Crowd honours Mike Keane

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This article was published 12/02/2011 (5663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — They gave Mike Keane a commissioned painting of himself holding the Stanley Cup. They gave him a trip to Pebble Beach and an Order of the Buffalo Hunt. They gave him the honour of retiring his No. 12 to the rafters at MTS Centre.

But not before Keane gave first — a 22-year professional career that ended as captain of the Moose for his last five seasons in Winnipeg.

During a 30-minute ceremony prior to Saturday night’s meeting with the San Antonio Rampage, Keane was honoured by a crowd of 10,948 and the a Hall-of-Fame line-up of former coaches and teammates via video.

“There’s not a guy I can think of that deserves this more,” offered Joe Sakic, who won a Stanley Cup with Keane with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.

“I’m happy to say I coached you,” added former Avs head coach Marc Crawford, now with the Dallas Stars. “I always respected the energy and commitment you came to the rink with.”

Other former teammates to pay their respects included Montreal Canadiens assistant coach Kirk Muller, current Moose captain Nolan Baumgartner, Guy Carbonneau and current Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk.

Not a bad legacy for a tough-as-nails tryer out of Winnipeg — the kids from his former minor hockey team, the Assiniboine Park Rangers, were on the ice, too — who was never drafted, yet went on to captain the iconic Montreal Canadiens and win three Stanley Cups for three different teams. In all, Keane played in 1,161 NHL games and recorded 470 points and 881 penalty minutes.

On Feb. 3rd, 2009, Keane played his 1,500th professional game with the Moose versus the Lake Erie Monsters.

Keane’s wife Tammy, son Jackson and daughter Olivia – along with his parents Jack and Mary-Ann – each wore jerseys of Mike’s former teams, including the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks.

And after Premier Greg Selinger officially awarded Keane with the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, the Governor of the Moose coughed up the golf trip to Pebble Beach.

“It’s simply unbelievable,” Keane said, in thanking the fans. “To play in front of your family and friends in your home town is something I’ll never forget.”