With the retirement of Doug Weight, the NHL has lost another member of what is now called USA Hockey's greatest generation.
By Sven Nackstand, AFP/Getty Images
Doug Weight, along with Pat LaFontaine, Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick, gave the USA strength down the middle internationally.
By Sven Nackstand, AFP/Getty Images
Doug Weight, along with Pat LaFontaine, Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick, gave the USA strength down the middle internationally.
This is the group of American players that arrived in the NHL roughly between 1983 and the early 1990s.
These were the first group of Americans who entered the league with a swagger and cockiness intertwined with their style. When these Americans lined up against Canada in international competition, they didn't hope to win. They expected to win. They proved that by winning the 1996 World Cup.
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Chris Chelios was the leader of this pack. Brian Leetch was a difference-maker. Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk were power forwards who could punish you with their goals and their grit. Mike Richter was the group's very popular goalie.
But what powered that group offensively was the best generation of centermen USA Hockey has ever produced. The big four centers of that era were Pat LaFontaine, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Weight. When you compare that group of centers to today's American centers there is really no comparison. Only Ryan Kesler would fit into that group, and he really doesn't yet have star power or resume that these players had.
Weight's goal-scoring touch didn't match that of LaFontaine, Modano and Roenick, but he was a superb passer who totaled 1,033 points in his career. He was also a gritty player who could match up against any star in the game. Weight always came to play with fire in his belly. He had almost 1,000 penalty minutes in his career.
I've known Weight for almost two decades, and I've always found him to be honest and respectful to the game and to people in the game. One of my favorite Weight moments came in 2006 when his Carolina Hurricanes marched to the Stanley Cup championship. Weight waived a no-trade clause to go to Carolina because he believed they could win. It was actually quite an endorsement because Weight is an astute hockey guy.
But in the Eastern Conference finals, he checked Jason Pominville from behind in overtime and the Buffalo Sabres scored while he was in the penalty box. I remember him telling me that he was to blame for the loss. It almost seemed like he needed to confess that. He felt so bad about. That was his nature. As I said, a very honest athlete.
In the next game, it was Weight who scored the tying goal in Carolina's Game 7 victory. You could tell just by talking to him that he wanted that goal because he felt like had let down his teammates in the previous game. He was always a team guy.
"It was a rough night after Game 6," Weight said after the clinching win. "I screwed up. Bill McCreary is a great ref, and I feel I put him in a vulnerable position. I think more than half of the time maybe he would have called it and maybe he wouldn't."
The other favorite memory I have of Weight came during the Stanley Cup Final. By then, he was sidelined with a shoulder injury. But during the deciding game, Weight went into the Carolina dressing room and put on his full uniform. He watched the game in his uniform and when the 'Canes won the Cup, Weight joined his teammates on the ice.
Weight couldn't lift his arm because of the injury, but when it came time for him to hoist the Cup, he fought through the pain to lift it over his shoulder.
Doug Weight was a very proud athlete.
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