Clark Wendel - Bleeding blue: giving my all for the game

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Clark, Wendel, 1966, author

Bleeding blue : giving my all for the game / Wendel Clark.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-5011-3598-9 (hardback).ISBN 978-1-5011-4651-0 (html)

1. Clark, Wendel, 1966. 2. Hockey playersCanadaBiography.

I. Title.

GV848.5.C557A3 2016 796.962092 C2016-902671-X

C2016-902672-8

Interior design by Lewelin Polanco

Jacket design by Elizabeth Whitehead

Jacket photograph Bruce Bennett / Getty

Back jacket photo Ron Bull / Getty

ISBN 978-1-5011-3598-9

ISBN 978-1-5011-4651-0 (ebook)

To my family; Kelvington, Saskatchewan; and fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

O n the morning of October 9, 1986, I was walking along Carlton Street towards Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a perfect fall morning in Toronto. It felt like a great day to play hockey. As I entered the Gardens, the noise of the street fell away, and the peace and quiet of the empty arena settled over me. I made my way to the dressing room, grabbed my sticks and a roll of tape, and then headed up into the empty stands for my usual game-day routine. I sat there looking out over the ice, slowly taping my stick and thinking through what that night would bring. I was trying hard to keep myself calm, but I had a lot on my mind. We were getting ready to face Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens in the first game of my second pro season, and whenever we played Montreal, it was a special night. Toronto versus Montreal was as good as it got. It was always easy to get excited for those games, even more so when they were the home opener.

After the morning skate, I went home for some downtime and my typical pregame meal. I usually ate pasta and chicken. Over the course of an eighty-game season, though, that could get pretty repetitive, so sometimes I would change it up and have something like steak and potatobasically some starch and a piece of meat, and I was good to go. Back in 1986, I wasnt as concerned about having a perfect diet as todays players are.

After my meal, followed by a nap, I was ready to go. By four oclock I was back at the rink, and my mind was already starting to get into game mode. The Habs were the defending Stanley Cup champions that year, and we all knew that if Patrick Roy was on his game that night, wed have a tough time getting the puck past him.

In my mind, there was no better way to start the season than with a challenge like that. Not only was it an Original Six matchup in an iconic arena, but the energy in the building just before the game was incredible, as it always was. As is traditional for a Maple Leafs home opener, the 48th Highlanders marched out onto the ice to ring in the start of the new season in Toronto. The bagpipes and drums filled the arena, and as the music and noise from the fans rumbled through my chest, I couldnt wait to hit the ice. The crowd was rabid that night, as they were hoping we could beat the team that had just won the Cup. It must have been a big night, because a few of the boys even spotted John Candy sitting in the crowd. John was a big Leafs fan and went to a lot of our games.

We definitely fed off the energy at the Gardens that night, and we came out flying. Any Montreal fans there were disappointed as we won the game 74. Tom Fergus scored a hat trick, and the crowd was really rocking. In the third period, I scored a goal from the top of the circle, beating Roy to the far post. Roy got so pissed off after I scored that he threw his stick away. The boys were in a great mood in the dressing room after the game that night, and the whole city was energized. The next day, the story of our win over the Habs was on the front page of the Toronto Star .

Two nights later, the Buffalo Sabres were in town to face us in a Saturday-night matchup on Hockey Night in Canada . That morning, I hopped into my car and drove from my apartment on Madison Avenue down to Maple Leaf Gardens for our game-day skate. In my first year with the Leafs, I hadnt been old enough to sign for a lease on a car by myself, so my agent, Don Meehan, had rented me a grey four-door Plymouth Caravelle. Not exactly a hot car for a rookie. But in my second season, I had a sponsorship deal with a local dealership, so I cruised down Bloor Street that morning in a blue Oldsmobile Delta 88.

Because wed played the night before, our skate that morning was pretty light, and afterwards I had time to make my way over to the bistro beside the Gardens for breakfast. The ladies there had the toast I likedclassic toasted Wonder Bread, with peanut butterso it was my go-to breakfast stop. The ladies who ran the grill also would have soup and sandwiches for lunch, so it goes without saying that I was also in there a lot after practices.

After a few hours at home and another nap, it was back to the rink. It was a Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada , and we would be facing the Buffalo Sabres. As I entered the Gardens, I could already feel the air in the place starting to buzz. We would need that energy, tooplaying the Sabres was never easy for us. We tried everything to beat them, changing things up each time to try to find a setup that workedtaking the bus to Buffalo early, taking the bus there late, staying over in Buffalo, coming home right after the gamebut it didnt matter what we did; Buffalo always seemed to have our number.

As I walked into the dressing room, I checked the board and saw that I would be playing with Russ Courtnall and Gary Leeman that night. They called us the Hound Line because all three of us, at one time or another, had played with the Notre Dame Hounds in Saskatchewan. Russ and I had actually played on the same midget team together in 1982, so every time we were on the ice together, we knew exactly what the other guy was doing and where he would be. Gary had been a couple of years ahead of us, but he was an incredible all-around athlete and his skills made us all better players.

I sat down at my locker, and before I did anything else, I picked up my classic red Titan TPM stick and started to tape it up for the evenings game. I was particular about what stick I used; my stick and my skates were my tools, my weapons, when I was on the ice, and to make sure I got the most out of them, I had to treat them just so. I started with the butt end, where I would do ten to fifteen wraps of the one-inch-thick tape. Then I taped the blade of the stick from heel to toe. I normally used black tape, but I felt like changing things up that night, so I chose white tape.

As far as getting my skates ready, that wasnt nearly as complicated. I didnt like sharp skates. I found that if they were too sharp or had too big a hollow between the edges of my skate blades, my legs would get tired from working too hard. The trainers knew that, so they knew to sharpen my skates only every two or three games. I would do a pregame skate, and if they felt good, I didnt sharpen them for the game. I figured there was no point messing around with a good thing.