Richard Brodeur, 72, the former Canucks netminder, remembers: ‘It was the first time we got there (Stanley Cup Final) and the people of the city, the whole province, were just unbelievable. It was great days, a great time.’
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He was the centre piece of the very first one, the star goalie on the Canucks’ team that made the franchise’s initial trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1982.
The Canucks lost that series in four straight games to the New York Islanders, but the team captivated the city and the province. Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt even proclaimed a Canucks Week after the playoffs had finished in mid-May. That featured a parade through the downtown core, with the players riding in convertibles. It culminated with a rally at Sunset Beach.
Brodeur remembers “there were people everywhere” and winger Dave (Tiger) Williams turning to him at one point to say “imagine if we won the damn thing.”
There were reports of the crowds along the parade route being in the 50,000 range.
“It was like your first girlfriend. You don’t forget that,” Brodeur, now 72 and living in Nanoose Bay, says of those days as a Canuck. “It was the first time we got there (Cup Final) and people of the city, the whole province, were just unbelievable. It was great days, a great time. I wish these guys (on the current Canucks) can live that this year because it is so special.”
Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky had won the scoring title with 212 points, 65 points more than the runner-up.
Vancouver lost head coach Harry Neale to a 10-game suspension with six games left in the regular season after he had an altercation with a fan in Quebec. Neilson, who was Vancouver’s associate coach, took over at the helm. Vancouver went undefeated in its final remaining games (5-0-1) and the club opted to keep him running the bench in the playoffs as a result.
For as good as that playoff run was, Brodeur admits that the Vancouver squad didn’t always play nice with one another.
“I have said it before and I will say it again: you cannot like everybody on your team,” explained Brodeur, who refused to name names regarding internal disputes within that group. “It’s impossible.
“Away from the game, there’s something about a guy and you don’t like him. But when we got on the 85-by-200-feet sheet of ice, I got your back and you got my back. That team had that. I saw fights in the room, fights on the ice. Guys said they hated other guy’s guts.
“Now we’re all best buddies. We had a lunch last week, a big fundraiser. It was nice to see the boys and it’s always good. So we have this thing that’s still there after all those years. That team was special.”
Oddly enough, he kept his painting quiet from even his teammates during his playing days. He believed it was a very judgy time. You would like to think he would be more forthcoming about it today.
“You’re a goalie. In their eyes, you’re crazy already. You’re then going to come into the room and tell them you’re an artist on top of that?” Brodeur said.
Brodeur, who’s from the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, loved drawing as a youngster and began painting in high school art class.
During his time with the Canucks, he would often stay up until 3 a.m. painting after a game “just to calm me down.” He would take a sketchbook on the road, but his teammates would merely say, “There’s Richard … doodling again,” according to Brodeur.
He spent eight years with the Canucks. Vancouver landed 21-year-old Kirk McLean in a September 1987 swap with the New Jersey Devils and the team brass decided they wanted to build around him as their goalie. The 35-year-old Brodeur was traded March of that season to the Hartford Whalers for fellow netminder Steve Weeks.
Brodeur played just six regular-season games with the Whalers and retired after the 1988-89 season.
He tried various 9-to-5 type jobs, both in Quebec and in the Lower Mainland after moving back in 1998. He realized “all I want do is paint.”
“I’ve been doing it for almost 30 years now and it’s going very well,” Brodeur explained. “I’ve had two passions in my life after my family. There’s hockey, which I got to do professionally, and art, which I’m doing professionally. I’m blessed that way. How many people say in their life they get to do their passion?”
There are times when he’s doing the art gig and people make the connection with hockey. And there are times when they don’t.
Brodeur recalls being in a gallery, standing within earshot of the business owner and a woman looking at one of Brodeur’s paintings. She said how much she liked it. The owner told her that it was by Richard Brodeur, the former Canucks goaltender.
“It made my day,” Brodeur said.
Brodeur (377) is third among Canuck netminders in games played, behind McLean (516) and Luongo (448).
He did have a history of post-season success before coming to the Canucks. Brodeur had backstopped the Cornwall Royals to the Major Junior Memorial Cup national championship in 1972, winning tournament MVP honours. He was also the starter for the Quebec Nordiques when they won the Avco World Trophy in 1977 as the WHA champions.
“Playoffs are where you make your name, you make your money,” Brodeur said. “For me, a goalie has to steal 10 games for his team during the season. That’s 20 points for your team because you played that well. And then in the playoffs if you’re not great every night you need to be really good. That’s every game.
“In the season, you have to be the guy that gains the trust of your players and then in the playoffs you have be the guy that makes the difference.”
Quick hits with Brodeur
• On his penchant for skating into the corners of the rink during play stoppages, something that’s commonplace today but was usual then: “I would do that to calm me down. But I remember when I started the referee (Andy) Van Hellemond would say to me ‘Richard, you can’t do that.’ I told him, ‘Andy, show me in the rule book where it says that I can’t do that.’ He came back to me and said ‘You’re damn right. There’s none of that in the book.’ He told me that when they put the puck down on the faceoff I’d better be ready in the net and I told him, ‘I’ll be there.’ ”
• On Neilson: “Roger was a good tactician. Everybody knew what they had to do, what their role was, what their job was. As a human coach, maybe he was lacking a bit. Harry Neale was the funniest and as good a coach for the players that I had. He knew how to push your buttons and when the guys needed a break and stuff like that. I was spoiled in Vancouver. Well, not talking Bill LaForge. That’s different. I can talk for another hour on that. God bless his soul.”
• On how bigger goalies are in high demand in pro hockey now: “I was at a signing in Toronto a couple of months ago with Roggie Vachon (the 79-year-old former Los Angeles Kings standout netminder who was listed at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds in his playing days) and we were talking about this. I told him that I didn’t think I’d make a team today and he said, ‘You’re damn right.’ ”
• On any ties to Brodeur’s Bistro, a Langley restaurant that boasts of a blend of Montreal and New Orleans cuisine: “That’s not mine. I’ve never been there. I hope the food is good there. I hope if I go there they would buy me lunch at least.”
With research from Postmedia News librarian Carolyn Soltau