Greek God - Chris Chelios

Here you have one of the best defensemen of all time. I rave about him often. Flat out right – the dude is one of my heroes. He’s 45 years old and just signed for another year with Detroit.

Fantastic!

He’s about three weeks older then Bronzy, my youngest brother. Bronzi’s still playing the game too. They’re both walking with wood – which is saying a lot. Though I never made it to the NHL (neither did Bronzy) at 49 – still skating – damn right. Ehh?

But Chelios, I mean what can I say guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot to mention that he was born in Chicago. I think that makes him a US citizen. Hey it does doesn’t it? And when he was fifteen his family moved to Poway, a small town in the hills near San Diego. I think that makes Poway a famous town, ehh? The bass fishermen will tell ya different about what makes Poway famous.

Chris played junior hockey for the Moose Jaw Canucks and had a couple of college seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers. Now if Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and the whole state of Wisconsin aren’t a couple of great places to be in the back woods then I don’t know shit.

You know he’s the oldest active player right now. He’s also got more penalty minutes then any active player. Give Sean Avery a few more seasons and that will change. Doesn’t he just play the best damn style of old time hockey? Yep, Sean walks with wood too.

Maybe those of you don’t know but Chelios was drafted in the second round (40th overall) by the Montreal Canadians in 1981. Take a look at some of the other greats from that draft: Al McInnis, John Vanbiesbrouck, Grant Fuhr, Ronny Francis, Bobby Carpenter, Mike Vernon, and Dale Howerchuk. Great players all of them! Ehh? But where are they today. Betcha don’t know this, but Kirk McCaskill, a pitcher for the Angels in the mid ‘80’s, was also in Chelios’ draft. He was picked 64th overall.

Back before Chris started playing Juniors he lived with his folks in Southern California. Well if you guys remember Gavin (Being Gavin) from one of my earlier tales; he got to play in a tournament with Chris. It must have been an open age group arrangement because Gavin was in his twenties at the time a Chris couldn’t have been sixteen yet. Gavin said that Chelios was a super star even then – just amazing or some shit as that. The tournament was being held at a mountain resort, maybe Squaw Valley, I don’t know for sure. But they all got to ski and Gavin said that Chelios didn’t know shit about how to do it. But that didn’t stop him none, no way. Gavin said that from the top of the slope Chris just went balls to the wall straight down. No slaloming or nothing. Just hauling ass – get outta my way fearlessness. Kinda like he plays hockey even today. He doesn’t back down from nothing.

Chris represented the US in four different Olympics – 1984, 1998, 2002 and 2006. He was the captain of the latter two and won a Silver Medal in 2002 at Salt Lake City. He’s also played in two World Cups, three Canada Cups, a whole bunch of NHL All Star games or whatever was played in place of it in several years.

After being with the Canadians he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the summer of 1990. Earlier in the season he had shared co-captaincy with Guy Carbonneau in Montreal. Pretty damn impressive for an American kid in that cultured French Canadian city. Again in Chicago he was the captain from 1995 through 1999. Late in the season of ’99 he was traded to Detroit, where I now cheer him on.

Twenty-four seasons in the NHL and signed on for one more. Shitski that’s great. Detroit has been good to him too. In 2002 he won the Norris Trophy for the third time. He lead the league in plus/minus with an extremely impressive PLUS 40. Take that to the bank, ehh!

So what else did he do in the 2001/2002 season? Lets see he won the silver medal in the Olympics. He was a first team All Star. He and his Redwing buddies beat the Hurricanes for the Stanley Cup. That was the second time they engraved his name on Lord Stanley’s revered trophy. He had thirty-nine points in the regular season and fourteen in the playoffs. Not bad for a kid that was forty years old. You know, you ought to be impressed. I sure the fuck am.

One of the reasons that I’m glad Chelios resigned with Detroit is that if they make the playoffs again this year and he stays healthy, he’ll only need to play in two of the games to become the all time leader in playoff games played. Something, ehh?

So what will he do when he does decide to retire. I know he owns a couple of restaurants in Michigan, but those are just investments. I know that cuz of family and friends he summers often in Southern California. Kinda like a snowbird ehh? No way, he heads there to work out with some of the other supreme players in the league.

Maybe he’ll open up a restaurant in San Diego, LA or Orange County. His dad owned some classy joints for many years I hear. Or maybe he’ll show up in some pickup games with his brother Steve.

Steve’s an OK guy too. Shuffled around the minor leagues a bit; never getting to the big show like Chris. But damn if he isn’t the spittin image of Chris. Same Greek nose and olive skin. Just not quite as tall and shoots left instead of right as Chris does. Steve had a little bit of time playing in a beach roller hockey league that got some TV time. That was some crazy shit – I thought it might have a chance of making it big time. Yeah so much for this old fart’s opinions of things.

I remember playing in a tournament against a team that had Steve Chelios playing with them. Just a few things I recall about that event.
One – I thought it was Chris when he came in the rink.
Two – Steve dresses like an absolute hobo both on and off the ice. Must be the bachelor beach boy attitude or something. (Yep, a life I wish I coulda lived if it wasn’t my calling to the back woods.)
Three – Steve’s got a playing attitude like Chris’.
Four – I think we (Orange County Outlaws) got kicked out of the tournament after the first or second game because of our feistiness off ice after the game while still in the rink. I’m pretty sure that one of my defensive partners was throwing chairs and tables around out in the public area or snack bar.

Damn if we haven’t been kicked out of bunches of places. To be an Outlaw you had to be rowdy. You had to have a certain charisma to be allowed to have our logo on your jersey. We always proclaimed that if we couldn’t win on the ice then we’d win in the bar.

I guess that’s the difference between being a hack like me and being the Greek God Chelios. Chris put his priorities on the game, I put it on the party. Hooyah!!!

Hey guys that about wraps it up for another week. Skate hard, like Chelios and keep walking with wood my friends.

Jasper here pinching off another one.