Fighting Patrick Roy and other NHL Stories

What is the difference between a two time Stanley Cup winning goalie and a middle aged guy from Alberta, Canada? Actually not that much. Maybe it's that he hasn't played an NHL game in over 10 years but Mike Vernon is like any other 50 year old from Calgary, or Olds or any other town in Alberta. He has that typical Western Canadian accent and that genuine interest when he says "Oh, really?" or "no way".

This is a guy that you can have seven hour "shift" at the bar with, just talking with him about anything, said Glen Williamson. Having an opportunity to talk to or interview Mike one soon realizes that the interviewer has become the interviewee as he really is interested in who the person is that he is conversing with.

Mike Vernon was an NHL goalkeeper in his hometown of Calgary playing for the Flames, making his debut during the 1982-83 season and then becoming a regular NHL netminder during the 1985-86 season. In the middle of a 11 game losing streak the Flames decided to go with Vernon, who had spent most of the season in the minors, between the pipes. The Flames won the match and by the end of the regular season he was the number one goalie. With Vernon in net the Flames made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals where they lost to the Canadians, who had their own young up and coming keeper in Patrick Roy.

Vernon says that one of the great aspects of playing in Calgary was the size of the city, since it was small, and the team did everything together. "I had the time of my life playing in my hometown, in front of friends and family," says Vernon, who's spending the week in Budapest for business reasons. Because of this the team was already close knit, combined with knowing what it takes to get to the cup the club reached the pinnacle of professional hockey with Vernon backstopping them to the 1989 title.

When asked if the combination of the town and always doing everything together as a team was the "IT" factor in '89 then what was it in 1997 with the Red Wings? Vernon sums it up with one game. March 26th 1997 against the Colorado Avalanche. Before Mike continues with the account of that night he wants to get one thing clear and that is that Patrick Roy and himself actually got along fine and had mutual respect for each other from the times that they faced off in both the '86 and '89 cup finals.

That day in 1997 ended up being Vernon's 300th win and also one of the greatest fight between two keepers. "The funny thing about that brawl was that it was started by two guys that were not even fighters in (Igor) Larionov and (Peter) Forsberg. Things escalated as they usually do with guys like Claude Lemiuex and Darren McCarty on the ice. I see Roy come flying across the ice as he normally would and I'm thinking to myself, oh, great, now I have to get involved. You know how it is, I got a couple lucky punches in."

He went on saying that with having five Russians on the team as well as Canadians, Americans and Swedes all coming from different backgrounds the fight brought the team together and made everyone realize there was not much difference between.

Vernon left Calgary after the 1994 season being traded to Detroit, he says that he knew it was time to move on. The team had a young goalie in Trevor Kidd who they were looking towards, while the team struggled and the pressure that the fans were putting on Vernon made him wishing move on. Mike says that he actually was able to pass his experience of leaving his hometown and being traded to Roy. "I actually talked to Patrick the day of or the day before that 11-1 loss (vs. Vernon's Red Wings). He said that he was just tired of playing in Montreal with the fans and the media and all the pressure. I told him that he should ask for a trade like I did from the Flames, but Patrick said that he could never leave his home town. Now everyone remembers how he skated off the ice during the game and said that he will never play for Montreal again." For those who don't remember Roy let in 9 goals on 26 shots and the coach didn't pull him.

Again after winning the Cup with the Wings in '97 Vernon knew it was time to move on with the team having a good young keeper in Chris Osgood. When asked about his relationship with Osgood, Mike said that it was pretty good, "obviously you want to be the guy every game but you know that you are a professional and it's part of the game. In the end the goal is to win the Cup and we achieved that in 1997".

One could only imagine what kind of stories he would have after seven hour of talking to him instead of less than a half an hour. Mike also took part in a short coaching session with a number of youth keepers, with former national team players Levente Szuper and Roger Holéczy along with current netminders Miklós Rajna and Bence Bálizs helping out. As the kids came off the ice of the 'Jégpalota' in Budapest one could see that they will remember this afternoon for years to come.

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