LaFontaine was a Hall of a player . . . and
person
(Reprinted from the Buffalo Evening News)
By BOB DICESARE
BUFFALO, NY, June 16, 2003 - Pat LaFontaine will
be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in
November, the highest honor he'll receive in his
lifetime considering there's no shrine for
selfless, sensitive and compassionate athletes.
I remember being out in the meat locker they
called Sabreland to cover one of LaFontaine's
first practices with the Sabres following his
acquisition from the Islanders. A group of
children with Down Syndrome were parked in the
bleachers against the glass. LaFontaine took to
the ice and immediately skated over to where
they were seated. He chatted for a few minutes,
took a warm-up lap and came to a halt directly
in front of me.
"You know, Bob," he said, "we really don't know
how lucky we have it. We just take so much for
granted." And then away he skated, leaving me to
contemplation.
Never in 21 years of covering sports have I met
an athlete who measures up to LaFontaine when
assessing both the magnitude of the talent and
the quality of the individual. He was a
superstar without pretense, an idol securely
grounded, always stopping to put himself in the
other person's shoes.
In Sacramento, following a morning skate for a
neutral-site game, he came from the back of the
bus to sign an autograph for a child who'd
missed him leaving the arena. LaFontaine
reboarded and apologized for delaying the team's
departure, saying he felt compelled to sign
because they were outside NHL territory and the
child might never see him again.
The Sabres arrived in Boston late one night,
busing through a snowstorm after winning a game
in Hartford. LaFontaine sensed an opportunity
and paid a bar owner to keep his doors open for
an hour. His teammates were tickled. Amazing
what a small gesture like that does to tighten
team bonds.
The breadth of LaFontaine's magnanimity was
never fully understood or appreciated until he
returned to Buffalo two years ago to promote and
sign his book, "Companions in Courage," a
collection of stories about young people who'd
overcome adversity or faced their challenges
with notable bravery. The book store was jammed
with his fans, seemingly each of them with a
touching story to tell of how LaFontaine had
brought comfort to an ailing friend or family
member. Rhonda Rehanek of Niagara Falls was a
stream of tears as she explained how LaFontaine
had visited her ill daughter and then arranged
for Jennifer to talk with her real sports hero:
Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas.
"He's unique," Rehanek said that day. "He's a
gem."
LaFontaine was, in some ways, the media's
nightmare. Here he was, one of the league's
premier players, an MVP candidate in '92-93, but
incapable of being lured into talking about
himself. Credit was always deferred to his
teammates, to the goaltender who'd made a key
save or the defensemen who'd excelled on the
penalty kill. Sometimes he'd run down
practically the whole roster while pointing out
the contributions that had figured in the
result, his own multi-point game brushed aside
as incidental.
There was never a Sabres season like '92-93,
when LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny hit on a
chemistry unmatched by Buffalo teammates before
or since. Mogilny, who owes his development to
LaFontaine's example, had strung eight straight
games with goals heading into a Jan. 6 meeting
with the Hartford Whalers. LaFontaine, who
scored twice in a 3-1 victory that night, sat at
his cubicle apologizing that Mogilny's streak
had ended, vowing to make amends.
"I'm going to take him to breakfast, I'm going
to take him to lunch, I'm going to feed him
every chance I get," LaFontaine said. "I've been
doing my very best to find him open. And that's
not going to change."
As that magical season progressed, LaFontaine
seized the scoring lead and loomed as the top
candidate for league MVP. He was en route to 53
goals and a franchise-record 148 points, in the
process of guiding Mogilny's goal count to a
startling 76. But, with 13 games remaining,
LaFontaine already was conceding the MVP vote to
the player who would miss 22 games yet overtake
him for the scoring title.
"To be truthful, if I had a vote I would vote
for Mario Lemieux for MVP," LaFontaine said. "To
come back like he did (from Hodgkin's disease)
is amazing."
There's no doubt that LaFontaine deserves a
place among the game's elite. But his was a
career in which statistics don't begin to tell
the story.
the New York Islanders (1983-84 through 1990-91
seasons), and six seasons as a Buffalo Sabre
(1991-92 through 1996-97) where he captained the
team from 1992-97. He finished his career with
the New York Rangers in 1997-98. Remarkably,
LaFontaine scored at least 40 goals in six
consecutive seasons in the NHL. He played in 5
NHL All-Star Games in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and
1993. After posting career-best marks for points
(148) and assists (95) for the Sabres,
LaFontaine was elected as an NHL Second Team
All-Star in the 1992-93 season.
He received the Dodge/NHL Performer of the Year
Award in 1989-90 after scoring 105 points,
including a career-high, 54 goals for the
Islanders. He was also awarded the NHL's Bill
Masterton Memorial Trophy in 1994-95 for
perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to
hockey, and the USA Hockey Distinguished
Achievement Award in 1993.
LaFontaine and his wife, Marybeth, reside in
Lloyd Harbor, New York with their three
children, Sarah, Brianna and Daniel. |
