Author: eurosharks

On 26 November 1961, when Gordie Howe broke the record in the number of NHL games played, nobody knew that the record will not be broken for the next 59 years. Several players, including Mark Messier, Jaromír Jágr or Ron Francis were really close to breaking it, but the record was finally surpassed last night when Patrick Marleau played his 1768^th game and became the new all-time leader. Maybe it’s destiny, but when Sharks joined NHL, the first player to wear the turquoise jersey was Gordie Howe who helped introduce the new team to the public. And now Mr. Hockey is replaced by Mr. Shark. He debuted on 1 October 1997 in a Sharks-Oilers game and at the age of 18 and 16 days, he was the youngest player to ever play in the NHL in the last 75 seasons. Thanks to his talent, resilience, reliability and will, he’s missed only 31 matches in his entire career and currently he’s got a chain of 899 consecutive games. Although he’s never won Stanley Cup, his career’s been full of achievements – he’s a double Olympics gold medal winner, double World Champion, triple All-Stars game participant, he’s scored 566 NHL goals with 1196 points. Passion and love for hockey have been pushing Patrick forward, he’s not ready to end his career and he’d like to continue in the next season. A former team mate Mike Ricci jokingly said that Patrick could play until his 60s. A former team mate and friend Joe Thornton said that Patrick Marleau’s longevity is due to his excellent fitness and Jumbo was not afraid to say that physically, Patrick’s been always one of the top 3 players on the team. If Patrick continues his splendid career next year, he could break more records, for example for the number of consecutive games (current record-holder is Doug Jarvis with 964 games) or for most NHL regular season and playoff season games (current record-holder is Mark Messier with 1992 games, Marleau is currently at 1963). However, Patrick is not chasing records, he is fueled by his desire to win Stanley Cup. No matter what direction his career takes, Patrick will always be a legend, respected by his team mates and rivals.