NHL GOALTENDER…The New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils, and the Edmonton Oilers. TEAMMATES… Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Rod Gilbert, Bobby Hull, Morris Lukowich, Dino Ciccarelli, Bobby Smith, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, and the list goes on.

GOALTENDING PARTNERS… John Davidson, Doug Soetaert, Gary Smith, Pierre Hamel, Gilles Meloche, Don Beaupre, Chico Resch, Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr.

GOALIE COACHES…Johnny Bower, Al Smith, Les Binkley, Glenn Hall, Gump Worsley.

What is a little guy born in a small town 100 miles north of Toronto Canada, the youngest of six become associated with the above teams and players. When I think of the journey that I took, I shake my head every morning still wondering how all this happened.

On top of that, being inducted into my hometown’s Collingwood Hockey Hall of Fame, then being inducted into the St. Louis University Sports Hall of Fame, proudly having my St. Louis Billiken jersey and mask displayed in the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame and then to top it all off, tonight’s induction into the St. Louis Amateur Hockey Hall of Fame. I am blown away over all of this! Being able to coach youth hockey in St. Louis for the past 30 plus years has been the cherry on top of my hockey career. To be able to use my knowledge of the game to teach a group of kids and mold them into a winning team is very rewarding. The excitement they show when they realize that if they play in a system where every player is an important part of being a successful team, their buy in becomes easy. While your best players do need to be your best players to win tournaments and championships we have found out that the difference between a champion and a runner up is usually determined by the play of your third and fourth lines.

In our early AAA days we used to get spanked pretty good when playing against the Michigan and Canadian teams. But each year our roster got stronger and stronger until eventually we became pretty successful against those same teams. It got to where we had four top lines and most teams didn’t have the depth to compete with us. This formula held true throughout my whole career, our three National Championships with the Chesterfield Falcons were because other teams couldn’t match our depth. (Great goaltending didn’t hurt either!) To quote from the late great major league baseball player Lou Gehrig,

“Today I feel like the luckiest person on the face of the Earth.” And I mean that sincerely, I am blessed with a wonderful wife and daughter, a couple of beautiful grandchildren, and the most awesome family anyone could ever hope for.

As I continue my love for hockey, as a coach for the past 30+ years, watching my former players grow into successful young adults, seeing them get married, having children and getting back into hockey as their first time coaching. These things are very, very rewarding to me and I can’t thank my former players enough for that opportunity"