next chapter

It was almost a year to the day August 2, 2021when I poked fun at Kevin Lowe about the barn fight that never happened with Brian Burke. It was a beef that started in 2007 when Lowe Dustin Penner put down an offer sheet when Burke ran the show with the Anaheim Ducks as general manager.

It was a spit between two extremely competitive men who were (and still are) good friends. It was a good copy but was set aside years later for more important matters – an event organized by the Cure Cancer Foundation in support of the Cross Cancer Institute. Lowe was the guest of honor and Burke was in town to toast him and have fun. Time, as it so often does, has muted the din in the name of a greater good.

For a long time, my impressions of Lowe were based almost entirely on how competitive, passionate, and fiery he was. That applied as a player on the ice, as a coach behind the bench and finally as a managing director in the press box. Having worked the Oilers beat throughout all of these phases of Lowe’s career, I’ve ended up on the receiving end of that passion more than once. I’ve told these stories before, so I don’t need to repeat them here.

Jump a year and a day ahead and Lowe has announced that he is retiring after more than 40 years in the NHL, most of it with the Oilers. Lowe, 63, left the grind of hockey operations years ago. Most recently, he has served as vice chairman and vice governor. We know his career – five Stanley Cups with the Oilers, another with the New York Rangers, 1,254 games, Olympic medals and finally Instruction in the HHOF and have his No. 4 lifted onto the rafters. It’s all in the record books. It is engraved on the cup.

What sticks in my mind now, what first came to mind yesterday when the announcement was made, is what an undeniably good man Lowe is. I think of his charitable work, be it with the CCF, the Christmas Bureau or the Zebra Child Protection Centre, to name three organizations he has been involved with. I think about how the Oilers’ first-ever draft pick from Lachute, Quebec, a recipient of the 2021 Order of Hockey in Canada, cares about this city and the people in it. For me, that’s the real benchmark.

WHAT HE SAID

“I’m pretty speechless when I think back on it,” said Lowe, selected at 21^St altogether by the Oilers in 1979. “I never thought it would take 40 years. When I was first drafted and came here in September 1979, I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t even think I would make the team. I’ve never taken anything for granted. I just put my head down and worked hard and it just turned out the way it is.

“I’ve been blessed all along. I’m 63 now and (wife) Karen has taken a backseat to a lot of things quite a bit. We could never really plan a trip, especially during hockey season. Now we can make plans to visit grandkids, travel a bit and do things I always hoped we could do.”

Lowe, who has a home and property in the Shuswap area of ​​BC, will be in touch through Oilers alumni and the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation and will serve as an ambassador. In the end, Lowe spent more time as a coach and in the front office managing the Oilers than as a player.

The team Lowe assembled for this run to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals is so close that he’s raising his silverware after his playing days. As we remember all too well, there were too many lean years before and after this roller coaster ride. While fans were rightly unhappy about that, no one hated losing more than Lowe. I know that much.

“It meant so much,” Lowe told Bryn Griffiths and I on our March podcast when we asked him about the submissions that were submitted to the HHOF selection committee on his behalf. “For me, HHOF has always been for people like Gretzky and Howe and Messier and Jean Beliveau and Bobby Orr. The greats of the game.

“I never sat and waited. I never really imagined being there, so not having a call was never a big disappointment. I was happy with my career, happy with my achievements. When the time came, I was a bit shocked. After all that, it was a thrill.”

THE RESULT

The Lowe I first met was the guy who played through a broken wrist, brought wood to an opponent and never gave or asked an inch because that was what had to be done to win one of those Stanley Cups – to get rings. He would hack you. He would fight you. Whatever it took to win.

If you remember — I don’t know why that sticks with me, but it does — Lowe was always the guy in the photos of the team holding up the Stanley Cup and recorded which it was by the number of fingers he held up. every time one. Two. Three. Four. Five. It’s burned into my brain.

I’ve been told that the Leo I know today will finally need some time to reflect and enjoy the years that have passed between then and now. I hope he will have a well-deserved long and happy retirement.

Previously by Robin Brownlee