting in the locker room.

The Avalanche had lost seven of 10 games and was in danger of tumbling out of playoff contention. Sakic had seen enough.

His speech was simple. This isn't acceptable, he told teammates. This franchise has certain standards, and we're failing to meet them.

His words worked. The Avalanche won eight straight games.

"It was the stuff that had to be said without being really ridiculous," Sakic said of his speech. "That's kind of my mindframe. You don't want to nitpick over the little things."

He looked around the room as he considered the challenge ahead, perhaps the biggest of his long career.