The sports world is in mourning after the passing of another legendary athlete.
Even though he was sick for a while, the death of Stan Mikita was still hard to digest.
Sadly, many of today’s young hockey fans may have never heard of the nine-time all-star who played his entire 22-year NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Mikita was an incredible hockey player but he was overshadowed by the likes of fellow icons Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, and even his teammate, Bobby Hull.
The Hockey Hall of Famer’s list of accomplishments is long and illustrious.
He led Chicago to a Stanley Cup victory in 1961, won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in 1967 and 1968, won the Art Ross Trophy (NHL scoring leader) on four different occasions, and won the Lady Byng Trophy — for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct — twice.
The latter accomplishment was an incredible story in itself because Mikita was a relative bad boy in his first six seasons in the NHL. But when his daughter questioned him on why he had to sit in the penalty box after one particular game, Mikita changed his ways.
Mikita not only changed his game, he changed the game.
He is regarded as the player who invented the curved stick blade, which he used to score 541 goals in his 1,394 career NHL games.
The invention caught fire and NHL players since have Stan Mikita to thank.