Volume: 5 Issue: 21

Eleven Stanley Cup rings – that is how many I had on my fingers this week. None of them were mine of course (or from the Maple Leafs). They belonged to former NHL stars Glenn Anderson, Mike Krushelnyski, and Bob Sweeney. Between those three men, I had more rings than fingers to put them on!

 

The celebrities all arrived to play a shinny tournament on Long Pond, the Birthplace of Ice Hockey, right beside the School. King’s-Edgehill School had a team (undefeated of course!) and Mike Krushelnyski joined us as a celebrity player. We were all impressed. Not that we were ‘gaga’ playing with an athlete who had spent years playing in Edmonton and Los Angeles and Toronto with some of the greatest players of all time (including Wayne Gretzky), but because he is such a likable and thoughtful man. Throughout the day we all learned so much about what it takes to be a professional athlete, what it means to be a team player, how one has to approach a game when it becomes work, and the effort required to be a champion. All three former players told stories and shared laughs throughout the day, sometimes in the middle of a game! However, in the evening at the banquet in KES’s Stanfield Dining Hall/McLellan Annex, everyone present was able to hear and learn even more.

When he was interviewed at the banquet, Glenn Anderson had words of wisdom that apply to far more than life in the NHL

. He spoke eloquently of how important losing was for the Edmonton Oilers in the years leading up to their amazing string of successive Stanley Cup victories. He said they could not have won if not for the lessons they learned when they lost. One of the lessons they learned was that everyone has to be on the same page, playing the same system, to be a championship team. A team must be unified.

Mike Krushelnyski told a story about his first game as an Edmonton Oiler. It was a pre-season game and by the third period they were down by two goals. He could not fathom why his teammates were not upset and getting all riled up about losing. He started to say some things on the bench when “Slats” (Glen Sather the coach) tapped him on the shoulder and told him to lighten up, jump over the boards, and score some goals. He did. They won the game. Sometimes the way to victory is not to grip one’s stick too tightly.

Many thanks to those alumni who made up our victorious Dream Team: Dylan (2005) and Scott Shearer (1985), Marc Whebby (1991), David Roddis (1997), Josh Dill (1998), Brett Fletcher (1994), Connor Redden (Class of 2017). And Emma Belliveau (2016) who piped us all to the banquet.