Right
out of the hopper JR strings together a tapestry of F bombs in the
introduction. He
had an atypical hockey family. His mother yelled at him once from the
stands “Get that pussy off the ice”. At 13 living in Virginia every weekend
they put him on the plane to Newark to play for the New Jersey Rockets.
He went to prep
school at Thayer Academy with Tony Amonte.
Dude
played almost 2 decades in the NHL and almost $60 million and scored a little
over 500 goals. Not too bad for an American.
Before
his draft he weighed about 150 pounds but his agent made sure nobody knew
that. Both
Mike Modano and Trevor Linden were over 210 pounds in the same draft. During an interview pre-draft with the
Chicago they asked him to step on the scale. He refused. He said “Did you ever see
a scale score a goal?” Chicago
drafted him eighth. He
played 3 games in the bigs before being sent to Hull to play in the Q. He later got called up due to injuries and
stayed up. Coach
Keenan scared the hell out of him so much that changed his style of play to be
physical.
JR
discusses how Coach Keenan used psychological warfare on his players. Coach pissed Dave Manson off so much that Dave
threw his shoulder pads at him and chased the coach down the cement hallway whilst wearing skates.
After
Keenan was fired he discusses coach Sutter and JR’s eventual trade to the
desert to play for the new Arizona team for 5 years and $20 million.
JR
tells stories of the Massachusetts Mafia which consisted of : Keith Tkachuk,
Craig Janey, Bob Corkum and the author. Most of them involved bars and breaking
curfew.
In one
chapter he discusses the poker he played with the boys. He once played in a pot on the back of the
team plane for $110 big. In
another chapter he discusses a hit he put on Mike Madono and the retribution
that Derien Hatcher gave him three weeks later.
After
playing in the desert and becoming a free agent JR signed a 5 year $37.5
million front loaded contract to replace cry baby Eric Lindros. JR says he almost signed with Detroit but
Philly had better stables for his wife and daughter’s horses. While in Philly he discusses the Rick
Tocchet gambling scandal that JR was involved in. JR did nothing illegal but had bet on pro
sports but not the NHL.
Roenick
talks about a slap shot he took in the side of his face against New York. His jaw was destroyed. Three major fractures and 18 small spider
breaks. He
missed quite a bit of time but was back for the playoffs. He later discusses his medical record like
the 600 stitches in his face and breaking all his fingers. Hockey can be brutal.
For
the 2005-06 season JR is traded to LA and has a brutal season on the ice with 9
goals and 13 assists in 58 games but is Mr Hollywood off the ice.
It’s
funny I just rewatched Wedding Crashers last week. Actor Vince Vaughan so much liked JR he had
his character named Jeremy.
For
2006-07 season it was back to the desert where he discusses that he did not
like the Great One, Wayne Gretzky as a coach. Then he he talks about his last two years in
the NHL playing for the
San Jose Sharks.
After
he retires he talks bout his favourite players, least favourite players, favourite games
played, Battle of the Blades and how as an NHL analyst he ripped Patrick
Marleau as “gutless”.
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