Shortly before the Toronto Maple Leafs and the legends teed off at their annual charity golf tournament at Rattlesnake Point in Milton, Ontario, legendary alumni and Hockey Hall-Of-Famer Darryl Sittler gave some advice to the new crop of players like Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua, Matias Maccelli, Michael Pezzetta, just to name a few.
“Enjoy the day. Today is one of the last days ahead before they start training camp. I know every season you look forward to training camp,” Sittler said. “We’ve got new players on the team, so you’re looking to blend in with them and obviously have a good training camp and a good year. I look forward to it. Maybe this is the year finally those hockey gods will be with us and we can win a few rounds in challenge for the Cup.
Sittler, ever the optimist, never won a Stanley Cup in his career, but as he mentioned in the media scrum, played with a lot of the Leafs who did win back in 1967, the franchise’s last triumph.
[embedded content]
“Those guys came to training camp with the idea of getting in shape. I was a rookie coming out of London, and I believed that if I was in the best shape possible, coming into camp had a chance of making the team,” Sittler recalled. “So instead of being overweight and drinking beer in training camp, I was ready to go and was fortunate to make the team my first year. But nowadays, the guys train, as you know, all year round. They’re ready for it. Training camps are much shorter than they were when I played. So, yeah, they’re all used to it. They’re getting ready to go.”
Among the topics Sittler touched on include
- His relationship with the current Maple Leafs players
- The anniversary of his overtime goal at the 1976 Canada Cup
- Mitch Marner’s departure and how he adjusted when key players left during his tenure
- The evolving role of the captaincy
- Matthews chasing down the Leafs’ goal record held by Mats Sundin
- The passing of former Leafs president and Hockey Hall-Of-Fame goaltender Ken Dryden
Legendary Canadiens Goalie and Ex-Maple Leafs President Ken Dryden Passes Away After Cancer Battle
The hockey world is mourning a hockey legend as former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden has passed away at age 78 following a battle with cancer.
Q: Have you ever known some of these younger guys as you kind of help them kind of get used to their new settings too?
Sittler: Well, I don’t know them well. I mean, I’ve rounded a few of the functions and events. So Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, you know, Mitch Marner. These guys are all beating my records that I’ve had over the last few years. So I send a few texts out to them congratulating them, which is great. It’s awesome to have to do that. Today’s a special day for me. It was 49 years ago today, I scored the overtime goal in the Canada Cup (1976), and that was a big moment. I wasn’t fortunate to win a cup, but to represent Team Canada. We just had a reunion in Montreal about a month ago, and I think there was 15, 16 guys there. It was probably one of the better teams Canada’s ever put together. And the other thing that’s kind of cool, my first grandson, Luke, it’s his 21st birthday today, so it’s September 15th today, I’ll always remember.
Q: What do you remember most about the goal?
Sittler: Just afterwards, everybody coming out on the ice. Our friend Don Cherry was the coach at the time, and we had the goalie, (Vladimir) Dzurilla, who came way out of the net, And Grapes happened to mention that to us as he was going into the washroom between overtime and regulation time. And he made sure the media let everybody know that he helped Darryl Sittler score that goal.
[embedded content]
Q: You mentioned Mitch. How different does it feel when a guy who’s been around for a while isn’t there the next year?
Sittler: Well, I’m sure it will be an adjustment for the current guys. I mean, Mitch was such a part of our team. He’s such a great player. You talk about his goals and assists and his creativeness, which is awesome to watch, but he’s very good defensively. He’s an all-around player, and I guess for Mitch, sometimes these things happen. He’s moving on. He’ll do very well, I think, in Las Vegas, and we’ll miss him here.
Q: I’m sure you’ve seen that before, though, right, where a team says goodbye to somebody, but then they kind of rally around each other and find different ways and different rules for guys to kind of expand upon.
Sittler: Well, back in my era, the Ballard days, I mean, when (Punch) Imlach came, they traded a lot of good guys after those teams, you know, guys like my buddy Lanny (McDonald) and a number of other players. So, yeah, it’s not the nicest thing in the game, obviously. You learn to adjust, but it’s your job, and that’s what you have to do, and you have to pick it up and blend in with the new guys. You’re a team. The logo on your crest is the most important thing for all of us, and I think players realize that.
Q: You mentioned Auston. How do you think the captaincy has changed, the role of the captain in the NHL, if at all?
Sittler: Well, I don’t know if it’s changed a lot. The captains before me were George Armstrong, Dave Keon, and when I was named captain in ’75, I guess it was, it was a great honor, and I think Auston realizes there’s a responsibility that comes with being a captain, not only on the ice but off the ice, and I think he’s done a great job. The other important thing as a captain is to have strong leadership around you, So guys with John Tavares and a number of the other older guys, Morgan Rielly, give them that support, and that’s what we need to do a job. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes being with captain, and people look at you as kind of the guy that is the lead. And when things are going well, you get a lot of credit, probably more than you maybe deserve. And when you’re losing, you get a lot of crap that more than maybe you deserve. But Auston’s a good guy. He means all he wants to win the cup here, and he’s doing a good job.
Q: He’s chasing down Mats Sundin’s goals record. Getting pretty close.
Sittler: Well, I mean, he’s had an exceptional run out of here. As you know, I don’t know. For his age, I think he’s more more than anybody else at this point in his career. So, I mean, records are made to be broken. I know when I passed Dave Keon, that was a special moment for me, knowing that it probably wasn’t going to last forever. And then Mats came along and passed me. So, those are things that happen. And if you have a great hockey team and good players, those records will continue to be broken.
Q: Your Leafs of the late 1970s were a pretty good team, but you couldn’t get past Ken Dryden in the Montreal Canadiens. Any thoughts on Ken’s passing?
Sittler: Well, that was very sad. Ken died too young, as we all know. And I only played against Ken in the ’70s. He was phenomenal. And the Canadiens, they had one of those teams where they were just better than all of us. You know, they had more depth, and then they had Ken in goal on top of that. I mean, for him to win six Stanley Cups in eight or nine years he played was phenomenal. Got to work with Ken at MLSE as the president and enjoyed my time with him. He’s a real gentleman, a good guy, and I’m sorry to see him going. My condolences to his family. Linda was awesome. They were great for me. Ken was the president when my wife Wendy passed away and I asked him if they could honor her and myself by putting her name on the banner, and Ken was the guy that made that decision, so I’ll never forget that.
Latest stories:
‘I Like To Bring It All’: What To Expect From Dakota Joshua In First Season With Maple Leafs
