LaFontaine left an impression
By Jim Kelley for ESPN.com
Most anyone who has ever seen Pat LaFontaine
play has a favorite story to tell.
For New York Islanders fans it might be the
night he ended a four-overtime marathon playoff
game with a spin-around slap shot, beating the
Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the 1987
division semifinals, one of the greatest
National Hockey League playoff games ever
played.
For Buffalo Sabres fans, it might be the night,
playing on a shredded knee, that he fell to the
ice but while lying chest-down at the red line
still managed to get a breakaway pass off to
teammate Brad May. The play enabled May to break
in and score the overtime goal that snapped a
10-year string of first-round disappointments
and carried the Sabres past the Boston Bruins
and into the second-round of the 1993 playoffs,
a time when the common perception was that the
Sabres might never win a playoff round again.
For New York Rangers fans, well, we'd like to
think it was something other than the night they
attempted to tip over the ambulance in Madison
Square Garden while LaFontaine, trying to get to
the hospital because of a blow to the head, was
still in it. Instead, it should be that he
scored 62 points in 67 games as a Blueshirt
before post-concussion syndrome terminated his
career.
For me, it's personal. I saw a lot of Pat
LaFontaine's games back when I was the beat
writer for the Buffalo News. I chronicled pretty
much every goal he scored, every one he set up,
and every win, loss and tie. The memories would
fill a book, but the one I remember best took
place off the ice.
LaFontaine always carried a silent pager. When
it went off, LaFontaine would read it, make a
graceful exit from whatever he was doing and
quietly make his way to Buffalo's Children's
Hospital. There, he would enter through a
private security gate for which he had a special
pass. He would climb the steps to the floors
where the terminally ill children were preparing
to die and sit down next to one of them.
He was there to grant a wish -- that he would be
there during the final hours of a child's life.
As many times as he could, LaFontaine honored
that request. Sometimes the call would come at
one or two in the morning, when we were just
getting off a plane from a road trip. The rest
of us -- players, management, and media -- would
head home, anxious to be with our loved ones or
to sleep in our own beds. LaFontaine headed for
the Children's Hospital to say a prayer, hold a
hand, tell a friend about his game and ease the
fear of a child whose life would soon be over
far before its time.
Pat LaFontaine's charitable works, especially
with sick children, have always been well known,
but he would never let me tell that part of the
story back then. He hasn't given me the okay
now, but I think you should know. It's not the
reason he's being inducted Monday into the
Hockey Hall of Fame, but it could be. Maybe even
should be.
Not that the hockey numbers don't stand alone.
As a hockey player, LaFontaine is every bit
deserving of the honor as any great player at
any time. He made an impact the moment he first
burst onto the junior scene, an American-born
star, a major player on the world stage.
He played a single season -- 1982-83 -- in the
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, during which
he led the league with 104 goals, 130 assists
and 234 points with the Verdun Juniors, won the
rookie of the year, regular-season MVP, playoff
MVP, best pro prospect and most sportsmanlike
player awards. He broke Guy Lafleur's QMJHL
record for points by a rookie, Mike Bossy's
QMJHL record for goals by a rookie and was named
player of the year of the Canadian Major Junior
Hockey League. The Islanders picked him third
overall in the 1983 draft.
After a season with the U.S. National Team and
Team USA at the 1988 Olympics, LaFontaine hit
the NHL, registering 468 goals and 545 assists
for 1,013 points in 865 games, during a career
that spanned 15 seasons with all three New York
state teams. He holds the Buffalo franchise
record for most points in a season (148), no
small achievement in a book dominated by the
legendary Gilbert Perreault, who also is in the
Hockey Hall of Fame. He also set up
then-teammate Alexander Mogilny for a franchise
high 76 goals during the 1992-93 season.
He missed most of the 1996-97 season, his sixth
with the Sabres, due to post-concussion
syndrome. He returned to the ice after being
traded to the Rangers in September, 1997, and
played in the 1998 Olympics before suffering a
career-ending concussion in an accidental
collision with Rangers teammate Mike Keane.
Though he was forced to retire at 33, LaFontaine
had long since established himself as one of the
most exciting players to ever dominate the game,
and one of its most charismatic and caring.
"The Hall is something you think about, but you
don't really come to grips with it until it
actually happens to you," he said. "I'm thrilled
and I'm especially happy for Grant (Fuhr), a
former teammate of mine. To be selected to the
Hall, that's some pretty good company to be
keeping.
"The other things, well, they are a part of my
life now, I won't turn away just because I'm not
in hockey anymore. You don't have to stop giving
back just because your life moves to another
chapter. I met a lot of wonderful people in
Buffalo, people who touched my life and my
family's lives in ways that you never forget."
As a person who has given something back to
every community he ever played in, LaFontaine is
every bit the Hall of Famer as he is a hockey
player.
Seldom has the NHL seen a classier act.
- Jim Kelley is the NHL writer for ESPN.com.
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