"When he came to Denver, he already was a seven-year NHL veteran, with a respectable 11 points in 12 career playoff games. But Joe Sakic had that unfortunate reputation as a "good player on a bad team." Some critics said he didn't make those around him much better. "There were some pretty bad teams in those first few years," said Curtis Leschyshyn, a teammate of Sakic's coming up with the Quebec Nordiques. "We started getting better as the years went on, but we hadn't been past the first round of the playoffs." Sakic will walk into retirement at a Thursday afternoon news conference as the NHL's leader in overtime playoff goals, with eight. He won two Stanley Cup championships, and his Avalanche teams went to the Western Conference finals four other times. He was the most valuable hockey player in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, leading Canada to a gold medal. He retires as the NHL's seventh leading playoff scorer, with 188 points (84 goals) in 172 games. So much for the loser tag. "I take more pride in having had the reputation as a playoff player than anything," said Sakic's former teammate Claude Lemieux, "and Joe proved himself as a clutch player. I remember that first year, he scored some real big goals for us in the playoffs. He won the Conn Smythe, and he deserved it." Avs fans can debate Sakic's biggest playoff goals, but one stands above the others: a redirection of Alexei Gusarov's pass that got past Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ed Belfour to give the Avs a triple-overtime victory in Game 4 of the 1996 Western Conference semifinals. The Avs would have been down 3-1 to a tough, veteran Blackhawks team, and it would have been their third OT loss in the series. It also would have made Colorado's collective playoff record to that point 5-5. But after that goal, the Avs were a different team, going 10-2 the rest of the playoffs en route to the championship. "If we had won that game, I don't think there would be that banner hanging up

in the Pepsi Center, for the (1996) Stanley Cup," former Blackhawk Jeremy Roenick said. "I think we would have had all the momentum in the world and would have found a way to win one of the next three.""