IT'S PATTY'S DAY
Pat LaFontaine spent six special though
sometimes painful years with the Buffalo Sabres;
tonight he returns to HSBC Arena to watch his
name and number raised to the rafters
By JOHN VOGL
News Sports Reporter for The Buffalo News
3/3/2006
There's a tendency on tribute days to overstate
the achievements of the honoree. It can seem
like the next step is canonization.
Some days, though, even the flowery speeches
fall short of conveying the impact of the
person. Today is one of those days.
Canonization? In Buffalo this month, there are
two St. Patty's Days.
Pat LaFontaine returns to Western New York
today, visiting a few of the places that have
made him a cherished member of the community.
He'll be at Women and Children's Hospital, where
he enhanced countless lives through his laughs,
tears, time and financial backing. He'll drive
by Memorial Auditorium, where hundreds of
thousands of fans were able to stargaze at his
magical plays, a place where he erased darkness
and eventually turned out the lights.
Then he'll be at HSBC Arena, whose era he
ushered in but a place he was able to enjoy for
only a few moments. When he leaves the building
again, however, he'll never really be gone.
People will look up to the arena rafters and see
the name and number of a Buffalo legend.
The Sabres tonight are retiring the No. 16 of
LaFontaine, who spent six special though
sometimes painful years with the team.
"To go back and reminisce about my time in
Buffalo and share that with friends and family,
it's going to be exciting," LaFontaine said this
week from his home on Long Island. "It doesn't
happen too often. I look at the names of the
guys who are up there, it's obviously a very
special and prestigious honor to have your
number and jersey retired."
It's a first for LaFontaine. He's in the Hockey
Hall of Fame, the United States Hockey Hall of
Fame and Sports Illustrated last month named the
St. Louis native the best American-born player
ever. But this is the first time the number he
wore will never be donned again.
His time in Buffalo was electric. The
41-year-old was a Sabre from 1991 to 1997. Three
seasons featured at least 40 goals, including
the 1992-93 campaign, the standard for every
player who skates in town. He scored 53 times
with Sabres records of 95 assists and 148
points.
But it wasn't just the points he generated with
Alexander Mogilny, Dave Andreychuk and Dale
Hawerchuk. The season, coupled with his amazing
seven-game run of goals in the previous year's
playoff, made the Sabres matter again, raised
the hockey excitement level in Buffalo to peaks
it has rarely seen.
"It seemed like when I came to Buffalo it
clicked right away, whether it was Rick
Jeanneret and his calls [of La-la-la-LaFontaine]
or the community," LaFontaine said. "They just
embraced my family and myself, and really made
us feel at home. And it was an instant
connection with the players that really seemed
to filter through myself and Alex and Dave
Andreychuk."
LaFontaine's first season in Buffalo, featuring
46 goals and an October 1991 trade from the New
York Islanders - with whom he spent eight
goal-filled years - can even be experienced at
the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society
Museum. LaFontaine suffered a broken jaw, and
his return was helped by Buffalo Forge, which
created a protective mask that is on display in
the museum.
"People don't realize how tough of a player he
was," said Sabres head equipment trainer Rip
Simonick, with the team since the beginning. "He
never wanted to let anybody know that he was
hurting. Even when he had the concussion he
fought it right to the end."
LaFontaine's '93-94 and '94-95 seasons were
trimmed by knee surgery. His final season in
Buffalo ended after just 13 games because of a
major concussion in October 1996 that led to him
being traded the following year, as he and the
team disputed his health. He finished his career
with the New York Rangers, their second-leading
scorer behind Wayne Gretzky but retiring after
67 games because of another concussion.
"I think you go through different phases in your
career and your life, and you have a chance to
look back and reflect," said LaFontaine, who has
no residual effects from his injuries. "I
learned a lot as a player playing with some
great players on the New York Islanders,
obviously going to the Stanley Cup finals my
first year, the team that won four Cups. I
learned a lot and was able to take that with me
to Buffalo.
"The prime years were spent right there in
Buffalo. Those teams and wins and goals and
assists are so special, but I also look at the
off-ice, and I learned so much from so many
special people."
A fixture in hospitals
Buffalo is where his continuing charitable works
started, where he learned the philanthropic
skills that evolved into his Companions in
Courage Foundation. While recovering from the
knee injury, he was asked to visit children at
Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
"They said it would be a big thrill for them to
meet a Buffalo Sabre," he recalled, "so I went
there and tried to put a smile on their face,
and developed some friendships and special
relationships. Their courage and inspiration had
a profound effect on me."
He was soon a fixture in hospitals, visiting
children and their families at all hours to
supply inspiration and smiles in the midst of
surgeries and tragedies. When not with his wife,
Marybeth, and children Sarah, Brianna and
Daniel, he spends most of his time with his
Companions in Courage Foundation. In addition to
spiritual support, it raises funds to build
interactive playrooms and safe havens in
children's hospitals throughout the country.
"It's so hard to make people understand how
genuinely kind he is," said Elsie Dawe,
executive director for the Foundations of
Kaleida Health. "I did his keynote speech when
he retired from the Rangers. They were looking
for specific amounts of money - which was a lot
of money - but it was hard to do that because he
would pay for a funeral, or besides paying big
bills he would do amazing things like buying a
Labrador puppy for a little girl with cancer.
It's hard to quantify what somebody did all the
time."
Turning out the lights
LaFontaine's premier hockey memory relates to
the closing of Memorial Auditorium, not for
leaving the intimate building but for the people
who were there. He grew up idolizing Gilbert
Perreault, and he formed a close bond with
Sabres owner and founder Seymour H. Knox III.
Sabres legends skated a lap each with a puck
then passed off, and LaFontaine was the final
player. He said he'll never forget waving to the
crowd, shooting the puck into the net as the
horn blared one last time and the only light was
a ray shining on the puck.
Knox was dying of cancer then, and LaFontaine
made plans to have the puck retrieved. He
arranged to have it made into part of a
picturesque plaque, and it was presented to Knox
at the end-of-season dinner.
"When I retired as a New York Ranger,"
LaFontaine said, "[Seymour's wife] Jean Knox
came down - she's such a special lady - and she
said, "I have something. This was a special item
that Seymour put next to his favorite chair and
would look at it and talk about it before he
passed off. I know he would want you to have
that.'
"It was the plaque with the last puck shot in
the Aud. It's something that I look at on pretty
much a daily basis, and it puts a big smile on
my face."
A smile is fitting, since it's the thing
LaFontaine gives to nearly every person he
meets.
"He does things that he doesn't really have to
do, but he does them because he is what he is,"
Simonick said. "He's No. 16."
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