Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Giving Mas Golf, Stanley Cup Grit, Tretiak’s Tutelage & Life After Hockey | Ed Belfour | Ep 263

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Giving Mas Golf, Stanley Cup Grit, Tretiak’s Tutelage & Life After Hockey | Ed Belfour | Ep 263 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The the ticket colon. Nothing but a big jerk off set. Is this a cool night or what? I wish somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back. Hey. So I've been watching the when I was home for a month, the last month with mom and dad, they watch the blue jays all the time. Oh, really? Yeah. And so I was watching baseball a lot. And I noticed the catchers, they put their glove up, then they put it on the ground. That's a new thing. What what's going on? I I don't understand it. You know, I was watching baseball myself last night, and I noticed that once again. And it is a new thing going on in the game right now that I don't know the whys and wherefores of it. Yeah. I I saw multiple catchers doing that. Yes. Yes. They're all doing it. I would think it would be distracting. I would think it would be too. Pitcher. I mean, I thought the pitcher was supposed to look at the mid and focus on it and Yeah. Try to locate the ball there. That's But instead, he shows it and then gets it down. Right. And then I even saw the catcher miss a ball go by his head because his hand was down there and then he couldn't get it up quick enough. So where's the sense in that? These are new times, Ed. I wish I had a good answer for you, but I just don't. Yeah. I used to play catcher. So Oh, you did? Yeah. Were you good? Kinda went along with being a goalie. Right? I guess it did. I guess that was a pretty logical progression, wasn't it? It was. Did you like playing catcher? I did. You got used to the gear and everything? Yeah, that wasn't a problem. Yeah. So, how did you go from catcher to goalie? Is it just a matter of going from a warm weather sport to a winter sport and. Yeah. You need a goalie and. That was it. Raise raise your hands and I used to play, I played catcher. Yeah. That's how we did. You know, you had six months of freezing weather. So, we played hockey all winter or curling, right? We have curling. And then summer came, and we all played baseball together. And then I started playing golf when I was about 12. We started playing golf at 12? Yeah. About that. Yeah. And I I love golf, love baseball. Went along well with what we were doing in Canada. Were you good at golf? Or are you good at golf? I'm Yes. Okay. I hit the ball once in a while good enough to keep me coming back like most of us. Right? And I had a great group of guys today. Love you guys. We came in second. Alright. The great Ed Belfort is out here with us today. Very excited to talk to Ed. Very excited to have him on here again. He's been with us once before. And I gotta tell you, Ed, I did not know what to expect before because back in the day, when you were in the game and you were here and everything, you were not known for being terribly accommodating to the media. Yeah. And so, I really didn't know what to expect but you came on and we sat down and we had a pretty good chat, didn't we? We did. Yeah. Came out of my shell. You did. You did. I I mean, I walked away from that going, man, I I could I could never imagine him being the way he was. So, it was pretty cool. Different times. Yep. Different times. Very focused on the game back then. Sure. And you know the team really protected certain players from from the media Yeah. In in certain scenarios. And I was also always nursing a a bad back. So those were some of the reasons why, you know, they would only allow me to be out there for a couple minutes and get me rushed backstage with soupy fixing my back. Yeah. I can't think of one time when I heard of you being heard or heard of you being on any talk show or anything like that. But you know what? I understood. I was cool with that. You know? Yeah. I mean, a guy a guy who does what you do, who literally has the fate of the game riding on how good you are way much of the time. Yeah. If you need your own time and your own headspace, then I'm I'm more than glad to give it to you. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you understood that. Thank you. Not everybody did, but, hey, that's that's okay. You know, it was a real treat playing here in Dallas with the stars and and win the Stanley Cup in '99 was a dream come true, and we had an amazing team with half the team, I think, being hall of famers. So rightfully so, Bob Guinee did a fabulous job. It was a great time and one of the finest times that we've ever had in the history of sports here in our Fairburg. Yeah. Alright. I'm getting We're getting ready for a new season. So we're excited here. Yeah. Alright. Now you've been through this before. You've been through the ramp up to a new season before. And for, let's say, a goaltender like yourself. What does that entail? When do you start thinking about training camp? You know, I think you always have in the back of your mind the whole summer, and you know you have to do certain things to stay in shape and get ready for for camp. And and if you have an injury, you have to rehab that injury all summer and and get it back to as close to a 100% as you can. So my time here in Dallas come summertime, I had a a houseboat on Lake Ouachita in in Arkansas there near Hot Springs. Mhmm. And that's where I I headed I headed right to right to the lake. I was on the lake all summer fishing, and then there's lots of hills around that area. So great place to to run and hike and had all my workout equipment on the houseboat. So I did a little bit of, you know, all that type of stuff, pilates and running and, you know, strength training all summer. And being at the lake is the perfect spot to rejuvenate and and rest your mind. You need that time off. Yeah. You know, the end of August, early September, that's you come back to Dallas and you start getting ready for for training camp and get on the ice with the fellas, and you start ramping up and you know, get the feel of the ice and the new new equipment. You start breaking in your new equipment and get ready for training camp and training camps have evolved over the years. You know, we used to come in pretty early and training camp could last pretty much a month. Mhmm. Quite different now is what I'm hearing. Wait just a minute. You break in new equipment every year? Yeah. And during the season too, I'd I'd try and have at least four gloves going. Okay. Okay. You you you switch out gloves. Yeah. What about pads? Yeah. I would depending on how. Because it seems to me like that you would get those pads and wear them for years. Sometimes, yes. If if they were doing an amazing job like the one I was wearing Vaughn pads when we won the cup here. And that pair that we won the cup and I think I wore them for about a year. Superstitious. Well, yeah. They were just working. They're magic. Once you get a pair that works, you don't really wanna change them. Same thing with gloves and stuff. And that's why, like, with gloves, they wear out sooner. So you wanna have, like, three or four pair going. And you have your favorite one that you're gonna save for the playoffs. And that that set of gloves will last through the entire playoffs. You won't be switching anything. Why would you need to save them? I mean, don't you have an unlimited supply? Well, back then, no. You didn't really? No. You you got, you know, a certain amount of. Okay. Let's just say that you ran out. Ed Belfort and you guys are on a march to the Stanley Cup and you run out of gloves. That would not be good. Does Bob Gainey just go, Ed, I'm sorry. You know, go down there to Dick's Sporting Goods and get you some. No. It was it was something, you know, you talked about summer prep. That was one of the things that I always did in the summer is make sure if I was gonna make any changes to the equipment, you know, I did that during the summer. Got all my new equipment ready for training camp. And then as the season would would start and progress, you had your favorite pieces of equipment, glove, you know, you had four that you started out with, there was always one that just felt better. Mhmm. That one you always saved, you know, for the end of the year for the playoffs. And the other ones were still, you know, good. It's just that that one particular glove, I was very, you know, superstitious about, and it just felt great. Had good balance. The puck didn't jump out, you know, in certain shots. You weren't gonna throw it into the stands after a win or anything. Not happening. What do you look for in a glove? I I just like the balance, and and they all had a break, and would break a little differently. And the pockets were always a little different. The weight and balance was always a little different. How you would hang I played the puck a lot if you remember and how you would hang on to the stick and how it clutched the stick. All those things just came into play when you had a favorite. And and the most important is, you know, when the puck went in the glove, it didn't bounce out of the glove. Yeah. It stayed in. Did you go at least talk to each other about equipment? Because I'm I'm sure you probably had all kinds of different companies coming at you all the time to use their equipment. Did you guys have, a little goalie cult where you said, hey. You know, those those bonds are pretty good. Not really. We didn't talk to each other about our equipment because, you know, each guy puts his effort into creating what feels great for him. And we all have our own little secrets of of things that, you know, work for us, and you don't really wanna share too much of it with the other goalies around the league. And, you know, I would always look at the other guy's equipment and see if there's anything, you know, when you're on the ice together Mhmm. You kinda look over at the other guy's equipment. Hey, that kinda looks different. What is that? Then you kinda try to take a peek at it. Yeah. You guys did that, but they didn't go up to the guy and say, like Patrick Wah, hey, Patrick. What do you got going on over here? Do you share a lot with your backup goalie or do you with the other goalies on the team, do you talk about it a lot or You would a little bit here and there, but again, you know, very individual position on a team sport. Yeah. And you're in your own little world. You guys have heard that many a times. Yes. We have. Talking about, yeah, we don't talk to the goalies. Yeah. They're in their own world. Right? That well, that was us pretty much. You were a starting pitcher. That that that's how they treat starting pitchers in the major league somewhat. Yeah. But it kinda it kinda started me a minute ago that you were a catcher. Yeah. I enjoyed playing baseball growing up for sure. I played catcher. I played pitcher. I was a better catcher than a pitcher. Now when did you decide that you were gonna be a goalie and not a skater? I mean, how does that decision come about? Yeah. So good question. I played forward. I was a centerman until I was 12. And I was a pretty good forward, scored a lot of goals, got a lot of penalties, and got kicked out of quite a few games being a forward. Too aggressive, I was told. And At age what? From we we all started when we were about five. So from You were too aggressive at age five? Yeah. All of us were pretty aggressive kids. Good. My little hometown Carmen, Manitoba. We had a very competitive group of kids that I grew up with, and and the town was very hockey orientated. We had some good leadership in our town. We had Frank McKinnon and Brian Parker and Mr. Andrews. We've a lot of really good hockey people that played junior hockey and they really pushed us hard. The parents were very competitive too and so when we got our town's 3,000 people. So you play with the same kids from the time you're five until you graduate high school, basically. So when I got to be about 11 years old, the two goalies on our team didn't wanna play goal anymore. He was like, we're done. We don't like this anymore. And I was the only one that knew a little bit about playing goal, and the coach came to me and said, Ed, you're the new goalie. And that's how I became the full time goalie. And thank you coach Tack Vam for doing that and McCacron because I probably wouldn't have made it to the NHL being a forward. Do have any second thoughts about that? About being a goalie or think that it might be fun to get out there and skate a little bit? Well, I do now with the fellas. Like, and I always did during my career, you know, if I was gonna skate in the summer, you know, scrimmage wise, stuff like that, I would play forward. Yeah. I enjoy getting out skating and and scoring a few goals, bar down, and it's always fun. And the other part about it is it takes five minutes to warm up to skate. It takes about an hour to warm up to play goal. And it's no fun being a a summer league goalie because there's no defense. When do you start the process on game day of getting ready for the game that night? Do you start it at the arena or you do stuff before you leave the house or? The day before. Oh, the day before. Pretty much. Actually What if you got a back to back? It yeah. For me, it always started at the end of the game that you just played. Yeah. I'm get undressed. I'm going in the gym. I do a little workout. Get a massage sometimes if it's possible. Ice tub. I'm getting mentally prepared for the next game already. You know, eat a proper meal, you know, when you leave the rink. Mhmm. And next day, the the whole routine is, you know, set up for the game. So whatever had just happened in the game happened and now you move on. Yeah. Maybe if that final horn goes off, then you put it behind you. Yeah. Win or lose, you still do that same prep. And that's that was my my routine for winning. So when it became apparent to you that you were gonna be a goalie, I mean, there any kind of I don't wanna say sadness, but was there any kind of disappointment that like, oh man, really wanted to be a forward and score a lot of goals and you know, now I've gotta be a goalie and nobody gets to see my face. And Not really because Or or were you identified as an elite athlete? Because I I know a little bit about small town athletes. Were you identified at an early age that you're a little bit better than everybody else? No. I was identified as the crazy kid. Sometimes that's better. And Was that accurate? Yeah. I was very competitive as you guys know and had a pretty bad temper and got in trouble a lot and I I wanted to win. I hated losing. So like I competed of probably one of the most competitive kids. So that's what I was known as, and it and it got me, you know, in trouble a lot, of course. But, you know, once I learned to to control the better, obviously, over the years and and a lot of help from, my teachers in school and coaches and my my friends. Over time, you learn how to control it as best possible. Yeah. And you guys even saw it still happen here in Dallas once and once. We did. We did for sure. So. So, what was your entrance to your path to where you wound up? That's kind of an obtuse question but how did you get started after like school and everything like that on on the path to being a pro? Well, being highly competitive even though we didn't play in the best leagues. I played every game like it was my last, and I played every game to win and and, you know, be the best I could be. And that can carry you a long way even coming from a little town. Someone's gonna see that. And I actually was cut from my high school hockey team. Didn't make the team, so I was playing JV hockey and playing senior basketball and and other sports. And an opportunity came during the playoffs. I was actually part of the cheerleading team cheering on my my buddies that I grew up with, the high school team. And an opportunity presented itself where I got a chance to play in the playoffs. And I went in there and, you know, stood on my head and stoned the other team. We came we came back and tied the series up. That was the beginning of really, you know, what took off to an amazing career for myself. We didn't win that playoffs, but I we tied the series up and we lost the final game. I was the goalie who helped create that the next season. I was the starter for the high school team and we won the championship. Do you remember the first guy that said to you, hey, you're pretty good at this. You know, if you play your cards right and stay on the right path, you could turn into something. Well, we had so many good teachers at our high school. And one in particular who really took an interest in my career was Ernie Sutherland. He was our our gym teacher. He was our track coach and he became our high school hockey coach. And then he was the one that was coaching our team when we won the high school championship. He also became my junior hockey coach. He really helped me a lot and helped me with getting me with the right tutors at the school to make sure my grades were up. I ended up getting a scholarship. Played three years of junior hockey in Manitoba, competitive league back then. I got a scholarship to the University of North Dakota fighting Sioux, and that was a dream come true. Was only two hours from where I grew up, and the Sioux were just they were everything. I I didn't wanna be I didn't wanna play for anybody else but the suit. Yeah. Didn't didn't you win a national title there? We did. And I was a 21 year old freshman. So older freshman, there were six of us freshmen. We all played that year, and we went 40 wins, eight losses. They call our team the dream team to this this day. I don't think anybody's beat that record. And we won the NCAA, and then I was a free agent, so I got to choose. Yeah. Did you go undrafted? So so you weren't even drafted at all? No. Because the draft is at 18 years old, and I didn't even make my high school team at 18. So, you know, that was pretty much the reason why. And plus we played in a little town, played single a instead of triple a. All the triple a teams, they got scouted more and, you know, I didn't play major junior. I played tier two junior hockey. And, you know, once I got to college and, you know, I was a really good athlete, overall athlete and and very fit. I ran track and cross country, did triathlons. So part of training camp with North Dakota was a lot of dry land and and track and, you know, I was always first or second in all those events right with Tony Hercus who we won the Stanley Cup with here too. So he and I won the the NCAA together and the Stanley Cup together. So good history with Tony Hercus. That's pretty good. Yeah. But that's where it all started was Were you in Dallas during those challenges that they had in in what was it? Vale? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Were you involved? Those got pretty competitive. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very competitive. Up and down the mountains and all that. Mike Madonna, I thought he was gonna have a fist fight with somebody one day. Yeah. No. It's that's how training camp should be. You know, our training camp when I was a Blackhawk, there were four teams and it was, you know, battle of the the titans, the you know, you had to make the team. You weren't Mhmm. Automatically given the spot. And you were on the ice three times a day, and there was fights and and just, you know, dry land training and you gotta be in great shape just to make it through a training camp. This is the great Ed Belfort with us today and we'll have more with him in just a second but right now, we have some lucky winners to announce here. The Sapporo Neon sign, a 125 value goes to Dibbon. Dibbon, lucky you. The, let's see. Alright, I can't hardly read this. But a one dinner for two per month for a year from the Texas Roadhouse goes to something that appears to be Nap Allen or something like that. Auto. NAP Auto. Okay. NAP Auto. Good. They also win. Also, you win the Mineola Country Club of golf for four people at Mineola Country Club. Wait a second. How did they win twice? I I don't I don't know. This Little fishy going on here. Oh, it is. It's a little bit outside my pay grade. Now if you would like a Cleveland CB Sandwich, a $179.99 value. And you happen to be Ed Belfort. Ed Belfort. Keith. No. Not Ed Belfort. Keith. There you go. You win that, and if you'd like two Planet Ford full service car detailings worth $500 and you hold the ticket number 21218202121820, then you win that. So, there you go. They're your lucky raffle winners. Can we carry on now? I guess we can. Congratulations, everyone. Yes, congratulations to all of you and thank you for coming out and supporting the Dallas Amputee Network and giving Moss today. It's a great event that they do here every year. We were lucky enough to be here last year and they're having us back and that's good. That's good for everybody. Alright. So let's get down a little bit more on little hockey stuff with Ed because he's offering us an insight inside his mind and inside his past and inside his career and inside his hockey thought that he doesn't do this for everybody. And we appreciate that. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. It's been a great day. It has been a great day. And you made it better by being here. I'm sure everybody's been glad to see you. Glad to meet you and everything like that. Let's see. Where do we leave off, Grego? We were talking about getting ready for getting ready and being fit. Yeah. Getting an edge improbable climb to the National Hockey League. I mean, it's it's really no wonder that you acted the way that you did. I mean, saying that you get ready for a game the day before. No, I was talking to Ed a little bit about this before the show started and you freely admit, don't you, that you were a little bit different person back then and you're not really like that anymore, Right? Yeah. Well, I I understand that. I mean, and and Yeah. I do too. And at the time, you know, we were doing a show together and we thought it was funny. I mean, any any anytime somebody can, you know, take a snipe at the media, we loved it. So, that's what you were doing basically. But, you know, how did you because it it it was a long climb for you. And was it the fact that you just didn't want anybody or anything to take anything away that you'd earned? And you just weren't gonna allow some media guy to tangle you up with what you said, and the best thing to do is just not talk? Well, it happened to me in Chicago actually. So learned a lot of valuable lessons. You know, I wore wear my heart on my sleeve and, you know, always trying to help the team win and and promote, you know, the great game that this is, and I was a Chicago Blackhawk. That was my dream team as a little boy. My favorite player is Tony Esposito and Bobby Hall and Stan Makita. I got to meet all those guys, my favorite team. Like I was saying, after we won the NCAA, I was a free agent. I got to pick between there's about six teams, and I chose the Blackhawks very easily. Yeah. Yeah. So But that wasn't much of a contest. Yeah. No. It was it was a dream come true going there, but I I will tell you, it was very competitive, and I got sent to the minors for my first three training camps. Didn't wanna be in the minors, but I look back on that, and it was the best thing for my career. Why? It it I was a young let's see. I I signed as a 21 year old. So my first few years in the minors, I had to grow up Yeah. Learn the pro game. The pro game is much different than the college game. And so excuse me. You know, playing on the road three games and three nights riding the bus, you know, it taught you how to be tougher. And the first I remember the first two months of playing in the minors, I couldn't stop a beach ball. I was getting lit up like, you know, nine goals a game and stuff like that. And I'm sure the Blackhawk brass were wondering why did we sign this kid? You can't stop anything. Well, you know, part of being a really good athlete is being able to learn and and get better every game and adjust and and figure out how do I, you know, how do I make myself better? How do I help the team win? By the end of that first year in the in the minors, I won co rookie of the year, and I got better every game. So that's that's the mindset that I had. I didn't wanna be in the minors, but I took advantage of being there and trying to, you know, develop and get better, learn about the equipment. I tinkered with the equipment, tried different equipment manufacturers like you were talking about. Let's try these pads. Let's try this. Let's try this live stick. I did all that in the miners. So three years of traveling and doing that in the miners. One one of those years was with Team Canada, the out of Calgary, Alberta, the Canadian development program with Dave King, Gisharon, and Dave Kingston. And we traveled all over Russia, Czechoslovakia, Japan. We're all over the world playing, you know, international hockey, and I get to play against the Russians and the Czechs. Amazing players. This is, you know, the late eighties. Yeah. We haven't been playing against those guys yet. Right. And I was getting lit up, like, nine goals and 10 goals against those guys. That's how good they are. And I'm like, I gotta get better. You know, that was at the time period when Alex McGillany and Federoff and those guys were being snuck over, you know, in in, you know, vans and trunks and stuff and they defected and they, you know, ended up being amazing players in the NHL. Now see, not growing up with the game as we did, we don't know too much about that. Yeah. Well, it's interesting stories if you look up some of that stuff what the Russians had to go through to get to play in the NHL in the late eighties. I'll bet. And those guys took a big chance of doing that. But for myself playing in the minors, it it toughened me up. It made me more hungry. It made me realize I may not get another chance to play in the NHL. And when I do get that chance, I better make it really good. Yeah. And I did. It was again during the playoffs. So just like when I got cut from the high school team playing in the minors, we're on the East Coast in Canada on a a seven game tour with the Russian team that was kicking our butt almost every night. Well, Guy Sharon comes in in the locker room after the warm up, and I'm playing that night. And he goes, Eddie, you know who's in the stands tonight? I'm like, first off, usually the coaches aren't gonna talk to to the team Right. Like that. And Blast left Treczak. I'm like, oh my god. Vladislav Trechak. You know, he was one of our you know, we hated the Russians back then. But the seventy two Summit Series was the first time the Red Army team with a young 19 year old goalie Vladislav Trechak. And the Red Army team, I think, had won five or six world championships at that time. They went on to win, I think, 12 or 13 with that team, and I don't know how many gold medals with that team. Well, the NHL decided, hey, we need to see how good these amateurs are because the Red Army team was considered amateurs. Mhmm. Even though the the that team had played together since they were, like, six years old. Well, they were soldiers. They were Soviet soldiers. Exactly. And I They were in the army. Right. So the NHL put together an all star team, the best players in the NHL to play the seventy two Summit Series against the Red Army team. And I don't know if you've ever seen it or learned about it, but we were getting our butts kicked by the Red Army team because they they just played a puck control game, and they just knew where each other was on the ice, and you couldn't get the puck from them while we were getting our butts kicked. And where we come in, the Canadian game is a tough, rough, tough game, intimidating game. And their best player was Harlemov, number 13. He was a just dominated the game. So the story goes, I think we lost the first three games. The story goes we're getting our asses kicked and Bobby Clark, he was the GM in Philly all those years. Mhmm. Bobby Clark played in Manitoba where I'm from, Flin Flon Bombers. And Bobby's like, everyone's pissed off. We're losing again. Canadian media is all over the the the the country is like, what is going on with you guys? You're supposed to be the best players in the world. You're getting your tails beat by these amateurs. And Bobby Clark's don't worry, boys. I'm gonna take care of this. He gets next shift, he goes out and two hands Harlem off Harlem off across the ankle and breaks his ankle. That's what he gets. A little a little extreme, but it was war on ice. You gotta think about that time period. It was war on ice. There was a lot more to prove in that scenario. And us Canadians, as you know, we all hate to lose. So Bobby went out there and, you know, took one for the team, broke Harlem off's ankle. We we went in on to win the series. It was a very close series. We came back and, you know, ended up being a really close game, but Paul Henderson scored the winning goal for Canada. Probably one of the most famous players to play the game in Canada. I don't even think he's in the whole thing. He should be. But, yeah, he he saved the day for for Canada. But Trecak, back to to my story, Trecak was in the stands and we just all were like in awe of him because he was so good. Yeah. And little did I know at that time period, Mike Keenan, our coach in Chicago, the head coach Mhmm. Had hired Treczak unbeknownst to any of us on the team at that point to go watch all the goalies because we we had Dominic Kosick, Jimmy Wade who was the first round draft pick, myself, Clifford, Reed. I think we had about 12 goalies, A lot of goalies. And and Keeney was trying to figure out who's gonna be the number one guy moving forward. So he sent Trechak to watch all of us. I didn't know that, but I just looked up to Trechak like he was my hero. Right? And Did you even know he was there watching you? Well, Guy Schuron came in and said, Ed, you know, who's in the stands, Vladislav Trecak, I'm like, oh my god. Like, I gotta play great. Well, I did. I went out there and put on a clinic, and we won two one, and they outshot us like 50 to 15. Well, Treczak came into our locker room, which is kind of unheard of, but he came right up to me and shook his hands are twice as big as mine. And he shook my hand. He's like, good game. I'm like, oh my god. Treczak. Right? And I get called up to Chicago two days later, and it's right, like, maybe two weeks before the playoffs. And remember, I didn't know that Tretchak Yeah. You know, was Right. Now our our goalie coach. So I get called up. I'm on the bench in the playoffs, and we're we're playing Minneapolis, North Stars. First round, we're down three games to one in that series. I hadn't played any games. I'm just on the bench backing up. And we're down three nothing at the end of the first period. And Keenan comes over and gives me a kick in the ribs. Get ready, kid. You're in next period. Right? My knees are shaking, and this is my great chance that I've been, you know, waiting for. And so I go downstairs, get in the locker room, get, you know, psyched up and get ready to go and go out there and and do what I do. I put on a clinic and we end up coming back and winning that game. Three three to two now. And then he started me next game. We won that game, so we tied the series up. Was that your first career win? No. I had played during the season. Okay. But that would have been my first playoff Okay. Win. And so we tied the series up three three. Now it's game seven. I didn't play game seven. He played the veteran, Greg Millen. God bless him. He's in heaven now and goalie heaven. Passed away in the last year. Wonderful guy. He played game seven, played a great game, and we won game seven. Go on to the second round against the Blues, St. Louis Blues, another archrival. He starts me. And I played all seven games, and we won in game seven. And we go to the third round and played Edmonton Oilers, and that was their their period of winning all those cups. So they were still amazing. Messier and and that group of guys. And I started the first game We ended up losing. I played okay, but didn't play great. I didn't play another game. We ended up losing that series, I think four games to one. Edmonton went went on and won the cup. Mhmm. That was my opportunity to get in the net. That summer, I went to training camp with Tretchak, and that's when I learned he was my goalie coach. So that summer, Jimmy Wade, myself, Dominic Kosick was invited, but he didn't come. That training camp, I won the position because Trekjack came and said, Vladi, who's number one goalie? And Vladi chose me. So I'm just, you know Why do you think he chose you? Well, I I had that competitive edge that he really he looked after. You know, he he looks for that competitive edge being in shape, and he really put us through a lot of hard drills that summer. And I won all all those drills. So I got the opportunity to to play that year, and that was my rookie year as a NHL rookie. I played 74 out of 81 games in one rookie of the year, the Vezina, the Jennings, and all the stuff that you get when you play that well. And I I have to thank Trejak and Mike Keenan for giving me that opportunity to do that. And I thank God for giving me the the talent and the will and the drive. We are back here at Tennyson Park today for the Giving Moss get together that they have every year along with the amputee network. Thank you guys very much for doing this. Thank you very much for having a little YDC out here for this. And thanks to the great Ed Balfour, who gains to join us once again. I gotta tell you, man, I'm really jazzed by the fact that you don't mind coming on here and talking to us. That's that's that's really cool. And I consider that to be a feather in the cap for our little podcast. We do appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me. I always enjoy talking hockey, that's for sure. I enjoy hearing you talk hockey. So let's talk a little bit about how you got to the Dallas Stars. Yeah. What was the situation in Chicago? Did you become did you get there as a free agent or was there a trade? Because I'm kinda blinking on all that here. Yeah. So I injured my back in about it was '95, and the team doctor in Chicago pretty much told me my career was gonna be over at the end of the year. You know, I had did something to my one of my discs, and they didn't think that it was gonna recover. So I started looking into stuff myself. My manager, Buddy Voth, and I actually he looked up and found Pilates. And I'd never even heard of what Pilates was back then. This is mid nineties. And Joseph Pilates had created a system to help rehabilitate injuries. And so Bud arranged a one hour session with a pilates instructor, Joseph Pilates trained instructor in Chicago. So I went and did that. And I'll tell you, after an hour of pilates, you you feel great. You're and it's a good workout. Pilates is all about strength with balance and, you know, it's important as a goalie, I I have to be strong. I have to be really balanced and flexible, obviously. Yeah. Well, that's what Pilates is all about. And it and it it balances out your body. You know, you have imbalances in your muscles and stuff, you know, being a goalie, you're bent over all the time. And I had a back injury, so I would venture to say my career would have never lasted near as long as what it did without doing all the pilates and yoga I did. Do you know who else had their career saved by pilates? Jake Areata. Awesome. Cy Young winner from TCU. No? Anybody? Y'all don't know that story? I know him. I was like, y'all don't know that story though? No? I know him. No. It's a it's a great form of of training, and I did it for the rest of my career. And and even had the equipment at the arena. So it it was very helpful. I had it at home. I had it at the arena. I did it every day. And so the back injury caused me problems with with the Blackhawks. They gave up on me. They didn't wanna pay me the money I wanted, so they traded me the San Jose Sharks. 01/26/1997. I'll never forget that day. It was not a fun day. So I left Chicago headed towards San Jose with intention of of staying there. Again, my back wasn't near what what it should be, and I got hurt. I think in my third game there in San Jose, hurt an MCL on my my knee. Mhmm. So now I've sore back and a knee. Didn't play that great. And July 1 is free agency, and they didn't come up with the money that we were asking for. So I became a free agent and got a call, I'd say, within a minute after midnight. You know, our two choices were the Dallas Stars and the Philadelphia Flyers. First choice being Dallas Stars and that's who I wanted to be with and we had hoped that they would want want me and it worked out. So that's how I became a Dallas Star free agency. Had you heard from anybody that the stars were looking at you and that they were interested in you or did that come from out of the blue? No. You kinda sense things but you you know, you gotta be careful Sure. You know, with what you do before July 1 and and, you know, we had a an idea that might be available. So, I'm just blessed and glad that that it worked out for both of us, you know. So, you come down here after playing in in after being raised in Canada, playing up there, playing in in a serious hockey market like Chicago and now, all of a sudden, here you are in this cowboy loving yahoo filled village of Yeah. Dallas. Yeah. What were your first thoughts? I I was like, I love the I'm you remember when the North Stars came became the Dallas Stars? Mhmm. I was still a Blackhawk. So, you know, coming to Dallas and playing, you know, the Dallas Stars, what a beautiful city and the people were just so friendly and just, you know, Midwest people, like, very similar to where I grew up. Mhmm. Love the game. Right into the game, it was just it was just awesome and and fun. You know, it was fun being here. So, hey, I looked forward to it, and I felt like I was very blessed to get the opportunity. I saw what Bob Gainey was doing with the team. He was building a Stanley Cup team. You could see it. And who better. Right? He knows what he's doing. Oh, yeah. And, you know It's not like he hadn't been to a few of those. Yeah. Exactly. And all all the awards he's won. And, you know, he's bringing in Montreal guys, all the guys, you know, that have that same culture. Right. And then, you know, bringing in, you know, Joe Nuendyke and Zuboff. I mean, it was just one after another of Yeah. Hall of famers. Great players. Not at the time, but you you knew those guys were amazing. Bob knew. Great coaching staff. You know, Hitch, Jarvan, Wills, and mister Hicks, what you you couldn't ask for a better owner. He was just, you know, whatever it took, he he gave Bob free rein pretty much to build the team to win the cup. And, you know, he was engaging with the team. You know, he had team get togethers that he participated in. Started all the Doctor Pepper Star Centers. And I've heard all the stories, the behind the scenes stories of of the staff. And and Tom Firov tells tells the stories quite often. And how they all Jimmy Lights and the boys, how they all got together and like, well, okay. We don't know exactly where to start, but let's just start working and and, you know, gaining the the trust of the city and the fans and the, you know, the corporate relationships that that were needed. You know, Doctor Pepper and the and the Star Centers that they built. I think they ended up building what? 15 of them? Something like that. Yeah. And promoting hockey here in Dallas is amazing. Now you got kids being drafted from here and and it and it's it's all because of, you know, mister Hicks and It's it's really amazing to think that this is a legitimate hockey town now. Oh, yeah. It is. I mean, there's no two ways about it. Mean For sure. Even I, who did not grow up with this game, have become a fan. Yeah. You know, I mean, when the stars are on TV, I'm by the channel. I'm ready to go. Yeah. Now I can't tell you a lot about why whatever happened just whatever just happened did. Yeah. But I still like the game. I like the vibe, and and I I do consider myself a bonafide hockey fan now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the stars do it first class. They do. And they've done it that way right from the beginning. You know, Tom Gilardi taking over the team from from mister Hicks has done a fabulous job too. And and the staff, they're always competitive and they're always number one in the community. And and they've been that way right from the beginning, you know, with the charities that we were involved with, you know, with the alumni, you know, they built us a really nice locker room. All our names installs and it's just it's first class all the way. So I'm so blessed that I became a Dallas Star and won won the Stanley Cup here. I can't imagine the Dallas Stars without you. I can't imagine the Dallas Star that Dallas Stars team doing what it did and winning the Stanley Cup without you. Tell us a little bit about how the culture of that team came together as the year went on because you know, I would imagine that in sports, you start the year and you see how it's all going and everything like that and then, something will happen. You will win a game you're not supposed to win or you'll lose a game you're not supposed to lose or something will happen that sets the tone and sets the culture and sets the direction of the thing. I would imagine that's how it goes. Am I wrong? I'll tell you exactly how that happened. Tell us. My first training camp, '97, Bob Gainey, all the players are sitting there. Bob came Gainey came into into the room and you know that look on Bob's face, that intensity. Oh, you talk about a no bullshit guy. Right. You could hear a pin drop when he walked in that room. He demands that respect. And he said, men, we're here for one reason and one reason only and that's to win the Stanley Cup. And I'm sitting there like, praise the Lord. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Right? I mean, that's what what I'm all about is winning the Stanley Cup and winning every game, playing every game like it's like it's your last. And he set the tone right there. He said, anybody who doesn't wanna commit to this every day when you come to the rink, we're gonna play a system, we're gonna play defense, and we're gonna play every game like it's our last. And if you don't wanna do that, come see me after this meeting and I'll we'll send you somewhere where you can go, you know, have fun, you know, and and do whatever you want on on a different team because that's not going to happen here. We're here to win a cup. And I was like, yes. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. And everybody in that locker room was just like, you could see like the look, like, you know, that intensity that fuck yeah, we're gonna do it. And we did. I mean, our our records were amazing. Yeah. I mean, talk about a guy that was not to be trifled with. Mhmm. I mean, I never got to know him very well. I I don't think anybody did while he was here because he just, you know, he wasn't a guy that would do stuff like this or anything like any such thing. Yeah. He was the Ed Belfour of GMs. Yeah. He kinda was. We all feared you back in the day. We all kind of knew that you might not want to talk to Eddie. Especially after a loss. Yeah. Eddie's a little bit different cat. You might want to stay away from him. There there there there are other guys in here that you could talk to. What was it like playing for Hitch? I mean, he's kind of a nut. Yeah. He's a good nut. We all love him. Uh-oh. We loved we we did a weekly show with Kenny. Yeah. We got to know him pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. He he's got that switch too. You know, you come to the rink and the switch is on. It's it's game mode switch and it's intensity and and it's all about winning. And and, you know, Hitch did it a different way, but we had a veteran team and we knew how to adapt and we knew how to make it work. I mean, there's times when, you know, your leadership in in the room, you you you take responsibility for the room. You take responsibility for losses and and certain scenarios and situations where, you know, we we knew like hard defense and puck control. Yes. And, you know, you gain a lead. We're not taking any chances and and and and playing this dipsy doodle game that you see nowadays. It's like, okay. We we're up like three goals. We're pretty good here. Let's just, you know, run the clock down. Yeah. Not take any, you know, stupid chances and play good defense. And and it came from Bob all the way down the line, coaching staff, the captains, the leaders, and we knew that's how we win. It's maybe not the most pretty hockey, but guess what? We were successful at it, and we did it. Something just you have the trifecta, don't you? Because you you've got a gold medal. Right? Mhmm. So you've got a gold medal. You've got a NCAA championship and a Stanley Cup. And a Canada Cup. Well And a Jam Pill curling cup in Carmel, Manitoba. Has anybody else done that? Anybody else does anybody else have any And he was and he was a Dallas star. That's pretty crazy, isn't it? There's only two of us who've done those three things. I mean, just occurred to me just now that when Yeah. Do you know who it Somebody somebody that Was it a teammate of yours? No. He was here before before I got here. Oh, he could have been one of those North Star guys. Great. Yep. Great player from Minnesota. Okay. Who won who won an was it Neil Bronton? Yeah. You got it. My gosh. Woah. He's like the only guy he's like the only guy that that won a gold medal that played for the stars. There you go. Boy, look at Grego. No. No. No. No. That's that's process of elimination. So you and Neil Brotner are the only ones that won Yeah. In NCAA. Now did he tack on a high school championship? He might. No. No. You. Oh, yes. I do. Yes. Yeah. He might have won too. So you just hog it up all though. Yeah. All the championship. So you still got all your stuff, all your rings, and everything like that? Rings, yes. Sold the gold medal. That that was a hard thing to do. That was a while back. And it helped pay for my my business, Belleforce Spirits, the whiskey business. Pretty expensive business to be in, so it helped to to start that business for me. I sometimes wonder if I should have done that as I get older, but hey, it happened. Maybe I can buy it back one day. Yeah, those are questions you always have. Right. What if? You know? Yeah. There are a lot of em. Well, man, it's been great having you out here today. I'm sure all the people from Giving Moss and the Amputee Network appreciate it And, man, like I told you earlier, just really jazzed that you think enough of our little podcast to come on here with us because you don't do that with everybody. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me again. All right. There he is, the great Ed Balfour. And that is a wrap for us for today. Thanks to Ashley. Thanks to Becca. Thanks everybody out here at Tennyson Park for the amputee network and giving Moss, the great Mike Keating. We've had those guys on with us before and today, they are enjoying the fruits of their labors and doing a lot of good work for everybody and of course, thanks to the great Ed Belfort. Thank you for being by the channel. If you like what we're doing, get us out there on your social media, and we'll see how long we keep this little channel of ours going. Till next time. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.