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Given time, Avs' Sakic regains desire

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 2, 2008 at 2:11 p.m.

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Joe Sakic said the extra time mulling his decision was key.

Jack Dempsey / Associated Press/2006

Joe Sakic said the extra time mulling his decision was key.

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Turns out, Francois Giguere's patience really did pay off in the end.

Had the Avalanche general manager demanded a quick response from Joe Sakic regarding his playing future when last season ended, he probably wouldn't have gotten the positive answer he was seeking.

"At the end of the year, I didn't think I was going to come back, no," Sakic said Tuesday at the Family Sports Center, five days after re-signing with the Avalanche for one year at $6 million. "I was drained, drained from last year."

Giguere felt those vibes, he said, during a meeting with Sakic a couple of days after the Avalanche lost to Detroit in the second round of the playoffs. It's why he chose to give the longtime captain as much time as necessary to decide whether to return for a 20th NHL season or retire.

"I just had a bad feeling in the meeting that it might be the last time where we're in a meeting where he's a player," Giguere said. "I knew there probably were going to be more meetings, but I really believed, the more time he was given, the more he'd realize it was in him to want to play more.

"I thought the longer things went, the better it was for our franchise."

Sakic, who turned 39 on July 7, never lost his love for the game. But he had to decide if he enjoyed it enough to continue the rigorous off-ice workouts that have become such a part of his

lifestyle.

"The game is the easy part," he said. "It's what you do off ice in preparation to give yourself a chance to be the best that you can be. That's what took the longest. As the summer went on, I realized I really want to do that again.

"When I first started, they didn't have weight rooms in the dressing room or anything. You just came and played. It was probably in the early to mid '90s that the off-ice conditioning became a factor. One thing I've learned over the years is how important it is to do all that stuff."

Sakic missed 38 games last season after suffering a groin injury in a Nov. 30 game against San Jose. He eventually needed surgery for a sports hernia and didn't return until Feb. 24 against Edmonton.

Sakic had six goals and 12 assists in the final 20 regular-season games and finished with 13 goals and 27 assists in 44 games overall. He led the Avalanche in the postseason with two goals and eight assists in 10 games.

"It was just a frustrating year," he said. "With the injury, with the rehab, I was mentally tired. I'm actually glad I took a longer time to relax this summer. At the end of the day, that's probably going to benefit me."

Sakic said he likes the look of the Avalanche heading to training camp, which begins Sept. 19 with medicals and physical testing. A number of players are skating now, but official on-ice sessions don't start until Sept. 20.

"The biggest thing is we've got some real good young players here with another year of experience, and they should take that next step," he said. "I like what we have here. But the biggest decision for me was whether I was willing to do what it took to play.

"As a hockey player, you want to win. It's how you jell as a team. We learned that last year. We had a lot of injuries and we never got that cohesiveness in the dressing room, team chemistry. Hopefully, we can get that this year and stay injury free and really jell and get the team chemistry."

ETC.: Sakic isn't yet thinking about playing for Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. He grew up in the suburb of Burnaby. "Not at this point," he said. "We've got another year before that to even think about it. We'll see how this goes. If I can bounce back and have the type of year I did two years ago (when he had 100 points), then you're really going to have to think about that. This is the only year I'm focusing on right now." . . . Giguere said he's keeping in touch with Peter Forsberg and the player's agent, Don Baizley. Forsberg would like to play for the Avalanche this season but needs to get his chronic foot problems resolved. . . . Giguere isn't interested in pursuing free agent Mats Sundin. "I think we're pretty well set at center," he said. "I would anticipate that the team we have now is probably the team we're going to have when training camp starts."

Comments

  • September 2, 2008

    3:13 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    cpd writes:

    Welcome back Joe. Spread that passion throughout the locker room. Lead the guys out and stand the division on its ear. Go Avs!

  • September 3, 2008

    4:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mrfxx writes:

    I'm really glad that the management gave Joe the time to realize he still had the passion for the game. Now we just need to hope that Forsberg's current treatment on that pesky foot turns out to be exactly what he needs (when he is healthy, he can still make other teams' best players look downright foolish).

    For those of you who haven't seen it, I recommend Woody Paige's "4 stars! Joe opts for sequel" at http://origin.denverpost.com/sports/c... - nice piece about Super Joe.

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