Joe Nieuwendyk was eligible for the Hall of Fame last year. He didn’t make it, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Nieuwendyk, the great two-sport athlete from Whitby, Ont., is now a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hey, the guy did score over 500 goals, register over 1,200 points NHL jerseys and win the Stanley Cup in three different decades with three different teams.
Oh, and he was also a heck of a lacrosse player. Nieuwendyk started his speech by adjusting the microphones. He talked about being blessed in his life because he has so many wonderful people who are responsible for him getting into the hall of fame.
“It simply has been humbling,” Nieuwendyk said. Nieuwendyk rehashed the crossing emotions he was having after receiving Replica Jerseys his call from the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee in June.
“I was packing to go on a trip to Calgary to pay my last respects to the most caring and kind man I ever had the privilege of meeting in hockey, Harley Hotchkiss,” he said. “As I was flying out there I had time to reflect on my own life and all that was important. After seeing so many familiar faces and Harley’s wonderful family, it made me realized that tonight is all about friends and teammates.”
He thanked his parents, Gord and the late Joanne, who made sacrifices for their four kids — Rick, Gil, Wendy and Joe.
Joanne died of cancer in 1996, but her passion stays inside of Nieuwendyk. He recalled the time after the Flames won the Cup in Montreal in 1989, when after the game Joanne grabbed Joe’s hockey stick and started directly traffic in the streets so the team bus could get through. “Mom was the nurturer and No. 1 supporter. She was always the hockey mom that led the cheers. I miss her everyday and I know she’s proud tonight.”
Nieuwendyk had a lot to say about his best friend and former teammate, Gary Roberts, who he grew up with in Whitby, Ont. They played against one another when they were five year old and eventually became teammates.
“When I played my first game with the Flames, Gary was by his side. Twenty years later when I laced ‘em up for the final time as a Florida Panther, he was again by my side. He truly is a remarkable person and a terrific friend. I always knew throughout my career that he had my back. He always knew I had his back, too, unless Marty McSorley was chasing him around the ice. In those cases he was on his own.” Nieuwendyk said that he called his parents every night for a month after he went to Cornell because he wanted to come home. He was happy that they made him stick it out in Ithaca, N.Y.
“My dad told me to stick with it and I’m glad that he did because it was there I had an experience that far exceeded anything I could have imagined. Those truly were some of the best years of my life.” After Nieuwendyk played his final game at Cornell, he was with his teamamtes scrounging for money so they could get a pizza. The next night he was in New York City going out to dinner with Lanny McDonald as a member of the Calgary Flames.
“I truly learned what the term, ‘Kid, you’re in for the full share’ meant,” he said. “My life in the National Hockey League started.”
Nieuwendyk talked at length about Cliff Fletcher, the GM in Calgary who drafted him and then served as his mentor when he decided to start a managerial career.
He thanked McDonald for being his teammate and friend. “The greatest lesson I received winning the Cup at the age of 22 was to see what it meant to you and some of our wonderful veteran players,” he said to McDonald during the speech.
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