Gretzky Camp - Summary (5 months later)

It's not everyday you are in the starting line up with The Great One.

I'll start this post with a quote that I came across recently. 

"You know all those things you've talked about doing? You should go and do them."

It's been 5 months since I returned from the Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Camp in Las Vegas. While my girlfriend tells me that I am still, "On cloud 99," I'll confess that I've come down off quite a high. I probably only talk about the experience 6 days a week now instead of 7.

I had talked about attending this camp for at least 5 years before I actually decided to go. A funny thing happened today that reopened the floodgates of memories of how awesome the experience really was. I finally ordered the photos from the official photographer, but I also got an email from my mom. It was a weird coincidence that I got this email on the same day that the pictures came.

Every Canadian kid who was born in the 80's wanted to be Wayne Gretzky. There were many great hockey players, but there was something different about him. He was on a whole different level and transcended the game. Every kid who ever held a hockey stick dreamed of being Wayne Gretzky and scoring the game winning goal in overtime of Game 7.

Growing up, we were the quintessential Canadian family, complete with the backyard rink in the winter time that all the neighbourhood kids skated on. I scored thousands of goals on that backyard rink as Wayne Gretzky.

My mom recently came across a drawing that I did in school when I was 7 years old. She scanned it and emailed it to me. When I saw it, I couldn't stop laughing. It made me realize that this experience wasn't something I wanted to do for 5 years, it was a lifelong dream.

I spelled Gretzky right, but Wayne wrong.

The goal of the camp is to give regular guys a chance to live the dream of what it is like to play in the NHL. On the very last day of the camp, we took our hockey gear from the rink back to the hotel with us. As we walked through the Bellagio dressed in the clothes from the camp carrying hockey bags over our shoulders, my dad overheard a conversation by two ladies. "I wonder what team they are? They look like professionals!"

To the average person we actually looked like professional hockey players. Mission accomplished.

Me celebrating after scoring a goal.

I've been asked a lot of different questions from people about the camp, but the three most common questions were: What were the players like? Would you go back to the camp next year? What was Wayne like? 

What were the players like?

To summarize, the players are normal people. Granted, they are wealthy athletes who live very different lifestyles than 99.99% of the rest of the world, but at the end of the day they are human beings who have families and friends, as well as highs and lows in their own lives like the rest of the world does.

All of the pros seemed to have a few things in common. They were all very approachable and friendly. They liked meeting new people, and loved to talk (debate) about hockey. I don't think it's an accident that the pros who come to the camp fit this mould. Everyone associated with the camp was like that - from the people who worked for Wayne and ran the camp, to the photographer. They treated the campers like royalty and made us feel part of the team. They were also extremely candid with us and didn't appear to have any kind of guard up.

Denis Savard might be the happiest guy I ever met in my life. I never seen him not smiling the whole week.

No one in the world likes meeting people as much as Walter Gretzky does. Most men half his age would love to have half of his energy. I'm confident in saying that he probably signs just as many autographs as Wayne does.

Bobby Hull is hilarious and one of the best story tellers I ever met.

Dad and Bobby Hull

Brett Hull is a great guy who loves to have a good time, and is a pretty good singer too.

Guy Carbonneau is a true gentleman.

Maybe as a coach Mike Keenan deserved the name "Iron Mike," but certainly not as a person. He was as nice of a guy as they come. He's the kind of guy who you'd love to go have a beer with. There were so many highlights from the week, but hearing his stories about the '87 Canada Cup are right up there amongst the best.

Brian Leetch is one of the nicest, most laid back guys you will ever meet.

While walking through the casino to catch the bus to the rink I noticed Jeremy Roenick playing roulette. I walked over to the table and saw that it had just hit number 27. I looked him at him and said "I bet you just won didn't you?" He smiled and winked at me and said "I like that number." JR is cool.

Jeremy Roenick sticking up for his goalie while I went after a loose puck.

Curtis Joseph was really funny and engaging.

Shaking hands with CuJo after the game.

On the flight home, Dad asked me, "If you had to pick one guy who was the nicest of them all, who would it be?" I told him, "That's really tough, you could put all the names in a hat and just pick one, but Marty McSorley's name should be in there twice." Marty is the kind of guy that all the guys there want to hang out with. I showed him a picture of me and him when I was 14. He was floored. He got a real kick out of it. 

He also knows his hockey really well. I wouldn't be surprised to see him coaching someday. He's very funny, but honest and sincere. When he shook my hand and looked me right in the eye and said, "It was a real pleasure meeting you this week," I really felt like he meant it. On the last night at the closing banquet when everyone was signing autographs, next to Wayne, the line up for Marty was the longest.

Playing against Wayne was fun too. During the game, sometimes you forget that you are playing against him, but every now and again you see him on the ice and realize how cool it is to be skating with #99. That's me with the puck, and to the left of Wayne is the actor, Alan Thicke.

Would I go back to the camp?

I decided to keep a daily blog of the camp while I was there so my family and friends could follow along with me. The blog turned out to be beneficial for another reason. It reassured me that the camp actually did happen and that the whole thing wasn't one big crazy dream. For months after returning, I would read through the blog entries every night and re-live the experience.

Part of me thinks that the camp was so much fun and such a surreal experience that I should just leave it at that - a once in a lifetime event that I will talk about until I die. I think that way for about 3 seconds and then I snap back to my oldself and think, "I would beg, borrow and steal to get back there." Gretzky knows how to throw one hell of a party. Everything about it was first class. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Hanging out with the pros was awesome, but I also met lots of great people from all over Canada and the US that I still keep in touch with. This was a great added bonus to the experience.

This is my favourite picture from the whole week. I tell everyone that when I die and they put your picture in the newspaper with your obituary, this is the picture that they'll put of me. I wish I could remember what he said to me. It was taken right before me and him set up Kevin (left) for a goal. I'd like to think he said something like this, "OK, you pick up the puck at centre ice, skate it in across the blue line and drop it me. I'll pass it off to Kevin and he'll put it home." Which is exactly what happened.

This was taken after we scored the goal. I love this picture. It captured how genuinely excited all 3 of us were. It made the score 6-5 and brought us within one goal with 8 seconds left. We had a chance. 

What is Wayne Gretzky like? 

I could answer this question a thousand different ways. I could say he was nice, friendly, funny, a great story teller, etc... The guy has an incredible memory. I'm not kidding, it's insane... but instead I'll answer that question with a story. Of all the stories I've told about this trip, this is the one I've told the most.

Most of the campers left the day after the closing banquet, but a few had stayed an extra day or two. Mostly just to enjoy a few more days of fantasy before escaping back to reality. Dad had never been to Vegas before so I got to be his tour guide for a few days. A bunch of campers decided to meet at the pool the next day to sit in the sun and relax a little bit. There was about 5 of us. When we got there around mid-afternoon, one of the guys said, "I ran into Wayne this morning, he said he might stop down to say hi." Sure enough around 3:30pm, Wayne shows up. He pulled up a chair and hung out with us for a bit. About 20 minutes later, someone from the Bellagio pool shows up and says "I'm really sorry guys, but the pool area closes in 10 minutes. We'll have to get you guys to start packing up." We all stand up and get ready to leave and then Wayne says "Listen guys, I'm meeting some buddies inside for a beer at 4:30pm. If you guys want to come join us, you are more than welcome to."

Wayne Gretzky had invited us to hang out with him and his buddies. It's not everyday that happens.

Dad and I had planned to rent a car and drive around and see some sights. He said to me, "What do you want to do?" I looked him like he had 10 heads. I said, "If Wayne Gretzky asks you to go for a beer, you go for a (bleeping) beer."

So we hung out with Wayne and his friends. He shared a lot of funny hockey stories, and commented on a few that were in the press at the time. There was one story about him and Rick Tocchet that was quite funny. While playing against each other in the cup finals in 1987, Tocchet got him in the corner during the first game. He gave Wayne a bit of a shot and said, "Get used to that Gretzky, I'm gonna ride you like that for 7 games." Wayne skated away and turned back and said to him, "I don't know about you, but I'm only planning on playing 4 games."

When I told this story to a friend he said, "Well you can cross that off your bucket list." I told him, "That was never on my bucket list. Your bucket list is supposed to be things that you can do before you die. I never thought in a million years that Wayne Gretzky would invite me to hang out with him so it was never on my bucket list."

It was a great end to the camp. When we left the part of the hotel where we had gathered I was walking next to Wayne and he said to me, "So what did you think of the camp?" I told him, "It was everything I thought it would be and then some. It surpassed any expectation I had coming here." He smiled, shook my hand and said, "I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Thanks a lot for coming. Safe travels back home."

He didn't have to come down to the pool and say hi to us. He didn't have to stay there for a bit, and he certainly didn't have to invite us to join him and some of his buddies. But he did.

So what was Wayne Gretzky like? He was everything I thought he would be like.

I'll end this post with a quote. 

"10 years from now, you will regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did do."

This experience isn't everyone's dream. Maybe your thing is to travel to Australia, or to backpack your way through Europe. Maybe it's to see an NHL game in person. It could be something really big, or something small. My advice to you is that whatever it is - do it. You won't regret it. The satisfaction you'll feel from achieving something you've thought about for your whole life is one of the greatest feelings you will ever experience.

We had a few hours to kill before our flight home, so the last thing we did was drive out to the Hoover Dam. I had been there before but Dad never had so I drove over to the Arizona side to show him a better view of Lake Mead. Just then it started to rain and when we got to one of the look offs, a double rainbow had formed. I took thousands of pictures during the week, but this is the very last picture I took on the trip. It was a classic case of being in the right place at the right time. That seemed to be the theme of the whole trip. It was a fitting end to a week I'll never forget.

If you have any questions about the camp, please feel to leave a comment below or email me. If I can answer them, I'll gladly do it.

Gretzky Fantasy Camp Day 5

Gretzky Fantasy Camp - Day 5 - "What Happens In Vegas..."


Today was our final game of hockey and the last day of the camp. We had a really good team and easily could have been 3 and 0, but we lost 2 tight games by 1 goal each. Like coach Cap said, "That's hockey." Our record was 1-2 which meant we were in the consolation game.


It's funny how you get used to the perks of the camp after only 3 games. When I got to the rink, I went directly to the medical room to get Ken to tape up my finger. Then I went and picked up my clean laundry, stopped by the coolers to get some ice cold Gatorade and bottled water, then headed to the dressing room where I found my gear hung up and waiting for me. It's going to suck to have to carry my hockey bag to the rink when I get back home! 


This was the first game that we wore the red Chicago jerseys. Every player gets a home and away jersey and socks. It was nice to see the red jersey hanging up waiting for me. Bobby Hull said, "It's the best looking jersey in hockey." It's hard to disagree.


Onto the hockey. It's amazing how we came together as a team after only 3 games. We were playing in the consolation game and really wanted to end the tournament with a win. Coach Cap gave us a good pep talk in the dressing room to get us fired up. We were pumped to hit the ice.

Me with Coach Cap Raedar

Cap's pep talk must have worked because we came out hard and went up 3 - 0 after the first period. Bobby Hull is hilarious on the bench. It's sometimes hard to focus on the game because of his comments. He has a loud, booming voice that carries out over the entire rink. Every few minutes he'd say "Let's go you red machine. Keep your foot on the gas." He said to me when I came off the ice after a shift, "Atta boy Chase, you're gonna get one!" It turns out Bobby was right. I finally buried one past the goalie. I went in and split the defence and got a good hard, low shot off and beat the goalie through the 5 hole. I had 4 or 5 good chances all tournament but I just couldn't find the handle. It felt good to get one in the last game. We won the game 5-1 and ended the tournament on the positive note like we wanted.




Wayne played for the other team in this game. It was pretty cool to play against him this time. Let's be honest, anytime you get to skate with The Great One, it's pretty cool. Having him on our team yesterday was awesome, but it was still cool to play against him. There was one time he had the puck and went behind our net. He was setup in his office and no one on our team would go near him. He was there stick-handling for a good 5 seconds. The boy on the bench were laughing pretty hard. 


Another time I was in the neutral zone and in my peripheral vision, all I saw was the blade of a stick with the puck. Purely out of instinct, I lifted the stick up and as I turned, I saw that it was Gretzky. When you are here, you get really excited seeing him on the ice, but once the game starts, the competitor in you kicks in and you get caught up in the game. The moment that I checked his stick though, it hit me again that I was playing hockey with Wayne Gretzky. 




I finished the tournament with 1 goal and 3 assists, good enough for a point per game. I told Dad that if I could put up a point per game in the NHL, I'd be making around 4.5 million a year. I wonder if there were any scouts at the camp...

Joey Moss handing the Gretzky Cup to the winning team

* * *

The evening event was the closing banquet and awards dinner. The campers were in full autograph mode while enjoying some wine. The meal was lovely and Jim Jerome did a great job as master of ceremonies. Jim and Wayne go way back to his days in Edmonton. He has an extremely quick wit and had the room in stitches. They showed a recap video of the whole week which was a really nice touch. 


As a center piece on all the tables, they had framed pictures that were taken at the camp throughout the week. There was one of me with Cujo. We were allowed to keep them, so I tracked Cujo down and asked him to sign it. He stopped me on a breakaway earlier in the tournament so I asked him to sign it and say something like "Better luck next time."


Here is the picture:

Here is what he wrote:

Wayne got up and gave a nice speech, thanking everyone for supporting his foundation. This is a charity event and the money raised goes to the Wayne Gretzky Foundation. The foundation supports youth hockey initiatives in the US and Canada. He made a point to thank all his staff members and the sponsors of the event. It was very sincere and you could tell that he really appreciates the people who worked on the event. He also thanked all the pros who came out and told some funny stories about them.


After that he introduced Paul Hipp who came out with a guitar and sang some songs. Paul is an actor/musician friend of Wayne's. He sang some nice songs and then played a song he wrote the day before, that was all about the Fantasy Camp. It was a big hit. Wayne's entire family was there and his daughter Paulina went on stage and sang some songs with Paul. She has a great voice and they did a killer job of "Picture" (Sheryl Crow/Kid Rock). 

She was also kind enough to pose for a picture with me later on.

The music part of the night became less serious as people started encouraging some of the pros to sing. Wayne said Brett Hull loves to sing so he and Paul rocked some old Beatles songs. Alan Thicke, the actor, joined Paul on stage for some oldies. Mike Keenan was on the mic for a little bit as well. All 3 of them sang pretty good.

The Gretzky Family with Joey Moss

The show stopper though was Joey Moss. I can't remember if it was Wayne, but someone got Joey up on stage to sing "La Bamba." He comes from a musical family and he rocked it. He brought the house down and earned a standing ovation with the whole room chanting "Joey! Joey!" It was the perfect end to the formal part of the evening.

Later on, there were five of us sitting outside on the balcony. Mike Keenan was there and I asked him a few questions about the 1987 Canada Cup (Mike was the head coach). It seems like Dad and I chatted to Mike everyday for a minimum of 30 minutes. I can't say enough about how nice he was to us. He was more than happy to talk about the Canada Cup and he was telling us stories that had my jaw on the floor. It was every Canadian hockey fan's wet dream to hear this inside information. I was just a little boy in 1987, but I remember that series like it was yesterday and I know the history of it inside and out. I was absolutely blown away by what he was telling us. 

Everyone made their way to the casino and bar area. The highlight of the night for me was having a great conversation with Paul Hipp, the guy who entertained us. It started by me asking him what kind of guitar he was playing (I'm a guitar freak. I have 13 and counting) and it ended about an hour and a half later with us talking about everything from music, to movies, to hockey, to politics. It turns out he has a pretty killer guitar collection too (a '58 Strat amongst a bunch of others). He is a captivating guy, and also shared some stories that had my jaw on the floor. It was really cool hanging out with him.

Me with Wayne's son Trevor. He was recently drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

Dad with Wayne's son Ty. He played in the tournament. He was on the winning team. We sat with him on the bus and had a nice chat. I liked him right away because of the hat he was wearing.

Dad with DB Sweeney. He is an actor who starred in a movie about a hockey player turned figure skater called "The Cutting Edge"

Me with Russ Courntall

Dad with Brian Leetch

The rest of the night was awesome. It went late and everyone had a blast. It was one of those "pinch yourself" kind of nights. We were hanging out with NHL legends, Hollywood actors, and each other. The campers all knew each other by now so we got to enjoy each others company one more time before we had to say goodbye.


I could tell stories for years to come about tonight, but you know what they say, "What happens in Vegas..."

* * *

Meet The Campers
The highlight of the week was playing hockey and hanging out with the pros, but a close second to that was meeting the other campers. There are a lot of campers that come back every year and I think it is for two reasons: the camp is so much fun, and the friendships you make with people from all over the world. Everyone here has a story. I exchanged a lot of business cards with people who I'm sure I'll keep in touch with for years to come.


I'd like to introduce you to a few of them.


Meet the Basler brothers, Kevin and Scott. Their story tugged on the heart strings of everyone here. They had talked about coming to the camp for a while, and then their father got diagnosed with cancer. His dying wish was for them to take some of his money and attend the camp with their wives. Yesterday, Kevin scored the goal that I assisted on with Gretzky. After our last game, they sat on the bench and had a beer in memory of their dad. I jumped in and joined them for a picture.

I don't have a picture of Jean-Luc and his father, Bruno from Quebec. They played on my team. This is their third year at the camp and for the first time since he has been here, Bruno scored a goal. It wasn't just any goal though, it was a big goal for our team in the second game. The icing on the cake? It was assisted by his son and Denis Savard. Hockey forms a bond between many Canadian fathers and sons, and the game is something that these guys still share together.




Woody and Connolly, like me, are good east coast boys living the dream here this week. They are here from Newfoundland and it was their first time in Vegas. It was nice to be able to hang out with some fellas from my neck of the woods, and use some east coast slang in Sin City.

Johnny Callahan from Chicago stood on his head for our team in nets.

Dad and I met Gary and his buddy Mike in the Calgary airport on our way to camp. It turns out he is married to a cousin of ours and they live in Saskatchewan. Small world I tell ya! We ended up playing on the same team and I set him up for a goal.

This is Red. He is the trainer for the Green Bay Packers.

Bruce Bennett is the "Gretzky" of hockey photography. Don't believe me? Check out his portfolio. He was the professional photographer who has been documenting the entire camp. Not only is he an incredible photographer, he is a very friendly guy who I probably drove crazy everyday asking him for tips on taking pictures and telling me stories behind some of his famous shots. He has shot over 4000 NHL games, Canada Cups, Olympics etc... You name it, and he was there taking pictures. The story about the Crosby 2010 goal is ridiculous. He also introduced me to "frozen hot chocolate" here in Vegas at a place called Seredipity's. For that I will be ever thankful.

This is Jenny and her boyfriend Paul. Jenny works for Wayne and the camp. I met them on the first night and became fast friends with them. They are lovely people who welcomed me with open arms. 

Colin Brownlie is an all around awesome and funny guy. He helps out with running the camp. We had a lot of laughs this week.

Mike Barnett used to be Gretzky's agent and the GM of the Phoenix Coyotes. We had a few great chats through out the week, but the best one we had was about jazz. His father was a jazz saxophone player who played with Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey to name a few. I studied jazz saxophone in university so we had a nice talk about music.

Brad Janson has been at every camp since it started. I think it is was fate that we met on the first night. He asked where I was from, and when I told him "Nova Scotia," we made the connection that I know his cousins very well. We became fast friends and he was great to me all week. He did a very classy thing on the last day. There were a few trays of sandwiches left over from lunch at the rink, and while the bus was stopped at a red light on the way back to the hotel, he ran out and gave them to a homeless guy. Everyone on the bus clapped.

* * *

A Note of Thanks...


I've been getting a lot of positive feedback about the blog posts. One on the guys on my team came up to me and said "My wife has been reading your blog back in Edmonton." So here's a shout out to Jeff's wife.


This is the last day of camp which means this is the last blog post about camp... for a while. I am going to post one more in a few weeks after I get back home and settled into reality. This was truly a first class event, but it feels very relaxed and casual. I definitely get the magnitude of how crazy the past 5 days has been, but being here and caught up in it all, I don't think it will really hit me of how lucky I have been to truly live a fantasy until I get home and start to process it all.


I want to take a second and thank everyone for reading and sending some nice comments. I've been getting a lot of texts/emails/facebook messages/tweets from family and friends who are jealous of the experience, but really happy for me. It means a lot.


 I've also been getting some emails from people I never met who have been enjoying the blog and living the camp "Vicariously through me." I hope you are enjoying it as much as I have been.


Thanks!
Adam

Gretzky Fantasy Camp - Day 4

Gretzky Fantasy Camp - Day 4 - "I'll take Gretz"

This will go down as my greatest blog post ever, and a story that I will tell until the day that I die.

Today was the big day. We only had one game and it was the one we got to play with Wayne. I was excited all day about it. I stayed out late and had lots of fun last night with the other campers, but I crashed earlier than most because I didn't want to be hurting on the day I got to play hockey with Wayne Gretzky. 

The bus didn't leave until 1:45pm so we spent some time walking around the Bellagio. We went to check out the pool area and ran into some other campers and Mike Keenan. Dad and I talked to Mike for about 45 minutes. He is a really fascinating guy. It was so cool hearing his story. He played some university level hockey, and said he was pretty good, but not good enough to make it, so he became a high school teacher. He taught high school for years and loved it. At that time, he started coaching lacrosse and then I think he said he coached a women's swim team. He then moved on to hockey. It's a long story, but basically some opportunities came up and he was successful early on in each stage of his career. He won Memorial Cups, Calder Cups, and basically came through the ranks like players do. When he went to the NHL he made it to the finals in his first year. He told us his pay only increased by $5000 from coaching position at the University of Toronto to the Philadelphia Flyers. His story was really inspiring. He was also the nicest guy.  

Onto the game. I was one of the last guys on our team getting on the ice. When I stepped on, I looked around and there was Wayne skating around warming up. It was pretty cool to see, but not as cool as what was about to happen. Coach Cap Raedar (former assistant coach with Tampa Bay) yelled to me "Chiasson, your line is starting." I stayed on the ice after warm-up knowing that I was starting at left wing. I skated to centre ice and lined up. Gretzky then skates to centre to take the face off. I was in the starting line up with Wayne Gretzky! I said to the ref, "I've never been so %^&*ing jacked to play a game of hockey in my life." 


Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous playing with The Great One. I thought I would be, but I really wasn't. I was excited, but once the puck dropped, everyone was into the game. Even coming off the ice and sitting next to him on the bench felt really normal. That might sound crazy, but it's true. It felt that way all week with all the pros.

This is a blurry pic that one of the trainers on the bench took with his iPhone for me.

I played on his line for about the first 5 or 6 minutes. They shuffle the lines around so everyone gets a chance to play with him. About 5 minutes into the game, our team drew a penalty. The infraction wasn't on me so I skated towards the bench, but Gretzky says to me "You take the penalty shot." I should mention that the other teams goalie is Grant Fuhr. Wayne said, "Shoot low on him, his knees are shot." I picked up the puck and cut in from the left side and tried to bury it in bottom left hand corner. I didn't shoot it low enough. I shot it about 6 inches off the ice and he saved it with his pad. As I skated by the other team's bench, Jeremy Roenick was ribbing me for missing the shot. It was pretty funny.

Grant Fuhr and Me

JR and Me

Gretzky was moving around lines so it messed up our regular rotations. Coach Cap kept saying, "Know who you are taking off the ice." Our line was the next one up, so we looked at each other and one winger said "I'll take #77." The other winger said, "I'll take #14." I said "I'll take Gretz." After I said it, I looked to the guys and said, "Wow, there's something you don't say everyday."

The game was a pretty tight, back and forth game. I think we were tied 3-3 after the first period (there are two 25 minute periods). In the second period Wayne played defence. It was a little easier to get everyone ice time with Wayne playing defence. With about a minute and a half left, we were down by two goals. Coach Cap put a line together of me and two other guys for the last shift. We get out on the ice and then, IT happened. I picked the puck up around the red line with some good speed. Gretzky was slightly a head of me but wasn't moving as fast so I carried the puck across the blue line into the attacking zone. Gretzky followed me and I dropped the puck to him and bolted towards the net. Wayne dishes the puck to our left winger and he put it home. I had just assisted on a goal with Wayne Gretzky.  Unreal. No words to describe it. A minute later, the PA announcer said, "Team White goal scored by #93 Kevin Basler, assisted by #99 Wayne Gretzky, and #26 Adam Chiasson, Time of the goal, 19:52." I felt like some director should come out and say "SCENE."

The professional photographer got some amazing shots of all this. I won't get them for a few weeks. When I saw the photos he took, I literally froze out of excitement. Ill definitely post them when they arrive.

As cool as it was that I just lived a fantasy, the competitive side of all us kicked right back in. We were now down by a goal with 8 seconds left to go, so Cap called a time-out and we skated to the bench to come up with a plan. He kept our line out, and put Gretzky, Russ and Geoff Courtnall out to try and tie it up. Just before they dropped the puck, Gretzky says, "Put 15 seconds on the clock." The other team wasn't too pleased, but hey, he's Wayne Gretzky and the time keeper wasn't going to question him.

We got the puck in deep and had one chance, but the other team cleared the puck and scored an empty netter. We lost 7-5.

What a game. In all the excitement of the game, I left out that the pros on the other team were Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Jeremy Roenick.

Brett Hull, Me and Brian Leetch

Wayne and Joey Moss

There were no official events planned in the evening. It's a night off for campers to do whatever they wanted. Some people went to see shows, others went for dinner, and others just hung out. The hospitality sweet was open for campers to stop in if they wanted. Dad and I didn't have anything planned so we went up to the suite and hung out with some other campers. Wayne was there and we struck up a conversation with him. He chatted to us for about 10 minutes. We talked about the camp and different hockey players. What really blew me away was how good of a memory he has. I mean it is ridiculous. The guy remembers hockey stats and information like no one else on earth. I said to him "Denis Savard is having more fun here than the campers." He laughed and said "You know what, I played against Denis when we were 12 years old." He said the name of the tournament and the city in Quebec it was in. He remembered it all like it happened yesterday. "We won the game 4-3. Denis had 3 goals and I had 3. The only reason we won is because we had a better goalie, Greg Stefan. He went on the play in the NHL." I immediately said to him "What number was Denis wearing?" Without missing a beat he said, "15." I said, "How the hell do you remember that?" He laughed and said "You know it's funny, my wife gets after me because I can remember hockey stuff from when I was 12, but i'll forget to pick up tomatoes on my way home."We asked him about different hockey players from Cape Breton and he knew all of them and had lots of stories about them. It was a really great chat with him and it was the icing on an already delicious cake. We talked for about 10 minutes. He totally made time for us and was engaged in the conversation. 


It might sound weird that talking with Gretzky for 10 minutes seemed cool and casual, but it really was. It was like talking to any other guy at the camp. He had a dinner reservation so he had to go, so he shook our hands and said goodbye. Dad and I grabbed another glass of wine and looked at each other and said, "That was pretty frigging cool."

Pretty frigging cool indeed.