Remembering Paul Coffey

With Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes in Edmonton, it was Paul Coffey Night at Rexall Place, as the team honored the second highest scoring defenseman in league history, and perhaps the slickest skating human being in the history of mankind. Here's Colby Cosh:

When he unleashed his amazing end-to-end speed and tape-to-tape passes, and put up those hallucinogenic numbers, I guess everybody thought "Well, here's the charter member of the Bobby Orr Club." But there has never been a Next Paul Coffey (though dozens have worn the label) either statistically or tactically. Nobody came close. Nobody today is the same kind of player. None of the few who played the game the same way has been remotely comparable.

Colby also wrote that he won't be writing about the famed Oilers of the 1980s any longer because he's tired of talking about the team's past. I'm afraid I can't say the same. For a young New York Islanders fan, seeing that Oilers team eclipse them was painful, and it was only years later when I could finally put aside that pain, that I realized just how truly great that team was -- in my mind the best that ever played.

Thanks to NHL Center Ice, I was fortunate enough to see the pre-game ceremony from Edmonton, and glad I got to see Coffey wipe away tears of joy and rememberance. Could it really be that as unique as he was, that he was still the first piece of the Edmonton dynasty that was shipped out of town? How could anyone have been so foolish?

Eric 11:40 PM

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Posted by: at October 20, 2005 06:52 AM

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