Steve Jensen Lived "It's a Great Day for Hockey”
Former NHLer, U.S. Olympian and founder of Heartland Hockey Camps Steve Jensen will be dearly missed by the hockey community
By: Dave Jensen
Growing up with Steve Jensen, with the same last name, everybody assumed we were related. My brother Paul, the same age as Steve, played together at Armstrong High School, Michigan Tech and the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team. Same high school, same college, all the way to the Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria with the same last name, yet no relation.
The first nine years that Armstrong High opened, there was a Jensen on the team—Paul and Steve the first three, Steve's brother Jeff (father of Nick on the Washington Capitals) the next three, and then me the last three. All of us went on to play D-I and pro. In addition, Steve's high school sweetheart and future wife Sandy grew up in the same neighborhood as all of us.
Steve was a pioneer when displaying his passion for the game of hockey. Nobody was more animated and enthused. Nobody was louder when it came to the sport he loved.
When he played for the North Stars, whether attending a game or listening to Al Shaver on the KSTP broadcast, you could hear Steve calling for the puck or letting his D-man know he had time to make a play. Never into chirping an opponent, just upbeat about the next shift.
He truly enjoyed the thrill of playing the game.
When playing shinny with Steve, he always took the weaker players with heart on his team. He knew that “will over skill” always had a chance. With his positive voice ringing out, those weaker skaters raised their games to a level like never before. Steve also thrived on the challenge of having to play his best to help carry his team.
When Steve finished his professional playing career (which included 438 NHL games), I told him numerous times he could make money in professional wrestling with a hockey tag team. Let a former NHL enforcer do the wrestling and you be the corner guy doing the interviews and getting a chair over the head. He was that animated.
Instead, he got into helping so many others by coaching kids and adults. People might say he did it because of the money. But from a guy who was on the ice with him from his early camps at Richfield Arena all the way to Heartland, it was not just about business. I saw his excitement to help and encourage others.
Steve knew every camper’s name. And when he’d shout their names with encouragement, their faces would light up and they’d skate even harder. When describing Steve's coaching style, I would tell people “He coaches with his knees bent.” With that comment, nothing else needed to be said—parents would smile and nod their heads. He gave the kids everything he had.
What Steve and his wife Sandy built in Deerwood, Minnesota with Heartland Hockey Camps will continue. From the get-go, Sandy has always thoroughly run the business side of Heartland. Steve was on the ice teaching not only the players, but even the coaches about an upbeat style on and off the ice. There are coaches throughout hockey at every level today that learned this from Steve, practicing what Steve lived by.
YouTube Steve's name and you will find numerous videos of his motivational speeches to campers, along with some of his fights in the NHL. Although pretty good at the latter (again, “will over skill”), Steve hated fighting and despised the coaches who threatened him to do it or be sent to the minors.
Steve will be sorely missed, but the legacy he started will continue with the players, coaches and even parents he influenced along the way. Shouting out a young player's name and their hometown as they shined on the ice, is a lifelong memory, not just for those kids, but by all of us in the rink that day.
Steve Jensen, RIP.
Proud Armstrong alum Dave Jensen is a former Springfield Falcons (AHL) teammate of Steve Jensen’s and fellow Rink Rat since Sunnyview Park in Crystal, MN.
