As a Wings fan, I'm obviously biased. Plus, I've got some numbers to back me up. In my arrogant opinion, The Captain wins out. But not by much. Sakic was a beast in his own right. Always got nervous if he had even a 3 on 2 against the Red Wings. His wrist shot was a killer. My favorite story about him was the conversation between Brett Hull and Avery. Hull was right. To me, they both deserve a massive amount of admiration, and I thank both for their past, present, and future contributions to the sport. Pretty fair to say that I never have - and probably never will - root for any team that Sakic is or will be associated with. Nevertheless, he has my never-ending respect as a most worthy opponent. And he's a class act, to boot. I wish him well - unless his team plays the Red Wings, of course . This video was well done. Cheers.

Both captains & both teams were exciting to watch, even as a non fan of either teams. One thing to note about Yzerman is that he completely changed the way he played when Bowman became coach. He gave up numbers to play a more defensive game, & led by this example & ultimately led to their championships. Both are such class acts & both got it done. Great players in a great era.

I don’t know how old you guys are, but this was a great video. As someone who watched damn near every second of this rivalry (I was 23 in ‘97) this was THEE GREATEST time of my hockey watching life.

great video ... looking forward to more

Great vid fellas.

What a crazy rivalry this was. They both won the cup and they had to go through eachother to get there

Not only were Stevie Y and Joe Sakic paralells, the Wings and Avs of that time were pretty evenly matched, up and down their line-ups.

Even during the height of the Wings/Avs rivalry, I always had respect for Joe Sakic. He was the only guy on their team that I didn’t despise. Side note: those Quebec jerseys with the fleur-de-lis pattern on the bottom are still dope AF.

Easily the most similar hockey careers I've ever seen.

This was great

Yzerman was the toughest pro athlete I ever saw. 80% of his career he played with a cadaver’s ACL. Only pro athlete to undergo an osteotomy (sawing femur in half and repositioning to take pressure off his knee). doctors said it would take him a year to learn to walk again. Same year he won the Stanley Cup. Had 3 vertebrae in his neck fused together and could barely turn his head.

Parallel Players forever!!!

Who would have thought back then that these guys would be two of the leagues best team builders today

One of the greatest videos anyone should go watch who loved this rivalry is watching Darren McCarty's show talking about fight night at the Joe. He's dying laughing when all this is going down and here is two of the toughest guys in the NHL, Adam Foote and Brendan Shanahan watching it all go down together, because they would've been tossed he said had they gotten into it. So you knew what was coming in the next period. lol.

Both Gold medalists on the 2002 Team Canada!!

#19's I woulda loved to have either!!!

Sakic is Mr Clutch , regular season M.V.P , Olympic M.V.P , Playoffs M.V.P , at one time Sakic had the most playoffs overtime Goals, a Humble Man .

They were both on the 2002 Canadian Olympic Men’s Hockey Team that won Gold!

Very professional radio voices.

the slap I get when I see this, what an era!!!! Captain super Joe I had his Nordic jersey. 28 years ago I was in piwie

I'll take Sakic.

Sakic performed well from his very beginnings in the NHL. No adjustment period needed even though he was playing for the worst team in the league. Sakic has a better points per game average in regular seasons AND in the playoffs even though he had his prime in the dead puck era. He won the Hart and the Conn Smythe. He holds the record for the most overtime goals in the playoffs. He holds the record for the longest span of time between his first 100-point season and his last 100-point season. Best player of the 2002 Olympics, especially in the grand final.

PEPE Lemeuix was such a coward throughout his career,a backstabbing turtle.But todays NHL awards Backstabbers with contract extensions...ask anouncer Ron MacLean,the definition of the phrase.

when i was about 10years old, my father told me joe sakic was the best player in the world, since then, he has been my favourite player :D

At least Sakic beat Yzerman for that last cup.

My Theory's always been that they're somewhat karmic Brothers of Somethin!

Yzerman was the toughest pro athlete I ever saw. 80% of his career he played with a cadaver’s ACL. Only pro athlete to undergo an osteotomy (sawing femur in half and repositioning to take pressure off his knee). doctors said it would take him a year to learn to walk again. Same year he won the Stanley Cup. Had 3 vertebrae in his neck fused together and could barely turn his head.

Yzerman was the toughest pro athlete I ever saw. 80% of his career he played with a cadaver’s ACL. Only pro athlete to undergo an osteotomy (sawing femur in half and repositioning to take pressure off his knee). doctors said it would take him a year to learn to walk again. Same year he won the Stanley Cup. Had 3 vertebrae in his neck fused together and could barely turn his head.

Yzerman was the toughest pro athlete I ever saw. 80% of his career he played with a cadaver’s ACL. Only pro athlete to undergo an osteotomy (sawing femur in half and repositioning to take pressure off his knee). doctors said it would take him a year to learn to walk again. Same year he won the Stanley Cup. Had 3 vertebrae in his neck fused together and could barely turn his head.

Yzerman was the toughest pro athlete I ever saw. 80% of his career he played with a cadaver’s ACL. Only pro athlete to undergo an osteotomy (sawing femur in half and repositioning to take pressure off his knee). doctors said it would take him a year to learn to walk again. Same year he won the Stanley Cup. Had 3 vertebrae in his neck fused together and could barely turn his head.