Anaheim Ducks

Goodbye Jiggy

Jean-Sebastien Giguere easily ranks among the top five Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks of all time; without a doubt, the best goaltender in franchise history.  For a fan like me, who has lived and died with this team for 16 years, losing a player like Jiggy isn’t difficult because of the caliber of his play, but because of the caliber of his character. 

On the eve of the draft, I wrote in my blog that it makes good business sense to deal Jiggy and that the only logical option was Toronto.  Obviously, that prediction came to fruition, and the deal was just about as good as anyone could ask for considering his so-called untradeable contract, but it doesn’t make it any easier to cope with sentimentally.

His play carried this team to heights I never imagined I would see, twice.  He brought this team from expansion era laughing stock to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final.  He gave us clutch overtime performances the likes of which I have never seen before or since. 

 He gave this team and these fans enduring images to last a lifetime:

His mask-less emergence from a heap of Red Wings with the puck held high over his head like a less arrogant but equally victorious version of his childhood hero Patrick Roy.

The longing look in his tear soaked, heavily bearded face as he begrudgingly accepted the Conn Smythe Trophy as a consolation prize from Gary Bettman.

But, easily the most touching image is of Giguere skating across the ice with his infant son Maxim, recently released from the hospital, in his arms amid the confetti at a celebration four years in the making.

J.S. Giguere, along with Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, built is the foundation of this franchise and have made it what it is today; the most successful hockey franchise in the history of California.

The Kings had the best player of all time, and are the oldest in the state’s history; The Sharks have been the most consistent Californian team, winning nearly as many playoff rounds as Anaheim only spread over almost twice as many appearances; The Golden Seals? Perhaps the most quirky; but, for now, with two Stanley Cup Final appearances and one championship, the Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks are the most successful team in the history of California hockey, and Ducks fans owe a large part of that to J.S. Giguere.

He reigned as the number one in Anaheim after becoming a playoff hero.  He was challenged by an up and coming Ilya Bryzgalov and won. Then came a goaltender by the name of Jonas Hiller who stole the show in a dramatic playoff victory as Giguere had done in 2003.  Now he moves on to Toronto to mentor Jonas Gustavsson, aka “The Monster,” and in a year or two, if everything goes as planned, Jiggy will once again be on the hot seat in favor of an emerging young talent.

More importantly, however than all of the franchise records or the highs and lows on the ice, he has gone through all of this here, shared his experiences with the fans and the community, and has shown a level of class, dignity and grace rarely seen among professional athletes today.

Though the media may have wanted it to be a dramatic soap opera of competition and ambition in the dressing room, he never made it a public controversy.  When either Bryz or Hiller were starting and winning in the playoffs, though you knew he wanted more than anything to be in that crease he contained himself and remained a good teammate.  What more could an organization ask for from a franchise player sitting on the bench?

While it is a great opportunity for Jiggy to get a fresh start as a number one goaltender in Toronto, It may also be just the beginning of the same old story, but such is the life of a veteran goalie in the NHL, and if anyone can handle it, he can.

I wish him the best in his new beginning with the Maple Leafs, and I hope to one day see number 35 raised to the Honda Center rafters.

Thank you Jiggy, you’ll always be a Duck to me.