A former teammate's memories of Lucky Luc and Stevie Y (SI.com)

[lesgardiens]

They came to call him "Lucky", but Luc Robitaille was only so in a happy-go-lucky sort of way. Seemingly always smiling and in a good mood, Robitaille's demeanor belied a serious sense of purpose when it came to improving as a hockey player.

He came into the NHL as an awkward-skating scoring phenom from the QMJHL. I remember his first couple of training camps with the L.A. Kings where he was slender of build and coltish on his skates. When he showed up for camp as a rookie in 1986, he was bigger and his stride was much stronger. All of a sudden, his offensive instincts, soft hands and determination to get to the net were applicable at the NHL level.

Part of it was simply physical maturity. We were sitting next to one another in the locker room at training camp in Victoria, British Columbia in 1986 and I asked him what he did training-wise during the summer. Luc went into a gush about this new concept called rollerblades, which he used to train off-ice during the offseason. As he described roller skates with wheels repositioned in a straight line attached to the boots of his old hockey skates, I was impressed with his dedication to work on a specific aspect of his game that needed improving.