NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND

January 17, 1998

Brian Burke

Rem Langan

Joe Sakic

Ted Saskin

MODERATOR: We'll take a couple minutes out of a hectic schedule and present an award the MAC Award.

REM LANGAN: First off, I'd like to thank you all for coming. I know how busy it is.

It's a real pleasure for McDonald's to be here today. Working with our partners, the NHL, the NHL PA, were very involved in Hockey Canada. We're very proud to be involved with hockey, and sponsors of Hockey Canada. Of course our owners-operators across Canada sponsor many local teams, thousands of teams across the country. We've got a lot of programs that we've been running in conjunction with our partners, the PA, and the NHL, one of which you'll see in your media kits is our latest, which is a very exciting time for hockey. You'll see in the media kits our latest program which we'll be able to offer to customers next week, which is our Nagano men's team, some official Olympic team medallions. You'll see those in the media kit. We're really here today to celebrate an award that was started in 1991. There's been some traffic NHL All-Star players who have been pillars of the community, terrific All-Stars on the ice and off the ice. Today we want to celebrate the winner for today's MAC Award, which stands for Most Assists for Children in the Local Community, so we're really honoring the player that has done a lot for children in their local community. I'd like to call upon my partners, Ted Saskin with the NHL PA, and Brian Burke, with the NHL, to give this year's MAC Award, Most Assists for Children, to Colorado's Joe Sakic.

(Award Presented)

JOE SAKIC: I'd like to thank you for this award. This is a great honor for myself. Really representing the Colorado Avalanche, my team, we have a great program there with the community, community fund there. We've done a lot for children's charities. As a kid growing up, you look up to pro athletes. We all remember that. It's great that we can give back. It's something that we take a lot of pride in. I think for the U.S. share, we'll donate that to our Colorado Avalanche Community Fund. And local charity here, children's charity, still undecided. We're going to work on a few things, see what we can do here. Thanks again.

BRIAN BURKE: Well, we're very proud of our players in the National Hockey League. We feel our players do a great deal in the community, put more back into the community than athletes do in other sports. It's a real fitting tribute to Joe Sakic, a local boy from Burnaby, to present him with this award today for all the charity work he's done for children. Joe is a great example of the type of player we have in our league, and Joe, on behalf of the National Hockey League and our great corporate partner, McDonald's, congratulations.

TED SASKIN: On behalf of all the players, and the Players Association, we're very pleased to be here with a great partner like McDonald's who is recognizing the contributions off the ice and on the ice of the members of our association. Thanks, very much.