Doug Smith - Goon: Memoir of a Minor League Hockey Enforcer

Second edition

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

All photographs are from the authors collections.

This is a revised and updated edition of Goon: The True
Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey
(Baltimore: PublishAmerica, 2002).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-3031-1

2018 Doug Steele Smith and Adam Vincent Frattasio. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Doug Smith sporting a black eye as a member of the Moncton Hawks hockey team during the 19931994 AHL season (authors collection)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To all those who dont have everything it takes,
but do it anyway.

All of the events, characters, names, and nicknames depicted in this book are factual with deference to my memory and the recollection of others. The one slight exception made in the interest of literary ease was Gator, which is a composite character covering the actions of co-author Adam Frattasio and his brother, Jon Fin Frattasio.

I owe many of my experiences in the pro hockey world to the friendship and selflessness of Sean Commander Coady, who took me under his wing and opened doors that would otherwise have remained locked.

Eugene Geno Binda was also kind enough to take a flyer out and help me realize my goal to work in a pro hockey game as a linesman. I had a dream of getting into a fight with a player while wearing the zebra shirt, but I suppose it was a good thing I left the profession before giving Binda that kind of black eye.

Former Hanover High School hockey players Paul Keating and Brian Hennessey offered themselves up to me as personal punching bags during my early days of practice on rented ice. While there were many folks who provided their services as sparring partners, this pair allowed me to hit them full force. Sorry, guys.

Before Mike Kuzzy Kuzmich joined Steve Plaskon on the ice, where both worked to convince Brian Carroll to bring me back down to the Carolina Thunderbirds for my rookie season, he took the tedious time back home to teach me such skating basics as leaning into a turn and crossing over. What an embarrassment.

I also bow to NHL scout Paul Merritt. I dont know what the hell he was thinking when he recommended me to the Thunderbirds for a tryout, but I thank him nonetheless. I likewise salute player agents Brian Cook and Jay Fee, men of their words who not only didnt throw away my name and phone number but used them to get me into a few different uniforms over the years.

After I had established myself as an aspiring minor-leaguer, the manager of the Quincy Youth Hockey Arena, Bev Reinhart, gave Frank Derwin a nod of approval to open the rink for me every weekday morning so I could work on my skating free of charge and without anybody around to laugh at me. Pro shop steward Bill Red Skinner sharpened my skates gratis and supplied me with everything else I happened to need.

Allegiance should be paid to all youth groups, programs, and operators for their largely volunteer and thankless efforts. My particular kudos goes to the Hanover Police Boys Club, retired detective Thomas Hayes, and former chief of police the late John Lingley. Their passionate work to build and sustain the Boys Club since its incorporation in 1977 has helped guide many Hanover children and keep them busy over the years. My involvement with the Boys Club and the police officers I came into contact with there are the reasons I am a police officer today.

Robert Sylvia, long-time coach of the Quincy High hockey team and a member of the Massachusetts High School Coaches Hall of Fame, had the nerve to put me on his summer roster for play in the Pro-Am Hockey League. I can only imagine how many people snickered and sneered at him for that move, which led to my first season as a pro in the East Coast Hockey League.

Roberts brother, Jim Sylvia, another no-brainer choice for the states Hall of Fame, also cut firmly across the grain when he took me on as his assistant coach for the Hanover High School hockey team in 1990. I dont dare admit to having much of anything to do with it, but I had a grand old time standing on the bench in the Fleet Center cheering my Hanover Indians on to three state championships during my 20 years wearing the blue and gold.

Any new kid on the block needs a helping hand to fit in and Donna Fowler volunteered to be my surrogate mom for a while when I first settled into Winston-Salem with the T-Birds. Likewise, Patrick Hoppy Dunn and his dad, Cecil, opened their home and hearts to me during my stay in New Brunswick with the Miramichi Gagnon Packers. While I was there, Bernie Williams filled my gullet on a regular basis at the good old Hi-Lo Tavern. I am so grateful and fortunate to have visited one last time, to see my friend Hoppy, The Voice of Miramichi, for a roast in his honor a year before his untimely passing. See you again down the road, pal.

Substantial color and insight for the book was provided through in-person, long-distance telephone, and Internet conversations with Bill and Lisa Whitfield, Brock Kelly, Greg Neish, Brian Carroll, Greg Batters, Grant The Otter Ottenbreit, Jacques The Mailman Mailhot, Scott Allen, Rock Derganc, Dave Gushue, Chris Hampton, Ira Rubenstein, Wayne Bernard, Darwin McCutcheon, Bev Bawn, Jukka Suutari, Bruce Wensink, Ryan VandenBussche, Nick Vitucci, Richie Lovell, and sadly, the late Darren Miciak, who passed away far too soon on January 4, 2013, at the age of 47. Their contributions reinforced, added, brought a different perspective to, or otherwise shook free information that had previously remained dormant or swamped in the further recesses of my mind.

A huge thank you to Brian Fisher of JPI Communications, Inc., out of Dieppe, New Brunswick, who was good enough to grant a request I made of him before my first AHL game in Moncton. He went above and beyond with his video camera by keying on me during my first period shifts and in the process very clearly and professionally captured my ample beating at the stone fists of Frank The Animal Bialowas.

Because Adam and I are basically a pair of dumb jocks with severe limitations on the use of proper English grammar, Doug Flynn, a Syracuse University graduate and former Boston Bruins beat writer, was invaluable as an initial editor.

Additional research for this book, including histories of various Double-A hockey leagues and literally all of the statistical referencesno, you dont understand, I mean literally all of the statistical referenceswere made possible by Ralph Slates incredible Internet Hockey Database (www.hockeydb.com/). It is the most inclusive and thorough work of its kind on the planet and an easy way for any hockey nut to kill four or five hours.

Many former players inspired me before and during my journey into minor-league hockey, but Paul Stewart always stood as my model of a guy who substituted heart and grit for what he may have lacked in ability. My pal John Olsens 1982 interview with Paul Le Chat Stewart is one I have memorized word for word.