Shaun Newman Podcast - #17 - Skip Krake

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

Sat in Skip Krake’s man cave for this episode. We were surrounded by so much history of the game at times it was quite unbelievable. Skip is originally from North Battleford SK and this is where he would play his minor hockey. Following this he would play his junior in Estevan and carry onto the NHL for: -Boston Bruins -Los Angeles Kings -Buffalo Sabres - WHA -Cleveland Crusaders -Edmonton Oilers

Welcome to the podcast, folks. First off, I want to give a shout out to Harlan Lessig and the Weekly Bean. They continue to publish each week a little write-up on who the next guest is coming on the podcast. So thanks Weekly Bean and look forward in Lloyd Minster, Kindersley, Moose Jaw. If you see one, pick it up, and you can check out who's coming up next. I've had some cool interaction this week with people reaching out. And I want to give a few shout-outs. So Rod Bhutan had sent me a text, a great podcast with Morgan Merv.

Man, they were the last week's episode, so if you haven't listened to that one. Rodney thought it was a great episode. Dean Moore had reached out and said, hey, man, these are awesome. I've spent a lot of hours in the tractor this spring, and the time just flies by when I'm listening. So thanks, Dean. And then finally, Marie McEwen, a few of the farmers getting into it. She said, good day, sir.

We had her branding yesterday, and as we sat around visiting afterwards, The conversation somehow got on your podcast. Six out of ten people are here listening on a regular basis and I'll enjoy them. So much knowledge and history, great listening. So thanks, guys. I don't know who the six out of ten were, but that's awesome to hear Marine and Rod and Dean. I appreciate the feedback. It's really cool when you guys reach out.

If you're looking to give me some feedback, you can follow along on different social media sites, Instagram and Facebook, just look Sean Newman podcast. We're constantly posting things on there or Twitter. S. Newman podcast. So if you like what you guys are hearing or you want to see who's coming up next, just reach out on those and leave some feedback. You can also do it wherever you get the podcast

on any of the platforms. You can leave feedback there and just love interacting with you guys and hearing what your thoughts are. If you've got somebody that you think would be a great listen or interview, leave me some suggestions on there. I'm always open to different ideas

and a good story. So tonight's guest, is Skip Craig. He is a former NHL player with the Boston Bruins, the Buffalo Sabres, the L.A. He spent some time in the WHA playing for the Cleveland Crusaders and the Emmington Oilers. So most of us know him around town as Skip. He's been in Lloyd for many years, and I'm looking forward to hearing some of the stories. I've heard nothing but great things about him. So, without further ado. So welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. I'm joining along beside me as Mr.

Mr. Skip Crick. I guess my first question right off the hop is how did you get the nickname Skip? Because that isn't your name. Well, it's been my name pretty much since I was a baby boy. So we'll just leave it at that. I take it there's a long story that remains hidden for the rest of eternity. No, no, no, not really. No, I just got nicknamed when I was a kid skipping around the farm yard sort of thing.

and it's about that simple, no big deal. And it stuck that well. Apparently so. I guess so. Now, you're originally from North Battleford, Saskatchewan? True story. Born in Rabbit Lake, Saskatchewan, if you want to believe that. But, yeah, I grew up in North Battleford and all my, from when I was about five years old,

through to my end of my teens. Now, before we got on here, we were talking a little bit about playing minor hockey in North Battleford. kind of thing. I was curious, like, when you were really young, do you remember starting on the ponds, or were you always in minor hockey, or how did you get your starting hockey? Well, every school had an outdoor rink, for one thing, and back in those days, they didn't sand the streets, so I could just go right from my house to skate down the road to the outdoor rink and play all day on weekends and, you know, Christmas holidays, things like that. It was nothing to

go from sun up to sundown. Did you just say you could skate down the roads to the outdoor rink? Absolutely. When you go into your urban neighborhoods to this day, and they don't sand the streets, and they get packed down, snow gets packed down into being ice. Oh, yeah, we didn't sharpen our skates every day like they do nowadays. Well, I still don't sharpen my skates all the time. I got Sheper who does them pretty much once a month, and they're golden for that,

many skates. Yeah, but he does it better than anybody else, old ship. So you know they're good for a while. We can agree on that. That's right. We were talking about your peewee hockey. You had older brothers, and you said that you played up with them. Yeah, they had, well, back in those days, it was, I mean, you've got to, nowadays it'd be hard to even fathom what it was like. There was only six teams in the NHL and the kinsman club of north battleford took over the minor hockey and all there was was pee-wee hockey that was it there was no divisions of they just called it pee-wee hockey and it was age 14 on down and my older brother played he was four and a half years older than me and there was one other boy same age as me who had an older brother also and we just got to play when we get up

seven, eight goals or whatever, they'd let us out there for a shift or two. And I was, I don't know, eight, nine, ten years old playing in pee-wee hockey. And that's just the way it was. It was the only place to play organized hockey. And so if you weren't playing that, you were just on the outdoor rink essentially. Yeah, basically, that's right. Yeah, that was the only league for sure in town, yeah. That'd make you get better in an awful hurry, wouldn't it?

Well, you had to learn how to get out of the way, for sure, yeah. Was there hitting then, you know, like now they got pee-wee hockey, has removed hitting, and they're pushing it all the way to Bandom, I believe. Well, do you want to play hockey or do you want to play hockey? And hitting is part of the game, to me. I mean, you either learn to get hit, you either like it, or you can either handle it, or you can't, and all this stuff. To me, it's all hockey to me, basically, I probably shouldn't say this,

but mirrors life in general. And who's running your life right now? Who's running mine? It's the bloody lawyers and the suits that don't know a damn thing about what I need to have. And they're telling me how I should live my life. And they're taking care of me because I'm not smart enough to take care of myself. And that's the same thing with hockey. I mean, there's people that are making the decisions that have no clue in a basket.

Never played the game. And that's just my humble opinion. opinion. So you play, when do you make, like you play your midget in North Battleford? No such thing. It was pee-wee hockey and then right into the, it was called the Beaver Bruins at that time. And we were 14, 15, 16 years old playing in what was known back then as the big six league. And it was towns around like Glaslin and Meadowlake and Vaughan, and six teams in that league and Glassland.

And that's where we played. We played against the men. It was like nowadays, I guess, playing against the Border Kings, basically. And there again, that's where you learned how to skate and keep your head up. So did you, as a young kid like that, did you ever have to fight a grown man or you weren't silly enough to think you could take on a guy like that? I honestly don't remember getting in a fight. and I think I was not that smart, but I was smarter than that. So, no, we played against big, strong farmers from Von Edem, et cetera.

And, no, you didn't want to do that. That would not be a good thing. How did you guys fare in that league? Like, were you competitive or did you win it? Oh, no, I can't remember ever winning it. Well, we were certainly competitive. And I don't know if we ever won it or not, now that you mention it. But no, no, no, we were competitive, no question.

and we had some kids from all over, actually. We had a couple of kids out of BC playing on that team, and Ronnie B.M. out of Allen, Saskatchewan. We had kids from all over. Really? From B.C. coming to play. Yeah. Do you remember why they'd come all the way from B.C. to come play?

Well, nowhere else to play out there, I guess. Joey Watson was one who went on to have an awesome career with the Philadelphia Flyers. One of Stanley Cup or two with the Philadelphia Flyers started out in North Battleford. Yep, for sure. Wow, that's, I mean, you see it in hockey all the time now, right? Like kids, very talented hockey players going all over the place away from home. It just surprises me that a North Battleford, what did you call it? What group would that be?

Beaver Bruins. It was juvenile then. Juvenile. We ended up playing in the spring against, for the provincial playoffs. We played Saskatoon and Regina, hung a licking on those big cities all the time. but that used to be great fun playing against Saskatoon and Regina because they figured they could whip us but they found out different but anyway no

that's just just the way it was back then and and you know when you think about it it's it is pretty weird that we had a couple of kids out of BC for sure did you guys win provincials? Yeah yeah we won it a couple years in a row yeah Wow, so provincial champs at a North Battleford. Yep, juvenile it was called. Yeah, juvenile, yeah.

18 and under, I guess it was then. And so I was asking you, so you go from then juvenile in North Battleford to going to Estevan Bruins, who at the time would have been a farm system, or actually you were saying even North Battleford was the feeder system of the Estevan Bruins. Yeah, for sure. And so that jump was, and they just essentially invited you out to a spring training camp? No, you just, well, yeah. Yeah, you had a training camp in the fall, and if you were good enough, you made the team. And like when you were 17, you probably made junior or you weren't going to be a player.

And so we were all, you know, 17, several of us were 17, and then played when you were 18, 19, and 20. I don't think we had any overage guys back then. It was when you were 19, you just graduated to pro or went to school. There was a lot of guys out of that Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. That was the only junior hockey league in all of Western Canada at that time. And there was the OHA, and that was it for the Edmonton Oil Kings. They played in a senior league. There was no league there for them.

So the SJHL was the only... There was no AJ. There was no, no, no, no. The SGHL was the only junior league in all of Western Canada. That's why I guess we had kids from B.C. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because they knew if they could get over to Estevan or Weber and whoever else that was.

John and Saskatoon, yeah. Right? Because they were all the feeder system for the NHL clubs. Yeah, for sure. They were all basically directly sponsored, like, you know, used equipment and, stuff like that and maybe a few dollars, they donated to keep those junior teams going at that time. So were you guys taking buses everywhere? Absolutely.

Here's a good one. I shouldn't tell this story, but we had a school bus. And Jack Norris, who was a good friend of mine and our goaltender, Jack went on to play in the NHL, and we drove the bloody bus. And you think about that in the middle of winter, from Estevan to Flynn Flind. on, like whatever it was, 600 miles, whatever. We drove the bus, yep. The players drove the bus.

Jack and I, yep, yep. Drove the bus. Drove that school bus. And then we'd hop off and go play a hockey game. Yep, oh yeah, yeah, yep. Stop at the Paw, Manitoba and have a moose steak and carry on and play that night. Oh, yeah, those are the days. Would you guys spend the night then and then play a second game and drive back?

Yeah, we'd always play two games up there for sure. A matinee or something the next day? Yeah, chances are, yeah, yeah. Do you remember what I love going back this far because talking with the generations before even me until now, what kids do now during the summer to prepare for the upcoming season is night and day to what even I did.

Do you remember if you, for training camps, anything like that, were you working out in the summer, Were you doing anything to get ready for the upcoming hockey season? Not a chance. The only thing we did back in those days was play ball all summer. It was hockey season. There was no summer ice for one thing. I mean, nobody had North Battleford.

They had an arena and the St. Thomas College played him, a hockey rink. And neither one of them had artificial ice. So I don't know that anybody maybe regained in Saskatoon had artificial ice, but there was none of that. And then off-land training, we played ball. And never worried about hockey until October or whenever, and back at her again. And it was a good thing.

I mean, you were ready to get back at playing the game, and that's just the way it was. What do you think about kids playing one sport year-round? I don't think much of it. It seems to be successful for some kids, but I think he should play other sports, and, you know, too much of any one thing is not good, in my opinion, but it's way over my head.

I couldn't handle all that training and stuff they do nowadays. It's not a commodity for sure. Yeah. So when you say you're playing ball, is that baseball? Absolutely, yep. North Battlefield, when I was a kid back in the 50s, 60s, they had a professional team. Lloyd Mr. was in it.

Lloyd Mr. Meridians, North Battleford Beavers, right into Minot in Williston, Regina Mooshaw, Pro Team, and all those American kids would come up here and play ball, college kids and that for the summer. Oh, wow. Yep. They had some good. There were several guys out of that league.

I forget what they called the league, but there were several guys that made it to the show, made it to the big time. Oh, wow. Yep, for sure. Some good pitchers. Yeah, some good players back then. Going back to your Esteban Bruin days, when you first went there, I talked with Gord about the different contracts, the A, B, C,

and I forget the breakdown of each one, but you said you didn't sign any of those. No, never signed any. You're talking a pro-contract. That's correct, yeah. And, no, they only gave you $150 or whatever to sign an A-4-M-A-4-M-A. And it was no big deal. I said, no, I don't need that. Get me to training camp, we'll see if we can make the team, and that's the way it was.

So you billeted then in Estevan? Absolutely. Did you have good billets? Unbelievably good billets. Yeah, Carl and Mary Johnson. Estaband, a small town back then, and it was a hockey town, nothing else to do in the wintertime. And we used to pack the rink, and we had good teams every year. And so everybody was a hockey fan sort of thing.

We had really good billets, yep. Do you remember, I can't remember how many people that Estaban rink seats, but you say pack the rink, how many fans are you talking there? I don't know. I'm going to tell you 1,500, somewhere in there, maybe 2,000. Yeah, that must have been quite the thing to go from North Battleford to there to pack and a rink in the SJ. Did you guys ever win during your time?

Are you kidding? We won every year I was there. All three years, we won the H.L. Yep. Unfortunately, we couldn't get by the bloody Edmonton. To get out of the West. To get out of the West. The Morrill Cup?

Yeah. Yep. We never quite beat them. We just about did one year and then... What did you play? And was it just the best of three? Or what did you play? No, seven game.

It was seven games series. Three in Edmonton and then two back in. That one year we went seven games, the lost her in the seventh game. On home ice or their ice? Yeah, no ours. Oh. It was not good.

Played the last game in my junior career with three broken ribs. It wasn't very much fun. but that's the way it was. Did you guys take the yellow school bus to Hamilton? Good question. I don't remember. Probably. Yeah, probably. Well, everything was, I mean, they never had any money.

None of these owners had any money. And just the way it was. We didn't think any different. It was all good. Loved every minute of it. So we're back. We took a little quick break there. We're just having a couple technical issues.

Nothing too serious, hopefully, here. I should point out to the guests that are listening that we're sitting in Skip's basement surrounded by memorabilia that had me in awe. He's got a sign pair of Wayne Grexky rookie gloves that have still got me in awe. But all the pictures sitting here of all the different places you've played is, well, damn impressive, if I may say so.

Well, I don't know about that, but it's pretty interesting when you take the time to look back and think of all places you've been and the things you've done and the experiences you've had, it's been kind of fun, no question about that. And good to look back on once in a while. Absolutely. So you go from losing your final game in Estevan

for a chance to go to the Memorial Cup to the Amiton Oil Kings. And then do you hop on a plane and head out to Boston? No. They didn't even take me to the big camp. I went to the Minneapolis Bruins camp in Minneapolis, Minnesota. that was called the Central League back then. And they were one of directly sponsored teams that the Bruins had. They had another one in the American League.

And that's where I started out was in Minneapolis. And so who would be the teams? Where would you be playing with the Minneapolis team? Where would you go? Let me see now. Omaha was Chicago, I think. And St. Paul was the New York Rangers. Tulsa, Oklahoma was Toronto

Houston, the old Sam Houston Coliseum it was about as big as Estabans rink a little bigger in the matchbox They were, who were they? Montreal But anyway there were six teams In that league two directly sponsored teams

It was kind of like all guys right out of junior And two or three Two or three older guys thrown in just for the experience but it was mostly a glorified junior all-star league sort of thing at that time. What was that like going to that? What was like you went from being Esteban, won in a league three years in a row, competing to go to Memorial Cups each year? Well, the one thing was when you're, you know, one of the better players in the league,

and each team in junior, to this day, for that matter, have, you know, one or two good lines. and then when I got to play pro, even in the Central League, everybody was as good or better than I was, and so it was a fair enlightenment, so to speak. You got your eyes opened pretty quick and had to pick it up a notch real fast. So did you have to change the way you played then, Skip? No, not really, but you had to play better for sure.

I mean, you had to be, you know, no shifts off or anything like that. you had to play for sure. And I wouldn't, no, I don't think I changed anything then, but, but it was definitely a lot harder. Let me put it that way. Yeah, for sure. Did, do you remember what you signed your first contract for going out to Minneapolis? Sure do.

If I tell you, nobody in the world would believe me, but I'll tell you anyway. And here's something else. I was probably in the top three hockey players in Western. Canada in that SGHL. I was pretty good. My last year of junior, I scored, give me a minute here now, 64 game schedule, I scored 59 goals and 61 assists, something like that. And so I was pretty good.

You just say 59 goals? Yeah, and 64 games and 60 some assists and 64 games. But anyway, I, I. I got to, there was a guy by the name of Ren Blair, who was general manager of the Minneapolis Bruins. He was a no good rotten character, just my opinion. But anyway, I signed for a signing bonus of $2,000, not $200,000, $2,000, and I played salary that first year for $3,000. total of $5,000 my first year of pro. And that might be hard to believe.

I was a pretty good hockey player too at the time. That's the way it was. You took it or you didn't play. So did you have a couple things come to mind. Did you have an agent? No, couldn't spell agent. Didn't know what an agent was back in those days. No.

So was you sitting across. There was no agents. You sitting across from the owner. With all these big dudes in suits and, you know, here I am out of S-S-Savan North Battleford. What do I know, right? Yeah. Yeah.

How about, so would you have had to have had a part-time job then? Oh, hell, you had to get, there was no going to Hawaii in those days. You had to get the hell home. I work for a buck and a quarter pound of nails and shovel and gravel and cement for the summers. Oh, yeah, just to have enough gas to get back to training camp. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember what you did?

did while you were playing hockey? What did you do for a job? Oh, no, not playing hockey. No, no. It was full-time. It's just like it is now. Oh, yeah, you had a 70-game schedule back then. Yeah. And, no, you were playing, you know, every third day, if not every other day sort of thing. Oh, no, you didn't. Oh, no, we survived. I mean, you got to remember that a new car was probably five grand or whatever back then. And your rent, I don't know what that would be, 100 bucks a month, whatever, I don't know, but we.

We did her. We survived it all. It must have been a change going from being at home with billets and having cooking every night, I assume, and kind of parent figures to watch after you, and then moving to Minneapolis, being a young kid away from home with a roommate or two, a little bit of spending money in your pocket, playing hockey every day.

Loved every minute of it. Yeah, it was, oh, yeah, a totally different world, but you did it. I mean, you're young and half goofy and just give her. There's no turning back. Don't worry about it. Just give her. You're playing the game you love to play and had some good buddies on the team.

Yeah, it was good. Actually, there was three of us on that team from Estevan, Joey Watson and Ronnie Baim and myself. We're all played in Estaband together, so that was good. We roomed together that first year. Did you get called up to the first year? the Bruins at all during that time, or did any of you get called up to the Bruins during that time? No. I played the next year in Oklahoma City, and then the next year I got called up to the Bruins

and played about 15 games at the end of the season, and then I spent the next year there in Boston. In Boston? Yeah. So why did they just move the team from Minneapolis to Oklahoma? Yeah, moved the franchise. It wasn't very good situation in Minneapolis. It was a very old rink and, you know, no fans to speak of. So it was just a situation where they needed to move. And Oklahoma City came up. So they moved it there.

What did you think of Oklahoma City? Oh, loved it. It was a great town. It was, you know, small, basically a small prairie town. It was good, good town. Good people. Actually, actually, now that you mentioned working, my wife's an RN and Diane worked there in Oklahoma City. And there's a couple of little bit older ladies that she nursed with that took very good care of her and were really good to us, took care of her kids and the whole bit when it was needed. So that was a good situation.

Yeah. Yeah. So your first game, at the end of that season of Oklahoma City, you get called up to the Burwins. What was walking into the Boston Bruins dressing room like for the first time? I don't know if you could, how to describe it, but it was scary. Actually, I was playing in Essivan and I got called up. The Bruins were brutal those years. They were in the basement for 10 years.

Got into the fifth place, I think, one of those 10 years. and they call me up the last two games of the season. They were out of the playoffs. I was 19, and we were in the playoffs against Mooshaw. And we were up two games to none, and if we won the third game, I could go, and we did. So we're up three nothing. I went Saturday night, we played Friday night,

drove from Estevan to Winnipeg. Boy, a lot of things coming back here. To Winnipeg. Got on the plane at whatever time in the morning, 5, 6 o'clock in the morning. Flew to Montreal. Didn't have a clue in a basket. Big city all by myself.

And made it to the hotel. Checked into the, what was it, to Royal York or whatever, downtown Montreal. No, that's in Toronto. But anyway, got to the team hotel, and a bit of a snooze, I think. Got to the team meal. I played that night in the Montreal Forum against Bellevaux and Henri and Jacques Plont and the boys.

Talk about scared to death. Well, there I was. And then we played the next night in Boston back to back. So go with the boys and flew to Boston. And I drove in with the hotel. The old Madison was attached to the gardens in Boston. And I drove in with the trainers and their equipment vath. They checked me at the hotel there, made her to the rink.

Found my way through the corridors over to the rink the next night, played again that night against Montreal. again. And it was, they were going north. I was going south. Turned around to go south. They were coming back north. That was quite an experience. But then, then when I got called up after, you know, I played two and a half years of pro. And most of those guys were capable of playing in NHL, if not, you know, awful darn close. So it wasn't so bad. And I knew a few of the guys, too. So it wasn't quite so bad but it was quite the old barn in boston all those old rinks in those days were quite the places to play pretty interesting pretty unbelievable right yeah you think about it

it must have just gone by in a blur like did you ever get comfortable playing on the ice against the Canadians back then oh yeah hell yeah he used to love to play against those guys hate them to this day you kidding them in Toronto both so it was a our rivals. So are you a Boston Bruin fan fan? Absolutely. Yeah. Oiler fan first because it's hometown team, but still Bruin fan for sure. So you're liking that they're in the Stanley Cup finals? Absolutely. Yeah. What do you think of Brad Marchand? He's a little jerk, but he sure play for me. He's a great player. But play against him, I'd have to slap him once or twice, I think.

No, he's a hell of a player. a little burger. Oh, you can. He's a throwback, right? They just don't have many players like that anymore. No. And so he sticks out like a sore thumb. He's a little too mouthy for my liking, but he can sure play hockey. Absolutely. Well, we got the game on right now, and it looks like St. Louis is going to be heading, I mean, you hate to jinx him too soon. It's only the third. San Jose is down by two, but they win tonight. They're off to the finals as well. I'll tell you, you watch that, you watch that final St. Louis. They like going shoulder to shoulder to. It's going to be a half a series. that last series. It's going to be a toss-up. Yeah.

That Bennington kid playing goal for St. Louis, he's, and Tuka Rasque both. I mean, they're going to be the difference probably in the end, those two guys. Yeah. Good goal-tending. Speaking of good goal-tending, I'm staring over your head at Jerry Cheever.

There was a guy you played with for many years. Yeah, I did. I was very fortunate. Jerry and I played in Oklahoma City together and then went to Boston, and then we ended up three years together in Cleveland in the World Hockey Association. And, yeah, Jerry's a good friend of mine.

As a matter of fact, to just finish talking to him before you got here tonight. What, do you remember when he started putting the stitches on? Not really, but it would have been about, just after he got to Boston. Him and actually it was his buddy Frosty Forrestall was the name. He was a trainer. He was an ex-marine and he was half goofy.

And I always liked the kibbets, and I think it was Frosty that really said, hey, geez, he got hitting the mask. He says, yeah, we should do this. And anyway, they got together and put the first stitches in, and it went from there. So I'm going to tell you, it was probably, you know, a year before they won the Stanley Cup or so it would be 70 somewhere in there. Yeah.

Here's another question for you on goaltenders. Did you, when you were growing up, did they always, I guess they didn't always wear masks. Do you remember shooting on goalies with no masks? Oh, my whole life. your whole life. Oh, sure. It was, well, that picture, I've got a picture of my first goal, very fortunate to have it.

There was no cameras much in the stands in those days, but that's Roger Crozier, who I ended up playing with in Buffalo. The best was Glenn Hall, that picture of Bobby Orr flying through the air, that's Glenn in gold there. He never wore a mask, and he was one of those spread eagle goaltenders, like he was down all the time,

and there'd be three or four or five sticks and skates and everything in his face. There's a picture, I don't know if you ever seen it, of Terry Sautchuk, with stitches and cuts and bruises and lumps. You could not recognize them from cuts. That's quite a picture. Well, now that I'm staring at your first goal picture, I'm going, how did I miss that? The guy's got no mask on.

Did you guys think back then, man, you guys are just crazy? No, it was just the way it was. Never thought anything of it. It was just the way it was. And it seems to me there wasn't a whole lot of not bad injuries. I don't remember any real bad injuries like losing an eye or anything like that. But no. Did you ever just walk down on a goalie and go,

you've been annoying me all night? I'm going to throw it right at your dome? No, I don't think so. I think it was the other way around. You had respect in those days. They were all stand-up goaltenders too. Here's something. They were all stand-up goal-tenders, not like they are, this butterfly thing.

And so the way to score on them was to put it off the posts on the ice. You put it up high, they had those two big gloves, blocker and catcher to stop you. And it was a lot harder for them to stop a good hard shot on the ice. So what did you think when the first mass came in then, where you guys were like, oh, geez, that seems like a smart idea? No, I don't remember really thinking anything of it. It was Ponta did it, and I remember when that happened, but I don't remember thinking much of it. Probably thought, yeah, that's not a bad idea.

Yeah. Was it still the same way back you talk about respect, like goaltenders? I've seen videos after videos that were guys would deck the goaltender. Did that happen back in the day, and was that an all-out war if they touched your goaltender? Absolutely. Any teams I played for are like the Bruins or, whatever and and there was always a good honest tough guy on my team and and no you didn't do that no way you had more respect there's more respect between players like nobody wore helmets you know

never mind the mask nobody wore helmets and you never you never ran the guy from behind and if somebody got run from behind he was a dead man the guy that did it and so you just didn't you you looked the guy in the eye and played hockey there wasn't a whole lot of cheap stuff going on yeah and if there was you were answering for it you know it yeah you definitely answered for it uh i had ken stanford sent me a picture and he said you got to tell the story of bloody night in boston there it is right there up on my my uh fireplace oh yeah okay uh that was the night bobby bobby was uh on the blue line and uh Connaker, what was his first name, but anyway, came around, shot the puck in and went around and

caught Bobby across the nose with his stick. Bobby went down, got back up, and by the time the plane went back to their blue line, it was with Toronto, and Johnny McKenzie had Bulldog Conacher and Bobby got there, picked him up off the ice, and pretty much ended his career that night. The picture has me right in the middle of it. And Bill Friday, I think's a referee, pulling Bobby off.

And Dallas Smith had two guys. I couldn't find anybody to pair off with. Everybody cleared the bench, of course. And Dallas Smith had one guy in each hand, so I'm watching this, I couldn't handle it. It's Bobby, get off of it. That's enough. And he would have

was a bad scene that night. but happened a few times. We cleared the bench about four or five times that year. Where everybody goes. Yep. Yep. All 14, 15, whatever was, guys on the bench cleared the bench. Get at her, boys.

Say 14 or 15. Did you only have three lines back then? Yeah, we had three lines. A couple of guys killed penalties and, what, four defensements, but all, I think, yeah. Four defensemen? Yep. Yep, you didn't have six defensemen for sure. Oh, wow.

That's a lot of minutes for a D-Man. 18 guys I think we had on the bench. Does that make sense? Well, 18 would give you four lines and six defensemen. Or unless you're talking goaltenders. You got three lines, three-threes are nine, 10, 11, and four defensemen is 15, and two goalies, 16, 17, maybe one other guy. I don't know, kidding.

Yeah. It was all money in the pocket of the owners. So you played a full year. Or your first full year with the Bruins you must have signed again. I'm assuming you were signing one-year deals? Yeah. Because you talked about your first contract you signed with Minneapolis as being just a $5,000. Like, do you remember, like, finally I hit it?

Like, at least I'm making some piece of money. Oh, yeah, big time. Yeah, I got called up my second year in Oak City. They played 15 games at the end of the season. And I scored six goals and two assists. This is the original six. they thought I was the second coming. That was the year they traded for Big Phil, Esposito and Aji and Freddie Stanfield.

And I scored more goals and more points than Freddie did in the Central League the year before. So I was number two on their centerman depth chart. And we used to have training camps for six weeks back in those days. That's why you didn't have to work out in the summer. You went six weeks of training camp twice a day plus off ice in between. So anyway, it was the second last day of training camp. It was in London, Ontario, and I'm walking back to the hotel across the bridge with Jerry Cheever's. And Chief says to me, you haven't signed yet, A, the word gets out, right?

I said, no. He says, what the hell are you holding out for? 15? I said, yeah, and I, I, uh, holding out for $15,000. I made more money and he did that year. Figure that one out. That's how well they paid you. Yeah, crazy.

But, uh, yeah, Milkshmidt was general manager, Harry. Sinden was our coach in Boston, and he'd coached us in, in Oklahoma City. And Harry even came and talked to me, Skip, he says, it's not like you. He says, you're a better team guy than that. I said, Harry, if I'm going to play him. here, I'm worth it. I'm worth that much. And, well, okay. So they ended up giving me $14,000, plus $1,000 if I stayed for half the year, plus another thousand if I stayed for the whole year. They didn't have anybody else. So I said, okay, I signed, I made a thousand more than I wanted.

That's how smart they are. No, no. Yeah, that's the way she was. So your first year of pro you make $17,000. In Boston? Yeah. No, 60. Oh, 60? 16.

1-6 in Boston. 16. Yeah, 14 and $2,000 bonuses. And I thought you said an extra thousand at the end if you stay the full year. Stayed the whole year, yeah. So I signed for 14. Oh, okay, yeah. And then 1,000 for being there half the year,

and then another thousand for staying the whole year. Your math is better than mine. Yeah, true. Man, how times have changed when you think about it. Oh, crazy. I mean, these guys talk about millions like we talked about hunters. Nowadays.

Back then, when you were playing with Boston, you guys flying everywhere or are you guys bussing? No, we flew. That was just the end of the train era and only because of the expansion. Now you had to go from Boston to L.A. right and but the old original six they trained it everywhere from you know from detroit to

Chicago from Toronto to Montreal whatever they used the train an awful lot back in those days so load all your bags up and everything all the sticks and throw it on the train and the way you go yeah how long would that be probably I don't know not that long I don't suppose I don't know two three four or five hours yeah depending on where you're going so you listed off a couple guys like I was a defenseman growing up And Bobby R. ranks probably number one of all time as a defenseman. What was, as a young guy, because you would have saw him right at the beginning of his career, was he far and just like all out that good from the very beginning?

No question. He was, he came in at 18 years old. He was about 170 pounds. Everybody tried him, like, you know, tested him as, tested his medal. And see if he had any guts or not. And he did. And I don't think he had many. fights but the odd one and he did okay with him and uh every year he put on about 10 pounds in

his first three or four years but there was nobody nobody and i'm talking everybody gordy howe everybody nobody had more guts than bobby if it was uh if it uh the only place was between the boards and three guys to get to the net to where he was going he'd he'd go there he'd i mean he was i mean he was he'd stopped the puck with his face. He just had too much courage, actually. That's why he buggered up his knees and he'd come back too soon and wrecked his knees. He should have played another, how many years.

But anyway, no, he was the best all-around player ever. I don't care who you say. They're all special. I mean, there's nobody better than Gordy, too. They're just different. Yeah. And, I mean, Gretz, nobody had more serious. Briebrel and Gretz and, you know, a lot of good hockey players, but some guys you'd

never even talk about, like John Below was maybe the best there ever was. Bobby could do absolutely everything he'd skate. One night we were playing in Boston. He killing the penalty. He got the puck. He skated around both nets twice and finally realized what was going on and embarrassed himself and shot it down the ice. They couldn't get the puck off of them. That's funny. That's the fact that night. I was watching, as a kid growing up on Christmas, we always got

Don Cherry's Rockham-Soccombe. Yeah. And in the first Rockham Sockham, he has the clip of Bobby, I think it's like title, I want to say greatest goals or something like that. And he goes, I'm going to show you the greatest goal scorer ever. And he shows Bobby Orr. And he goes, he's on a penalty kill. And he goes behind the net and all the Atlanta flames. they don't want to chase him because they know if they chase him, Bobby's going to pop out the other side. And they show the goal and on the penalty kill, Bobby goes end to end around everybody, tucks it in and then hangs his head because he's just embarrassed the flames. Yeah, that's the way he was.

He's an awfully good person, Bobby. He's very humble. And to this day, he's a very good person. Yeah. Yeah, no good. He was very good to me. When I was there, I was just a player. And, you know, type of guy like, hey, Skip, what are you doing?

You know, around the road, where are you going? and I said, well, I don't know. I remember this one night on the bus, going from the airport into town, and Skip, what are you doing? I said, oh, I don't know. And he said, all right, then, you're coming with us. I mean, that's the kind of guy he was.

Yeah, there was nobody much better, for sure, and there was a lot of good ones. You were there when they traded for Phil, right? Yeah, that was the year I came up. It was when they tried. traded the, is that the year of the expansion? No, no, no. Was that before?

Was it? Because I think 67 is when they trade, or when the expansion happens, and they trade, Boston traded Chicago, and they got Phil Esposito and. Yeah. Freddy Stanfield and Hodge, right? And Kenny Hodge, yep. And Kenny Hodge. Yep.

What was like having Phil on the team? Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, big Italian, he was half goofy. Espo, he's a great guy, yeah. You bet you they, well, it's in his book, if you've ever read his book, but Bobby had, I guess it was his knee buggered up in, and he was in the hospital, and Phil got the boys together, went in, they put gowns on, whatever, walked into his room and rolled his bed out,

took him downtown Boston to the bar. Had a nice evening. But that was Phil. He'd do anything. He was half goofy. But hello hockey player. He scored 77 goals at one year, wasn't it? And about half of him went off his rear end.

You get in front of the net. You couldn't move him. Yeah, he was a good player. That was a hell of a line. They were all big cash. Cash was big and about as mean as you get. And Haji was huge and about as strong as you get. Yeah, Phil could put her in the net.

Yeah, good teams in those days. Were you on, did they broadcast all those games on Saturday night hockey then? Well, how did that work back in then? Mostly Canadian, Montreal. If you were playing in Montreal or Toronto. Or Toronto, those were the games. Pretty much, yeah, you didn't see a whole lot.

So family back here, Skip, did they get to watch much of you? No, no, not hardly at all back then. No. No, they wouldn't have. Like I say, unless you were in Montreal or Toronto on hockey night in Canada. Which probably happened from time to time then, I guess. Yeah, once or twice a year, I suppose. That's it?

Well, I don't know what it was, but it wouldn't be a whole lot. Wouldn't be a whole lot. Would your family come down and visit quite a bit while you were there? No, no, no, no. Couldn't afford those kind of things back then. No. And it was no big deal just because you were playing in the NHL, no big deal. What the hell?

Well, it's kind of a big deal. Yeah, I guess so. But we just evolved, just played up the ladder and had the good fortune, God-given ability to play the game. Yeah. So you did. Yeah. That's the thing. It's just, yeah.

I mean, to me, it's pretty big deal, but it's not a big deal. I mean, for the way they sell. the game now and hero worship these athletes is a little mind-boggling to me, but it's all good, I guess. How about a couple other names that I noticed

we were looking at your team photo there of the Bruins. Like, I guess I just I didn't realize. I didn't realize Glenn Say they're played there or I think Eddie Shacks in there as well. Oh yeah. Slats and I ran a hockey school

together for several years in Banff and we played in Oak City together and then Boston and then kept in touch after that ran a hockey school in Banff for several years and I still keep in touch with Glenn and drop into Banff every now and then but and Shackie Shackie and I that was interesting we played together in Boston I got traded to L.A. and that same summer he got traded to L.A. and that same summer he got trade deli and uh then the other expansion was oh yeah that was the next year 7071 was buffalo and who Vancouver yeah that sounds right yeah buffalo and Vancouver because punch won the punch him like won the coin toss and he picked uh jillie schubert pro yeah and uh who turned

out to be a pretty good hockey player he was something else at 18 he was he was he was he was It was a good thing he was as big and strong as he was because Imlac played the hell out of him. He wanted him to win the scoring for a rookie in history sort of thing. And he did, I think, and played. Yeah, he called her and a lady bang. Yeah. So then they could draft from the rest of the league, so Imlack drafted me and he drafted Chackie off of L.A. So we lived together there. And his wife and mine got along well.

and we used to room together on the road, Chuck, you know, for three years. Nobody else had room with them, so they put me with them. What was it like going to L.A.? Oh, it was great, especially when, oh, to play there? It was just a general, I guess. It was great fun. Get this practice over with coach. You got a tea time. Yeah.

So you guys go practice and then hit the links. Oh, sure. Yeah, that was a great town, yeah. Wasn't, you weren't bored there. I went to Disneyland. I don't know how many times. everybody come down and visit and you had to take them to Disneyland, right? Yeah.

Yeah, back in the day. And so back then there would have been six in the Western Conference, six in the Eastern Conference? I don't know. I guess so, yeah. Would that, because you would have been, in L.A., you would have been playing all the expansion teams, right? Yeah, Minneapolis, St. Louis.

St. Louis. Frigg, that's a lot of travel. Yeah, it was. It was bad. Like we went on the road, these guys worried about traveling now, but we went on the road for three weeks at a time, play every other night, you know. Play 10 games in 21 days.

You must have had some shenanigans on the road trips. Being on the road for three weeks, a group of guys together like that? Well, yeah, you did, but you didn't. I mean, you had to play the games, and, you know, the body will only take so much. But, yeah. It, uh, and the,

Yeah, like you say in the travel. Mind you, I used to love, you mentioned, I used to love going back east playing in, you know, Boston and Toronto and Chicago where there was snow on the ground, and it was really, you know, that's what it was supposed to be. It was hockey weather, if you will, and I love that in those old rinks and that too. They were tough teams. And the Bruins, I played with some guys out of L.A.

that were scared to get off the plane in Boston. play against the Bruins, big bad Bruins back then. The Bruin fever. Yeah, I loved it. It was the way it should be back then. Yeah, anyway. Yeah, so from L.A., you're kind of doing a bouncing show here. Do you go to L.A. and then you get traded to Buffalo, or do you sign a Buffalo?

No, but that was expansion. So they had, each team could protect so many guys. Yeah. So I wasn't protected by L.A. So they picked me up off the L.A. roster. So it was just a draft sort of thing, eh, for the expansion teams. Just like Vegas was, everybody could protect only so many players, right? Yeah.

And then they were picked off the teams. Yeah. So back out east of Buffalo? Yeah. Were you excited about that? Um, yeah, probably, yeah. We, uh, that was good. We lived in, nobody knew anything about Buffalo.

So we all lived in, uh, summer homes, rented summer homes on, uh, on Lake Erie, over in Fort area, in Canadian side. We drove back and forth across the border every day, yeah. Yeah, got to know the border guard's pretty good then. Yeah. Yeah, it was, um, yeah, that was a little rink then. It only seated about 10, 5th. The next year they lifted the roof on it, put another 5th.

5,000 seats in it or whatever. But that first year they only had about 10,500. I think it was in that old auditorium, they call it, I think. And we did just pack house there? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so. It was pretty good. Buffalo, what's the best hot?

I mean, I'm going to assume Boston is the best hockey market you've ever played in. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. If you wiped off Boston, though, because, I mean, Boston is original six. It comes with all the history and everything else. And St. Louis, L.A., I mean, even yet in Cleveland, Emmington, what was the best place you played after? Oh, I don't know.

They were all had their, you know, specialties and their differences. It would, oh, I don't know. No, I really can't give you an answer on that one. They were all. They were all fun. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it depends. on the guys you were with, right?

And they were all good guys. And you soon got to know the rest of the team. And like wherever you ended up living, you'd drive in with one or two guys all the time. Yeah. And so you get to know them better than anybody else. Well, speaking of Buffalo, like we talked, Jill Bear Pruill, like you get to play with him then its first year in the NHL.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And he wins the Calder that year, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, he was unbelievable. He was a big man and he could skate quick as well as fast. I mean, he was quick. He was, oh, he was a great, great player, no question.

Speaking of quick and fast and big player, what do you think Connor McDavid now, or the guys they bring out with Sidney Crosby and the Vetchkin, the NHL now? Like, what's been the, since you played Skip, what do you think has been the biggest thing that's changed in the game? Oh, that's simple. I mean, you talk, everybody raves, and it's a sell job.

The NHL has to sell the game, and they talk about how much bigger, stronger, and faster the game is. Well, one of the reasons, and stop and think about this, one of the reasons it's a lot faster, and I mean, nobody's going to skate faster than Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey. But one of the reasons it's that fast is you can fire up. pass from your own goal line to the far blue line. Now think about that you don't have to slow down at the red line anymore. And that is a huge, huge, huge difference. To this day, I still think, oh, no good two line pass, but it's not. So away they go. And you stop and think about that. It's a humongous difference in the game and the speed of the game because you can, you know,

you just get going, the average guy at the blue line and sees it developing, and so he cranks it up over the red line. You couldn't do that. You had to slow down at the red line, right? Or it's a two-line pass. Nobody has to stick handle out of their own end anymore. Just fire the puck up two lines, right? I've talked a lot on this podcast with a lot of different guys about a rule change

or something they see that if they could like put in a rule or take out a rule, because a lot of the way hockey is going now, they're so worried about injuries and the speed and size and concussions and all these different things, do you think putting the red line back in would eliminate some of that because it would just slowed down the game? Well, it probably would. But I'd like to ask this question,

how many, comparatively speaking, how many more concussions are there nowadays, is it just because they pay attention, or are there that many more nowadays than there were back when there were no helmets? There was a lot more respect for the game. Back in my day, you never saw anybody very, very seldom run a guy from behind.

Or do dirty. I mean, it just really didn't happen. And, you know, these kids grew up now. I mean, you put face masks and helmets on them at six years old, and they push the other guy into the boards. He falls face first into the boards, gets up, skates away. He doesn't get hurt, right? Well, that continues on. You think about it.

That continues on right through hockey, into junior, into the pros, into college, whatever. That helmet is a false security. And, I mean, you just think about it. and I'll argue that point. And one of the big things, another huge thing, is the instigator rule for fighting. I mean, a guy runs your teammate from behind, so you go after him, drop the gloves and give it to them, as it should be. I mean, and you get an extra two minutes. That's why guys don't do it.

I mean, that's just asinine, my way of thinking. I mean, that would just keep everything more honest. I can remember playing junior. We had an all-star team play against the Czechs back in 1960, whatever year. And they came over, and they never fought, right, in Europe. While there was more stick spearing in that kind of bullshit than you could imagine in that game. And, I mean, you want to hurt something.

somebody stick a stick in his spleen. You know, it's a lot more dangerous than a fist of the nose, I would say. But what do I know? It's just my opinion, but I don't think there's any question about it. It's, uh, there's not the respect of, of players and all these head hits. And, and about two-thirds of these head hits, the guy that gets hit, the guy that gets hit, it should get a penalty for being stupid. Because they go blind, their head playing with their head down. I mean, it's a body contact game, figure it out. And that's also from growing up with not having to worry about it.

I mean, think about it. There's a whole lot of truth to that. Do you think there's any way they could ever go back that way? Oh, not with the lawyers involved. There is nowadays. no way, insurance companies, and hell no, no way. It's just like, no, no way in the world that ever happened. So where do you think hockey's going then?

I don't even want to think about it. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, they, you know, I get in a lot of trouble if I said what I really think. But, no, it's way different, boy, way different. Yeah. So you get to play, you were showing me a couple different team pictures. And one of them you were talking about was the Salt Lake Eagles, Golden Eagles? Salt Lake City Golden Eagles.

So is that your first, you go from playing. Buffalo. Buffalo, and that becomes their. No, they just had a working agreement. It was an independently owned team, but they had a working agreement. Buffalo had a team sponsored in the American League, and Joe Crozier was the coaching general manager in where the hell was it, Providence or wherever. And Al Rawlins was the coaching general manager out in Salt Lake,

and I had a great respect for Al. He was a totally class guy, and Imlack gave me the, choice. So I said, I ain't playing for Crozier. And they went to Salt Lake City. And what were you saying about their jerseys? Oh, that's the only, only uniform that has stripes up and down, you know, like all the socks have stripes around. Yeah, yeah, all through the pants, all the way down to the socks. Down the sleeve, down the inside of the sweater, down your pants, down your socks, so. Yeah. So you played there for one year then? Yeah, just one year.

And then the world hockey came into existence. When we were talking a little bit about this off there, what was it like having an rival league start up and then going to the rival league? It was the most exciting times of any hockey players at all. We were like 26, 27, 28 years old back in those days. And, you know, we had some more years to play. So you're putting your career on the line.

I mean, Cheever's and Bobby Holland, those guys, they would have, you know, got a job back in the NHL, but the rest of us, we'd been lucky to play in the American League. And so it was really exciting. I mean, we put our whole life on the line, if you will, as far as hockey goes, and it was extremely exciting. Nobody knew if that league would ever go, you know, whatever gets started, never mind finish. And so it was pretty exciting times. So we made the decision to do it. It was quite a decision, actually.

Imlack actually phoned me at home. I was at my folks place in North Battleford. I actually phoned me at home and said, whatever they're offering you, I'll match it, Skip. And I said, well, punch, I couldn't play for you last year. And I had a hell of a training camp, too. Should have been there. But anyway, that's another story.

But I said, sorry, Punch, but couldn't play for you last year. How the hell am I going to play for you this year? So, jam it. So I went to Cleveland, played for the Crusaders. What was that like? Awesome. It was great. Good guys.

And we had Jerry Chevers was the key. He was our goaltender, and he was the key because he was the, basically, Coach, we had a great coach, Bill Needham, great guy. But Cheesy ran the team as far as players go and whatever he said we did. And best team guy you'll ever, best team guy you'll ever play with, Jerry. He didn't care of playing with Boston. He didn't care if he won one nothing or 10 to 9. It didn't matter to him.

As long as you won, he wasn't worried about his goals against average. And so he brought everybody together and everybody, you know, gathered around him. And it was an awesome team. We had, well, actually, I had a lot to do with it too because I tore my knee up 18 games into the season. So I was out four months of the day. So what do you do, right? Well, I nominated myself Social Director and we had the greatest parties you could imagine. I even organized.

You figure this one out. Cleveland, Ohio, I organized a sleigh ride for the whole team, girls, kids, everybody. Oh, it was a great year. Other than I only played a few games, but no. No, it was good in Cleveland just because of cheesy.

And Paul Schmeer was a big part of it too. He was the muscle. And I was a player, rep actually and go to to player rep meetings and we'd decide what was what and I come back and tell the team talk to Cheesy and Schmeersmo and say okay

so they'd have a team meeting and say whatever Skip says we're doing boys so that's how they ran it cheese and schmierzy they ran the team and it was really good situation so what would you decide on the players meetings what was coming down the pipe

from those? Old business stuff yeah yeah Yeah, every day-to-day crap. Yeah, what owners wanted to tell you and what you wanted to do. Yep. You'd said, you know, like the WHA coming in was a big thing for hockey players because they paid more. Oh, it was the biggest thing that ever happened to hockey. It was just absolutely no question about it.

And the NHL to this day still doesn't like to talk about it much, but they mention it every now and then, the WHA, but not very often. But the truth of the matter is there was three guys in all the NHL making $100 grand or more. Everybody else was making less than $100,000. Well, that summer, Amo Francis, General Manager of New York Rangers, signed eight guys that over 200,000. Now think about that. You're making 70 or 80,

and all of a sudden you're making 2.10 or whatever. And everybody, everybody, at least doubled, if not tripled their salaries from the year before. And then some guys like Holland, those guys made millions. But, boy, it was the best thing, absolutely the best thing. They had, I mean, when it was just the NHL, That was it. You had, like I signed with Imlack, he threw the contract across the desk and said,

here's what you're getting. I said, oh, thanks very much. What are you going to do? If you didn't like it, you were in the minors or whatever. And no negotiation, no agents or anything back then. And that's just when it all started, all the agents. And the real negotiating started. and the NHL had to come up with some money then

or guys were jumping left, right and center to the World Hockey. So it was no question the best thing that had ever happened to a hockey player. Now, it's just about the pendulum, has almost swung too far to the players association, but it's still good. I say good on them. You want to make, they want to give you $10 million, take it, kid, because he doesn't last all that long.

good on the players i say and and the league itself now betman will tell you how many billions it's worth and and uh you know these franchises went from 70 80 million to who knows how many million now well they're they're charging Seattle i think it's 600 million in the league yeah exactly right and Vegas i believe it was 500 million yeah that's a lot of lot of, that's a lot of dough just to get your name in the ring now. So if the players aren't making it, where's that money going? It's going in the owner's pocket, right? Which is nothing wrong with that.

I mean, without the owners, you wouldn't have a league. You wouldn't have franchises. I say let the rich get richer, but let's, you know, guys that are making you the money, take care of them too. No different than business. I mean, the guys that, you know, fountain tire, it wasn't for tire busters. the world would come to a stop if you think about it. Yeah, absolutely.

Yep. You betcha. So the last one I want to talk about in your playing days is the Emmington Oilers. What was that like coming home? Oh, it was great. They paid for my move back here. No, I knew quite a few of the guys. I'd played with before.

And, I mean, Johnny Rogers was there, and Bigel Hamilton I played with. before quite a few guys. Yeah. And Edmonton is very familiar. My wife went to nursing school there, and to this day has some great friends there from her school days of nursing. And, you know, we, it was pretty darn familiar to us. It was great. Yeah.

Was Claire Drake your coach that year? Claire. Yeah. Yeah. He was. Well, he's like. He didn't last all that long. In hockey, Lord, he's one of the.

or the talked about is one of the... Oh, that's an amazing story, how he couldn't handle those goofs that played for the Oilers. And I was one of them. He just couldn't seem to relate to those guys somehow. And he had... He was way too smart or way too technical

or way too something because, you know, he was using all these fancy plays and stuff. But it was just, I don't know, he just couldn't relate somehow, Claire. And he's a, I mean, pretty... of a guy, there's no classier person on God's Green Earth than Claire. And while his coaching career speaks for itself. Speaks for itself, absolutely.

Right. I think my favorite, nobody better. I think my favorite stat of him was, I think it's in 1967. He was the only coach ever to win a hockey and a football final in the same year. Yeah, think about that. Right? Like that's... I mean, that's how smart he was.

You know, to know the ins and outs of both those games, boy was, yeah. And he was a great guy too. Yeah. And wife was a fine lady. It was too bad. But a lot of guys give a lot of credit to Claire.

Coaches in the NHEL for what he taught them over the years. Yeah. Hitchcock's won. Yeah, well, Hitchcock talks a lot about it with the Oilers here, about all that he taught and learned from Claire. Exactly.

And I know Bob, Stoffer on 630 chat all the time brings it up too. Yeah. What do you think of Ken Holland coming to Amundon? Well, I know some guys that know him personally, and every one of them speak extremely high of them, and say he's an extremely bright guy, and, yeah, totally dedicated. I mean, he's got to be good, no question. I mean, you can't, how many guys last 20 years in general manager? Hell on any part of the pro team.

That's right. So he's got a, you know, was you got three Stanley Cups or something in that time. Yeah, no, it's the best thing that they ever did in Oilerville, probably for a long time. Yeah, no, I think it's going to be a very good thing. He's got a lot of work to do, but I'm sure he'll get it done. Do you ever go back now for alumni events anywhere? Oh, yeah. We have a regular breakfast or luncheon last Friday of every month.

And that's in Eminton. Yeah, in Edmonton. I drive up for it as often as I can. So I get up there three or four or five times a winter. Yeah. Yeah, keep in touch with the boys. How about Boston or anything over there? No, no, haven't been.

That's the only problem with this country. I've always said that. It's just too damn big, too many miles in between. But, no, I haven't been to any of those. I got some fun questions. We've been going for an hour and 16 minutes. Not that long. And I've been trying to pull some...

And I haven't even had a beer yet for them to say. Well, grab yourself a beer. We've got nothing with time. No, no, no. I'm too serious for that. Everybody we're going to listen to this will know that that's the truth. I'm way too serious to be drinking and talking. Well, if you got stories you want to kick out, Skipper, you just let them go,

because I know that's what everybody's waiting for is some wild stories. No wild stories. I was a serious player. Yeah, well, you put up amazing numbers in Juner. That's still, you know, when you talk about numbers, like that's 100 some points in 62 games, 64 games. That was pretty good in my day. Yeah, I wouldn't mind turn the clock back.

Do it all over again. Yeah, I don't have any regrets, really. No, I'd do her again, absolutely. If you had a time machine and you could go to any sporting event to witness it first time, where would you go? Popped into my head, Kentucky Derby. Super Bowl Um

Any specific You're thinking You show me a picture Of Secretariat on your wall Would that be the one you go back to? Oh that would be something Yeah See him

Follow him for the For the Why don't you tell the story Of your picture of secretary On the wall You and you and Chevers went And Well yeah

We were in Cleveland at the time And So what year Would that have been 70 three, four, five, whatever. And Secretary had just won the

Triple Crown. And very fortunately Woodbine Toronto Racetrack got him to run in the Queen's Plate the last race he ever ran. And Jerry Chevers

was, he had several good race horses himself at one time. and was very active in actually he started Jerry used to walk when he was a kid walked the hots at Fort Erie racetrack when he was a kid but anyway he had lots of good connections and racing and so he said do you want to come up and watch the queen's plate and I said you bet you so diana and I jumped in their car and we drove up there and watch secretary at run his very last race. And that was something.

We were right down to paddock and could almost reach out and touch that. He was I think he was 17 hands high, which is tall. And he was red. They called him Big Red, and he was red. It was gorgeous. And I swear he leaned over and gave me a nod.

And said, hello, he was that kind of personality. He was just unbelievable that horse. But that was, uh, that was. It was a great day. Yeah, watch him. He was head and shoulders or head and neck over anybody else for sure. Yeah, well, that's probably the most storied horse in history. Yeah, definitely.

If you were going into a game seven to win the Stanley Cup and you could have one player dress with you to come play that game, who would you want in your dress, you know? Can it be anyone from any point in time, any one player? Yeah, people that I know a little bit, Bobby Orr, it'd have to be won. Cheezy at the time, I'd take him in goal for sure. He was the best back then. He was the best money goaltender in the game, period.

Whoever was still was playing at that time, he was the best. And you've got to, I mean, I played against some guys like you got to, you've got to have you know that would control the game more than anybody would be gorty how yeah

I mean there wasn't much gorty couldn't do so you've just you've just created the biggest all-star team and probably the history of the game yeah and then the oilers

I mean the oilers had a great team and Gretz and the boys they had about six guys that were world-class players on that team but what and I don't think they get nearly enough credit,

but the supporting cast the Oilers had in those days, like Charlie Huddy and those guys, they were almost world-class if they weren't. I mean, the supporting cast they had, Davy Hunter, Lumley, those little burger, and, I mean, they could all play. And Big Davey Semenko, bless his soul. Yeah.

Yeah, but, no, there's some great, great players. What age did you retire, and what finally was the deciding factor to retire? Well, I came to the Oilers, and I only played 40 games for them. I got hit in warm-ups, if you can believe it, behind the knee, and it killed the nerve in the back of my leg that controlled muscles down to my foot, and I had dropped foot for six months. It's still not totally there, it's probably 90% back. to normal, but I had to quit playing. I couldn't skate anymore. Seventy-six, I guess that was. Yeah,

19706. Yeah, I got hit in the back of the leg, killed the nerve, and that was that. Went to work for a living. Is that when you start with Fountain Tower? No, Foster Sports Center back then. Foster Sports Center? Yeah. Isn't that where Shep started too? That's where we work together. Shep and I, you betcha. I got partners with Foster, and we started, well, close to where he is downtown. We had a sporting goods store, and then we opened a Marine Center out where the Wayside Inn is, where Tim Hortons is there. Yeah.

We had a Marine Center there. And I'll throw this out there. Good old Pierre Trudeau did the same thing. It is no good rotten kid is doing. right now, wrecking the oil patch in the West, and we had to close the doors before we lost our shirts back in the 80s, and the guy's name was Trudeau that did that to us out west, and the guy's name was Trudeau was doing it to us right now. And if we don't get rid of him, we may as well move to, oh, I don't know, Barbados or someplace. Yeah. But yeah, came back, went to work at Foster

Sports Center. I was partners with Bill Foster for 13 years or whatever it was. Yep. And then that's when I went to work for the Oilers. I managed their four stores in the malls back in 89 to 95, 96, and that's when I got involved. Oh, I went into marketing with the Oilers. That's how that came down. That's how I got involved with Fountain Tyre. I went into marketing with the Oilers, and that was the bloody year the lockout came along. So we couldn't work for, I don't know how long it was, two, three months, whatever it was. And going into the office every day. And Davy Semenko was also working there.

And we shared a big office. And we'd go in there and drink coffee all day long. Don't tell anybody it was smoke cigarettes. And a guy by the name of Rick. cool, was VP of Goodyear for Western Canada, played old-timers with us on Thursday nights, and he'd asked me a couple of times to come to work for Goodyear. I said, nah, I'm happy where I am.

And then finally, asked me one more time, phoned me at the office house. He said, you're coming to work for me? I said, yep. And I phoned Slats. I said, slats, I'm out of here. He says, you are? He said, yep.

I said, I'm going to work for Goodyear. He says, is that a good thing? I said, I have no idea. And that was the end of the Oilers for me. And I went to work for Goodyear. And then that's the summer that Fountain Tire partnered up with Goodyear and took over all their stores in Edmonton, all the Goodyear stores that are now Fountain Tire stores.

So I went from store to store because they brought in all their young managers. And I helped out their young managers in a store or three. and then 97 or whatever it got busier and heck here and so head office asked me if I'd like to come back here and my folks were still alive then and I was coming back here anyway every other weekend and I said sure

and so the rest is history I worked behind the counter at the old store and then they built the new one out here and then Kent Staniforth took over and I sucked it up and kept working for him, which isn't easy to do, but I knew he needed my help, so I stayed on with him,

and the rest is history. We've had a fun time the whole time. You bet you. All right on. Well, I'll leave you with one last one. I do this little game with everybody. It's called trade. You got to trade one guy.

You got to sign one guy. you got to buy out one guy. And we can either do it for your beloved Boston Bruins. I can give you three players from now that you got to do that to, or I can do it for the hometown Oilers. Which would you prefer? I don't know enough of these players anymore, but, oh, it doesn't matter. Go the Oilers.

Okay. So I did, let's go, they're up-and-comers. They've got three draft picks over the last three years that were first rounder, or not first overall, but first rounders. Evan Bouchard, Colliery Yamamoto, and Yassi Puli R.V. You got to buy one of those out, trade one of them, and sign one of them. Well, I don't know, I trade the little guy. What's his name?

Yamamoto. Yeah, I think I'd trade him. I don't see a lot of future. Now, Pooley Arvi, I got a feeling somewhere I have no reason to think this way. way, but I got to think, as soon as you trade him, he's going to be a great player, because everybody wanted him at one time. But that's all I know about him. So sign him, I say, and treat him right, leave him, which Holland might do,

leave him in Bakersfield for a year. And then who's the other guy? Bouchard, that's their up-and-coming defense. Oh, that kid. Oh, I really like him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You might have to sign him instead. Yeah, I'd sign him, New York Minute.

Yeah, so sign him, and that means you got to buy out, Pilly Arby. Oh, yeah, well, okay, such is life. Well, I really appreciate you. Let me come over, Skip, and sit with you for an hour here, and relive some old stories with you. It's been a lot of fun. Well, it was my privilege, young man, and I appreciate you even remembering my name,

and that's cool. It's all good stuff. And good to reminisce every now and then as long as you don't do it too much. That's right. Well, thanks again, Skip, and I really appreciate you coming on. We'll do it again someday

when we got a couple of days with nothing to do. Sounds good. Thanks, Skip. Well, guys, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Skip is your a unique individual. He's got some cool stories and just comes from a different time in hockey, which is really cool to hear from him. Next week, I'm on the road.

I take the podcast to Unity, Saskatchen to sit with a 94-year-old Cy Campbell. So we're going to do a little bit something different next week. It's going to stray away from the hockey theme that we've been running with here for a while. But next week is Cy Campbell. He's originally from Zelandia, Saskatchewan. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at the age of 19 and by 20. was a rear gunner and a Lancaster bomber in World War II. Cy the Eternal Optimus always says his most memorable lesson he ever learned is to be happy when you go to work.

He's seen things change such as the horse and buggy all the way to the Model T and sending rockets to space. To this day, he still remains an active part of his community, sits in the Legion, a part of the board, singing in the church choir, and even hit a hole in one last year at the young age of 93. So I look forward to hearing some life lessons from Cy Campbell. I'm sure that's going to be a treat. So tune in next week when I have Cy Campbell on. Until then, guys.