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Ranking Milan Hejduk's Top 5 moments as an Av

January 5, 2018

With Milan Hejduk’s No. 23 now enshrined forever in the rafters, let’s take a look my list of the top five moments in his Avalanche career:

No. 5 – Gotta get this goal in here somehow. It came on March 6, 2000, his second season in the league, in Dallas. I was there, and remember being dumbfounded that the quiet kid I’d been covering for two years suddenly put the hockey equivalent of a lampshade on his head and did a “duck swim” after scoring an overtime winner against Ed Belfour.

The Stars were none too pleased with this bit of exhibitionism, but everybody has to get a little crazy once in a while.

No. 4 – I couldn’t find any video of this one, but history will forever note that Milan Hejduk scored the first goal ever at the Pepsi Center in a regular-season game. It came on Oct. 13, 1999, against Ray Bourque and the Boston Bruins, in a blowout Avs win. Later that same season, of course, Hejduk and Bourque would become teammates.

No. 3 – Scroll to about the 4:10 mark in this video to see the two overtime goals Hejduk scored in the 1999 playoffs against the Sharks, a very tough series that might have gone the other way had not Sharks coach Darryl Sutter foolishly decided to start Steve Shields in a rubber Game 5 instead of the hot Mike Vernon.

Hejduk’s OT goal in Game 6 finished the series. He played on a line with Joe Sakic and Theo Fleury in that series, and you can see Fleury jump on top of him when he won it.

No. 2 – On Dec. 9, 2007, Hejduk put up a six-point game against the St. Louis Blues. That ties Peter Forsberg (twice) for the team single-game scoring record. Scroll to about the 1:38 mark of this video for some highlights from that night.

No. 1 – Hejduk remains the last Avalanche player to score 50 goals in a season. He got his 50 in 2002-03, in the last game of the regular season against St. Louis. He was the only player in the NHL to get 50 that season, and he won the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Scroll to about the 1-minute mark in this tribute video to the Duke to see that 50th goal.