Mike Kerwick - Tales from the New Jersey Devils Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Devils Stories Ever Told

TALES FROM THE

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

LOCKER ROOM

TALES FROM THE

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

LOCKER ROOM

A COLLECTION OF THE GREATEST
DEVILS STORIES EVER TOLD

GLENN CHICO RESCH
WITH MIKE KERWICK

Copyright 2007, 2011 by Glenn Resch and Mike Kerwick

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61321-003-1

Printed in the United States of America

To John, Jackie, and the entire McMullen family, for bringing professional hockey to
New Jersey and adding a warm, personal touch to the Devils experience.

-Chico Resch

To Mom, who did not yell when her little boy stomped on her old Beatles LPs, rolled
cans across her kitchen floor, and told her he was going to be a sportswriter.
And to Dad, who taught me that a bowl of ice cream,
like the human spirit, truly has no limits.

-Mike Kerwick

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

When?

Promise to write a book and you start hearing that question a lot. Hockey fans who endure an NHL lockout will want to know when your book will hit shelves. Friends who get wind of the project will want to know when they can get autographed copies.

Now that its here, in your hands, theres a long list of people who deserve credit.

John Quinn of the Philadelphia Inquirer, former sports editor at the Asbury Park Press, initially gave the green light on this project. Eric Girard was kind in dispensing days off after New Jerseys 2003-04 season ended. Greig Henderson and Barbara Jaeger are two of the best people to work for in the newspaper business.

Dean Reinke pitched this idea to us during the 2003-04 season. Laura Podeschi and jennine Crucet, two of the editors who worked on this book at Sports Publishing, were unfailingly patient as the puzzle came together.

Holly Resch is a talented artist. She provided all of the cartoons that appear in this book.

Mike Levine, Jeff Altstadter, Pete Albietz, Erica Luthman, and Dan Beampast and present members of the New Jersey Devils communications departmentroutinely put together a great media guide. The 2003-04 guide was an invaluable resource during the writing process.

Wendy McCreary of the National Hockey League Alumni Association was a big help when it came to tracking down former Devils.

Jack Falla provided inspiration when it was desperately needed. Debbie Waldeyer and Tom Gulitti (The Record), Mike Doc Emrick and Stan Fischler (Fox Sports), Matt Loughlin (WFAN), John Hennessy, and Aaron Richardson did their best to keep this project under their hats while it was still a work in progress.

Our families supported us from day one. Thanks to Diane and Holly Resch; thanks to Michael, Eileen, Jeff, and Brooke Kerwick.

The Hoboken Public Library offered a quiet, air-conditioned sanctuary where a writer could hammer out page after page on a laptop.

But the lions share of gratitude goes out to the players, coaches, scouts, executives, and others who took the time to return a phone call or sit down in the locker room and relay their stories. Every one offered something original, something interesting. We cant thank you enough.

Introduction

AFTER CALLING ME TO HIS SIDE, John McMullen steadied himself on my arm and walked me over to a wall on the far end of his room.

Lets see if you know your history, he said.

On the wall, McMullen had hung small black-and-white photos of United States presidents. Each photo was taken on the opening day of a Major League Baseball season. Each one had a shot of the president of the United States throwing out the first ball.

McMullen, former owner of the Houston Astros and the New Jersey Devils, wanted me to identify every president on his wall.

I stumbled through the first few. Chico rushed over to help, but by then I had discovered a trick. Most of the prints were in chronological order. If I didnt recognize a presidents face, at least I could fake my way through it.

Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter

Once I hit Nixon, I was in the clear.

Ronald Reagan George Bush Bill Clinton

That pleasant afternoon inside his Montclair home was the last time I talked to McMullen. He died on September 16, 2005. He was 87.

People like McMullenpeople who were not only willing to talk about their time with the Devils, but who were also willing to open their lives to a loveable goalie and a young writer with a tape recordermade this book a pleasure to write. Detroit Red Wings head coach Dave Lewis invited us into his office at Joe Louis Arena. Mike Kitchen called the morning he was named head coach of the St. Louis Blues. Scott Gomez and Martin Brodeur, two of the best storytellers in the Devils locker room, offered memorable anecdotes. Tom McVie had us scribbling down notes as fast as we could and laughing hard while we waited for a flight at Newark Airport.

And Chico, one of the great guys in all of hockey, made it all come together.

I was four years old when the Devils moved to New Jersey, 17 when they won their first Stanley Cup title, 25 when I began covering the team for the Asbury Park Press. Most of the stories on the pages that follow happened long before I took my first cautious steps into the Devils red-carpeted locker room as a sportswriter.

Chico was there from the beginning, first as a player, then as a broadcaster. If he didnt know the exact details of a story, he knew somebody who did.

Theres a saying in hockey that a team is only as good as its goalie. Thats great news for this book: Chicos an all-star goalie, an even better person.

Mike Kerwick

June 10, 2007

TALES FROM THE

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

LOCKER ROOM

OUR STORY BEGINS

THE STORY OF THE NEW JERSEY DEVILS does not begin at the Meadowlands, the old practice facility in Totowa, or at the offices of Dr. John McMullen.

It begins in a suburb of Denver. It begins on a sidewalk that leads out the back entrance of the old Colorado Rockies training facility. It begins in a trailer.

I knew we wouldnt be staying in Colorado long when I saw the trailer. The Rockies had been cutting corners, tightening their purse strings more and more with each passing day. The latest victim was our locker room at the training facility.

Wheres our dressing room? one of the boys asked the first day that preseason.

It s out the back door, came the reply.

Forty feet out, there it was: a square trailer home without wheels. The inside of the trailer had been gutted. We got changed in the kitchen, hung our coats in the living room, and stored hockey equipment in the bedroom.