COURIER HEADLINES March 10, 2009

Chuck Brown/Courier

For hockey fans who remember the 1970s and ‘80s, Wednesday night’s NHL Legends game will bring back a flood of memories and offers a chance to see some of their hockey card heroes live and in person. Bryan Trottier, Billy Smith, Butch Goring, Glenn Anderson, Terry O’Reilly, Rick Middleton and Gary Leeman are set to take on a team of locals at 7 p.m. at the Border Arena.


In Tuesday's Saint Croix Courier

Ferry a done deal
Time to shine - NHL stars coming to border town
Computer users jumping on broadband wagon
Island rink needs more work
Economy hurting community fund
Don Sweeney Hall of Fame bound
Reeves to speak at Boys and Girls Club fundraiser
Woman pleads not guilty to passing school bus

TIME TO SHINE
NHL greats hit Border Arena Wednesday

By CHUCK BROWN
editor@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – Bryan Trottier has certainly earned the right to spend these Canadian winters somewhere warm where he can put his feet up, kick back and admire his Stanley Cup rings – all seven of them.
But he won’t. He can’t. He just can’t stay away from the rink. And on Wednesday night the Hockey Hall of Famer will be lacing up the blades with six other NHL legends for an exhibition at the Border Arena in St. Stephen.
“It brings back some memories for some hockey fans,” Trottier, 52, said Monday in a phone interview from New York.
Fifteen years removed from his last NHL game as a player, he said he still feels the pull of the rink and, while he’s based in the U.S., still loves getting to Canada any chance he gets. It’s here, said the Saskatchewan native, that hockey hits home hardest and where he feels the passion for the game everywhere he goes.
The game treated Trottier well and he has gone down not just as one of the best of his era but of all time. In 1998 The Hockey News ranked him number 30 on its list of 100 greatest players. He was an all-star year after year. He won a scoring title, an MVP and a playoff MVP award. He was a rookie of the year. He won Stanley Cups with the 1980s New York Islanders dynasty and with the Pittsburgh Penguins when Mario Lemieux ruled the game. He won another as an assistant coach in Colorado.
And while hockey was a rewarding career, Trottier has a confession.
“I would have played for free,” he said. “It’s just the greatest game at the highest level against the greatest players in the world.”
There’s no way to describe the feeling of skating on NHL ice, he said, never mind trying to put the emotions and experience of lifting a Stanley Cup into mere words. It can’t be done.
Trottier shone bright in a golden era for hockey. He was a key part of the Islanders’ dynasty that brought four straight Cups to Long Island before a kid named Gretzky, along with Messier and the rest, toppled the kings and assumed the throne.
Trottier still watches, and loves, the modern game but he’s not sure how he’d enjoy playing it.
“I had a good chat with Mike Bossy about that,” Trottier said.
His Islander teammate and legend in his own right agreed that new rules allow stars room to move and to shine but the competition is fierce and players today are bigger and stronger than ever.
“The players are so big,” said Trottier, who played at about 5-11 and 195 pounds. “I sure feel small when I walk through the dressing room today.”
His old Islanders aren’t the perennial Cup favourites they were when Trottier centred the Trio Grande line between Bossy and Clark Gillies. Today’s Islander fans can only cheer about the prospect of a last-place finish and a shot at the number one draft pick.
“You’d much rather be vying for the Stanley Cup every year,” Trottier said, acknowledging that it’s still exciting to think about the future and the prospect of adding someone like all-time OHL scoring leader John Tavares to the fold.
Like his fearless playing days, Trottier isn’t afraid to weigh in on some of hockey’s current hot-button issues either. With debate raging in the hockey world about the role of fighting, Trottier said he doesn’t mind a genuine, spirited scrap when emotions boil over and two players spontaneously combust. But the goon battles that pit fighter against fighter are too choreographed and pre-meditated.
“It’s a recipe for disaster,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of that.”
He said the instigator rule that penalizes a player for starting a fight has to go.
“It ruined it all for everybody,” he said of the rule, which critics say removes any form of player-dealt justice from the game.
He also said the current perceived feud between young superstars Sydney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin is overblown by news-hungry media.
“I think the players have mutual respect for each other,” he said.
Focusing back on Wednesday night’s game at the Border Arena, Trottier said the Legends will provide an entertaining and interactive show.
“We have a lot of fun on the ice,” said the 18-year NHL veteran.
Joining him are fellow Islanders Butch Goring and Billy Smith, Boston Bruins Rick Middleton and Terry O’Reilly, Toronto Maple Leaf Gary Leeman and Glenn Anderson, best known as a five-time Cup winner with the Edmonton Oilers who added a sixth championship as a New York Ranger.
“He enjoys working the crowd,” Trottier said of the colourful Anderson.
Among the roster of Charlotte County players are Rob Dougherty, Mike O’Connell, Dan Dempsey, Larry Seabrook and RCMP members Don Marshall, John Beck and Dan Gourdeau. David Mitchell and Eric MacDonald, from Calais, will also be lacing up for the Charlotte County team.
The last time a roster of ex-NHL players skated at the Border Arena was 20 years ago when Eddie Shack and Frank Mahovlich were among the greats to face off against local heroes like Steve and Floyd Haley, Blair Price, Mike Kohler and Dale Orr.
The puck drops Wednesday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. That’s $5 less than originally planned, thanks to a donation from Cooke Aquaculture, said promoter Steve Walton.
Trottier or one of the other NHL legends is also expected to give a speech at Fundy High School Wednesday afternoon.