The satisfaction I get from seeing my friend Kevin Lowe going into the Hockey Hall of Fame cuts deeper than just friendship. It's also an indication that a player's legacy and worth goes beyond statistics.
I say this all the time: the Mario Lemieuxs and the Gordie Howes and the Bobby Orrs, those guys are few and far between, statistically and for what they've done and accomplished and everything that's gone with that. That's part of the makeup of the Hockey Hall of Fame, that kids dream of one day emulating those players. But the reality is, those guys don't come along too often.
Enter a guy like Kevin.
Hard work, team leadership, dedication, unselfishness, those are things every player strives for. So it's great to see they put a guy in the Hockey Hall of Fame where goals and assists and points aren't the measuring stick. The reality is, being a team leader and being unselfish and, of course, being a champion counts for something very special. A lot of kids can look up to that and emulate that and have that same dream of being in the Hall of Fame like everyone else does.
So I think this is a great moment, not only for the Oilers and Kevin but also the Hockey Hall of Fame. I think this is a great moment for everyone.
Kevin scored 431 points (84 goals, 347 assists) in 1,254 games for the Oilers and Rangers. He's the Oilers all-time leader in regular season games played (1,037).
But what made Kevin so special was his competitiveness.
I don't know if anyone took losing harder than Kevin. It was almost life and death to him. And I think that that was very infectious throughout the locker room and served the group on a continuous basis.
From Day 1, his responsibility wasn't to score 50 goals or get 100 points. But he was going to do whatever it took to contribute to the team in a proper way, in a way that was going to help make us become champions. And I think that entire group fed off of that on a daily basis.
To that end, here's a story I don't think I've told before that underscores Kevin's leadership and competitiveness. I think it's the one Kevin Lowe story that stands out for me.
It was the 1984 Stanley Cup Final. We had lost the previous year to the New York Islanders and now we were meeting them again. We won the first game 1-0 when Grant Fuhr, our goalie, stood on his head. Game 2 wasn't nearly as successful; we got shellacked 6-1 and headed back to Edmonton with the series tied 1-1.
I remember in those days you didn't take direct charters all the time. We went from New York to Chicago to Edmonton where we headed to the arena to practice. It was kind of a draggy practice the first few minutes. Everyone was down, and by the end of the playoffs you're tired after travelling back from New York. So it all ended up resulting in a sloppy practice.
That's when Kevin stepped in. He kind of took over the practice that day. Some of the drills were pretty intense. And that kind of ran through the hockey club the first 10 minutes. Everybody sort of picked it up from there. And then we went on to win the next three games and win our first Stanley Cup.
Just another example of the huge impact he had all the time within the hockey club.
When you grow up together it's a bond you don't replace. So with guys like Kevin and Mark Messier and Paul Coffey, the list goes on and on. We're all still very close friends and have been like that even when we weren't teammates anymore.
With Kevin, I never forgot how much he wanted to win and compete. So when I was offered the job as executive director of Team Canada heading into the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the only prerequisite I had was that I wanted Kevin to be beside me. He's one guy that if he thought I was doing something wrong or wasn't headed in the right direction he wouldn't hesitate to tell me. On one hand there was the comfort that we thought the same way. On the other, if he didn't think something wasn't quite right, he'd let me know for the betterment of the team.
Canada went on to win an Olympic gold medal for the first time in 50 years. And I was glad that Kevin was there with me to share in it.
Just like I am now that he'll be officially joining us as members in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
