AQ Magazine’s Interview with Bryan
Bryan Trottier
The Hall of Fame center for the NY Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins faces off
By Micheal Dolan
Trottier returns to ice Jan 25.
When the Oldtimers Hockey Challenge returns to Courtenay Jan. 25, one of the Legendary Hockey Heroes scheduled to appear is Hockey Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier.
Trotter was a modern-day player with old-fashioned attributes. At a time when specialists were beginning to take over from the all-round player, Trottier was a throwback. He was a defensively sound centreman with the vision and instincts of a pure scorer.
Over an 18-year National Hockey League career, he led his teams to the Stanley Cup six times, including four consecutive titles with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s. And his achievements went beyond team success. He won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, the Art Ross Trophy as top scorer and the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player. Trottier, at his retirement, was the league’s sixth-highest all-time scorer.
In 1974, however, the NHL was reacting to the threat of the World Hockey Association. The elder league held a semi-secret draft with an emphasis on underaged players – teenagers who were 17 and 18 years old. Trottier was chosen 22nd overall in the second round, and he was the ninth underaged player taken that year. He was a promising forward, but hardly anyone pegged him as a dominating player.
The New York Islanders, the team that selected him, even suggested he spend another year in junior, making him the only secret underaged player to wait to turn pro following that draft.
The Islanders offered to pay Trottier all the salary and bonuses he would have earned in the pro league – a strange arrangement for a young team in a rebuilding stage, but surely a vote of confidence that he appreciated and remembered. Still, that strategy would pay dividends for Trottier and the Islanders, not to mention Lethbridge, the WHL team he starred for in 1974-75. Trottier led that league with 98 assists and 144 points, earning MVP honours and confirming the wisdom of the decision to keep him in junior that extra year.
When the 1975-76 season began, Trottier was in the NHL, centering a line between Clark Gillies and Billy Harris. In his second game, he had a hat trick and five points. After 11 games, he had 20 points and word began to spread, especially after his rugged defensive work shut down opposing stars. Trottier finished the year with league records for a rookie in assists and points, breaking Marcel Dionne’s totals, and was an easy choice for the Calder Trophy as the top newcomer.
The rebuilding years for the Islanders were over in 1977-78, when Trottier and the team began to dominate the league. Trottier played most of the time with Mike Bossy on the right wing, a pure shooter who converted many of Trottier’s pinpoint passes, and Gillies on the left wing, a grinder who provided the brawn and much of the corner work necessary for success.
The line was the most dominant in the league since Phil Esposito had teamed with Ken Hodge and Wayne Cashman for the Bruins earlier in the decade – a troika that was successful for many of the same reasons as the Islanders’ top guns.
Trottier was second to Guy Lafleur in the scoring race in 1978 and led the NHL with 77 assists. The next year he was unstoppable, using his playmaking skills to collect 87 assists and his tenaciousness around the net to record 47 goals. He was the league’s top scorer and took home the Hart Trophy as MVP.
In 1980 the Islanders won the Stanley Cup and Trottier was the star of the show, leading all playoff scorers with 29 points and earning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most outstanding post-season performer. With Wayne Gretzky’s era still on the horizon, Trottier, the quiet guy from the Prairies, was considered the best centre in pro hockey.
Trottier played for Team Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup and led his Islanders to three more Stanley Cup wins to begin the new decade.
He scored 50 goals in 1981-82 and was again the top playoff scorer that season.
In 1984, with another Canada Cup on the schedule, Trottier stunned the hockey world by declaring that he would play for the United States instead of Canada.
Trottier was booed relentlessly yet Canadian fans cheered another recent citizen, Peter Stastny, the Czechoslovakian-born star who had quickly been made a Canadian prior to the tournament.
Trottier spent six more seasons in New York following the Canada Cup and saw his numbers steadily fall. He was still a dedicated and effective defensive player, however, and in 1990 the Pittsburgh Penguins signed the veteran to bolster their playoff chances.
Trottier was an important part of the Penguin team that won two straight titles after he joined the squad. Stars such as Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr attributed much of the team’s success to the aging star’s leadership, his drive and desire.
Trottier retired following the Penguins’ second Cup victory and spent one year in the Islanders’ front office.
But he was soon bored with his desk job and returned to the league as a player in 1993-94 at the age of 37.
He played 41 games with the Penguins while acting as an assistant coach, a job he continued after finally hanging up his skates at the end of that season.
Trottier remained with the Pens until 1997, at which time he took the coaching reins of the Portland Pirates of the AHL.
He returned to the NHL within a year, this time as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche.
Trottier helped the Avs claim their second Stanley Cup championship in 2001, adding yet another ring to his already impressive haul. Trottier was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.
The Oldtimers Hockey Challenge goes 7 p.m. at Comox Valley Sports Centre.
Tickets are at Happy’s Source for Sports.
– Oldtimers Hockey Challenge
January 15th, 2011
Puck Daddy chats with Bryan Trottier about his alumni game performance, infamous YouTube video, best outdoor game spots
By Sean Leahy
PITTSBURGH — Many hockey fans may be too young to remember Bryan Trottier’s days as a member of the New York Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins, or even playing forward for the Philadelphia Phantoms of Roller Hockey International in 1994.
What those younger hockey fans do know, however, is YouTube and there isn’t a more legendary puck video than a mic’d up Trottier and Kevin Stevens on the bench during the 1991 Stanley Cup final chirping Brian Bellows. And when we say chirping, we really mean chirping. Here’s the extremely NSFW video if you’re one of the few who haven’t seen it.
After the Pens/Caps alumni game this morning, we spoke with Trottier about reuniting with his old teammates, that YouTube video and where he would have loved to have played an outdoor game during his career.
Q. What did you think of how you played today?
TROTTIER: I felt really good leg-wise and as far as the excitement of it all. Hands weren’t where I wanted them, but I said to myself I’m not going to beat myself up about it, I’m just going to enjoy the day.
How did it feel to play again with Mario and some of your old teammates?
They were phenomenal, great guys. Everyone was cheering for each other really good with a little teasing here and there.
What did you think about the game ending in a tie and not going to a shootout?
These guys don’t know what a shootout is! [Laughs] It would have been great to go to a shootout, but time restrictions are what they are, but it’s fun to be part of the weekend. It wasn’t about who won, but about the atmosphere. Washington made all the effort to get up here and play against us and I think they deserve a lot of credit. I hope it was entertaining for the fans.
Are you aware at how big of a phenomenon the YouTube video of you and Kevin Stevens heckling Brian Bellows during the ‘91 Cup final has become?
It’s becoming more of a cult following, you know. It keeps you alive in the eyes of certain audience. It’s not one of the proudest moments, but you say to yourself it’s part of the game, no one takes it on the ice real serious. We all take our shots, we all get our shots.
Did that heckling of Bellow makes its on the ice as well?
It wasn’t just Brian, it was the whole team. They’re yelling at us, we’re yelling at them.
You have a prediction for the game tomorrow?
Well, you just hope the good guys win. It’s here in Pittsburgh, I’m sure the boys are gonna play hard. We live here, so we’re gonna root our little alums off for the hometown.
During your career, if you could have played an outdoor game anywhere, where would it be?
Man, I don’t know, that’s a great question. We had some really good rivalries with Philly and New York. Weather permitting it would have been great to play one of those teams where we had our best rivalries in our hey-day. Probably with a Canadian team you could take your pick up there. It would have been awesome to play an outdoor game up in Canada, you know, in front of the Canadian crowd. Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton … it would have been great anywhere.
January 2nd, 2011
