The Champion's Mindset: Lessons from Clark Gillies' Legendary Career | 006

Hey, I'm super excited today to bring you an incredible interview with one of my dear friends Clark Gillies. Clarkie as we call him is one of the best teammates friends you could ever have always providing laughs and jokes and tons of energy. And, you know, unfortunately, he has since passed. So we recorded this interview a couple years ago, but he passed away January 21 2022, after a long battle with cancer. So I love Clarkie. So join me as I sit down with this hall of famer as he shares his stories from growing up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and learning to play hockey at a young age, all the way up through junior and making the jump to play for the Regina pats. So Clarkie played from 1974 to 1988. absolute leader, he was the captain of the islanders from 77 to 79. And he won four Stanley Cups in a row with them from 1980, all the way through to 83. By 950, a career games he had 319 goals, 378 assists and 1023 penalty minutes, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002. And today, he's here sharing this incredible story on how he did it and what his takeaways were. And he has some amazing stories about LR Uber and what a leader and mentor he was for him. And he also talks about his mental preparation required for success at the highest level. So this is another All Star sharing his success codes with all of us and buckle up because this is an amazing interview, you're gonna love it. And, you know, it's probably one of my favorites that we've done so far. So, so I hope Islander fans, Clark Gillies, fans, the ghillies family, enjoy this interview and look at it as a celebration of life of an amazing career of a player who would always be there for his teammates no matter what, and just an all around great guy. So without further ado, here's Clark Gillies. So tell us about your childhood. Where did you grew up? What was your family like? Well,

I grew up in a little town in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. That was born April 7 1954. To was a third. I had an old I have an older sister who she was first I have an older brother, Doug, Diane. And so I'm the baby of the family. If you talk to my brother and my sister, they say that, you know, I was the chosen one, you know, good to say I got all special treatment. But yeah, I grew up in a, you know, two bedroom house. My parents had one, my brother and sister had the others, and I just sort of small town. mutia 30,000 people then I think it's still 30,000 people, you know, 63 years later, but a very meager beginnings. My dad worked for eton's of Canada. My mom was a receptionist for one of the eye doctors in town. Brother and sister and I went to the elementary school a couple blocks up the street. Parents worked all day. So my sister, my brother, and I come over lunch every day, make our own lunch and back to school in the afternoon. And there was just fun. I mean, Moosejaw is a great little town. I mean, it's, it was just play baseball, football, and hockey in the wintertime. I mean, it was everything was outdoors, of course. I mean, anybody who grew up in Canada knows that it's kind of chilly up there. So anything that's wet will freeze. And if anything that's frozen, if you can get your skates there, you can go go for skates. So you know that was it was I was very fortunate to be able to grow up in that environment. My parents, you know, were were very strict when it came to things like telling the truth and you know, doing your chores and treating people with respect. Always sticks in my head. My dad always used to say respect your elders, whoever whoever they are. Because, you know, you got to show some pride and respect to those people that are older than you like okay, whatever I always did. But you know also growing up in Lucia, when you when you get the opportunity to kind of, there's really not a whole lot to do, there's really not a lot of ways to get in trouble. So every waking Oh, especially during the wintertime, every waking moment I get home from school. Whatever homework I had, I did threw my skates on and most times just skated two blocks to the outdoor rink that we skated at every day. And we'd go up there and skate and you know till we had to go home for dinner and we were allowed to go back to the rink with the lights turned off at nine o'clock at night. So we back escaped from seven The nine but every single day we were on the ice. And it was just it was just amazing. I don't know what it would be like how parents deal with their kids in a metropolitan area like New York. I mean, there's only a limited amount of ice surfaces where where we grew up, we had every corner had an outdoor rink, every river was was a was a rank for us. Every frozen pond was a rink for us. So we had so many opportunities to go and play. And it was it was just awesome. So

you grew up skating, but who got you into hockey? Was it your brother? Or was it your parents?

Well, like my, my dad, my dad was a was a player when he was younger, and then he realized he wasn't gonna do much. And I didn't really know this but he he became a referee. Strangely enough, I you know, a lot of guys do it, you know, they can make it while playing hockey. So they get involved with the refereeing side of it. My brother was, excuse me, my brother is pretty good player. It was a good role model for me. So, when I was five years old, I finally got to the point where I said to my dad, I said, can I go, can I go skate? So I got a pair of my little brother skates, my brother's old skates, excuse me. And I went and said to my dad, Ken, where's my stick? And I have one of Doug's old sticks. And he says, No, you go, you go to the rink, and you skate without a stick. He said, When you learn how to skate, and not fall down without a stick, then I'll give you a stick. And I thought it was kind of cruel at the time, but when I think back on it and was does you know, we all know anybody who's played hockey that stick becomes kind of a crutch it's like the tripod you know. So learning to skate without the without the stick I think was very advantageous to me at a young age, not knowing it of course. And I think finally after I don't know how long it took, I we say after the first year, I came home one day and I said to my dad, I said Dad never fell down today he said alright, you can have the stick. And then I started you know, starting to shoot the puck and you know, raise the puck you know that we use of leased out fun because the the outdoor rinks were were basically stacks of two by 10s You know, four or five feet high four or five boards high. And those were the boards so we've started out if you can raise it to the first board and then if you can raise the second board and up up up and then when you finally raise it over the over the board's into the snowbank you'd really accomplished what you set out to do right. So we started very basic. I played my first organized hockey when I was seven peewee I guess it was called at that time and then it just progressed from there playing peewee Bantam midget I got I got to be a pretty big kid at an early age. So I got the I got the play up where nowadays kids can't they gotta play in their age brackets all the way through, right? So when I was 11, I played with 1516 years old, an old 1516 year old guys and midget. They made a special rule for me so I could play because I was just basically dominating all the kids that I was playing with. I was always so much bigger than all the other kids to Yeah, went went through all the different levels of hockey peewee, mid, PeeWee Bantam midget Junior v. And then, you know, on to major junior hockey and Regina, but was fortunate again, when he talked about, you know, how much hockey can one person play, there were times when I was 1314 15 years old, I played on five different teams. So every single night, every single day of the week, basically, I was either practicing and playing a game sometimes two practices playing a game that was getting a tremendous amount of hockey and which, you know, and I say to these says, they said, going back to what he said earlier, these poor kids around here, they get to skate a couple times a week where we're skating a couple of times a day, forget about a couple things. I never got tired of it. It was just it was just so much in your your whole being right. That's all you wanted to do. I played with my brother in midget you know for your brother's four years older than me I played the midget hockey with him. I played Junior B hockey with him only because I was you know, I guess good enough to play at an upper level but that was just just crazy how it was developed through the you know, not expecting anything never ever thinking of the NHL when I was 14 1516 years old until the later on, you know, when I was about 17 Really finally thought about it.

So once you decided that you wanted to level up your hockey career, where did you want to go? What team was your goal?

I was dead set on playing junior hockey and Moose Jaw. And then when I turned 17 The team, the junior team which had won the they were the original champions of the Western Hockey League back in 1965. And they go, and they were called the boost shot Canucks. And they were Chicago Black Hawk jerseys. And they were that was back when Regina was sponsored by Montreal and Lucia was sponsored by by Chicago and St. Van where the Bruins and so on and so on. So I was really looking forward to wearing that Chicago Black Hawk uniform in Moose Jaw. And as I said, the team folded that year and I'm like, am I gonna stick around here and play another year midget? Or am I gonna, you know, go someplace else. And lo and behold, Dell Wilson, it was a GM and Regina and the coach at that time had was early in your field. And early played 14 or 15 years in the NHL. I didn't know much about Earl but and he had just recently coached the year before that, I think he coached the islanders. So Earl and Dell came down to Moose, John sat with my dad and I and said, we'd like to have liked you to come and play in Regina. Well, for a kid from Lucia to play in Regina, that was sort of taboo, right? Good. We'd grown up beating the hell out of each other for you know, up to that point. And I was I wasn't sure. I said, I'm not really sure. You said well, why don't you come down and watch and watch a game and I was not so much today? Sure. I wasn't playing Regina. I wanted to play in the Western Hockey League. But I wasn't sure talent wise, I didn't have the confidence in my ability. You know, because I'm just in my head. I didn't know if I was good enough. So we went down to watch exhibition game and I said to my dad afterwards, I said, Dad, I think I can I can do this. He goes well. There's a game Friday night, we'll come down they want you to play Friday night. So I went down and we played the swiftcurrent Bruins Swift Current Broncos exhibition game. And I got I don't know if was the first first shift ahead or the second shift, I got in a fight with a guy and beat the crap out of them. And some other guy jumped in to help that guy and I beat the crap out of him. And the third guy decided not gonna let that happen to his two buddies. So he jumped in and I have two or three fights, I got thrown out of the game, my jersey was all ripped off and I'm sitting in the locker room, just like, you know, kind of sitting there like this. And my dad comes in and he looks at me, he goes, You okay? Yeah, I'm fine. He goes, What do you think I go, I think I'm gonna like playing in this league. True story. Then the rest is history. And I was just signed a contract with the Pats the next day and moved down to Regina, and, you know, had three wonderful years of Regina. But along the lines of it, that was the year that was the year that I finally realized that I had an opportunity and that opportunity was kind of shown to me by Earl in your field. Earl was an awesome coach. He treated us like, like grown men. And you know, if you could ever feel like you were in the NHL with a guy like Earl, it was it was awesome. So he says to me one day said, I want to meet maybe down a billy Hickey, Billy Hickey, who played for the Montreal Canadiens, the Oakland seals passed away a couple of years ago. Billy and Ernie Hickey owned a bar in Regina. So Earl said maybe down at Billy's bar. And I want to talk to you for a few minutes. So I had no idea what he was talking about. What do you want us to talk about? So he sat there? He said, You can have a beer. So which I did 17. But and he started talking and he said he finally got to the point says Do you know? Do you know the ability that you have? I go? I guess I don't know. I don't really know what you mean by that. And they said Do you know how good you are? Do you know what you could be what? Where you can go in this game hockey. I said, you know, basically, it's just what I was I was a big strapping kid for Moosejaw just loving life and playing the game I loved not thinking about too much other than playing for the Regina path. He said if you apply yourself, then do the things. I mean, you can skate, you can fight you can score. Do you know how much of a wanted commodity you're on the National Hockey League right now. He said that every team would want a guy like you. But you got to make sure you do the right things. Don't screw up along the way. And I was never like that anyway, I was always very, you know, always stuck pretty much to the rules I was given and didn't break too many of them. And so he said just just work hard and do the right things and you'll be a star in the National Hockey League someday. All right, good. Thanks, finished beer and off I went. And then just from that day on just kind of had the self belief and belief in myself. that, Jesus, you know, if he's right, you know, I could I could actually have some fun even more fun with this game and, you know, maybe at some point in time maybe raise a Stanley Cup. So when he says do the right things, and he gives you criteria, or did he, I think it was more, I think it was more that that he kind of looked at me and just said, you know, don't screw up, meaning don't get caught up in one drinking, as you know, we were all kids that are away from home, too, to stay out of trouble. You know, again, it goes back to respect the people around you. And do all of the things work hard on the ice. Train hard, work hard, do the things that are gonna get you to the NHL, which means protect your teammates, which I always did. skate fast, shoot hard, hit hard, and you got a chance. But he didn't really go into any real specific sketch. He just he just kind of looked at me and said, you know, he kind of like you know what I'm talking about. And they're just met a awesome Junior career, great teammates, and we had a very successful team when the memorial cup of 74 So you know, when you play on a team, playing a team like that, you're gonna get a lot of luck from a lot of different scouts. So every night they were, we had a building full of scouts watching our team play, so that was a real a real good stepping stone for me playing in Regina.

So fighting was a big part of your game did did fighting come naturally to you?

I wasn't I don't think I was a bully or anything like that. I was like I said, I was always one of the biggest kids. But I had my fights in a playground after school, you know? Fighting some of the bigger guys at school they were picking on somebody else. I always seem to be helping somebody else. Right? Yeah. Pretty mild mannered guy. Always was loved to play jokes on guys. I think it was always the you know, life of the party when the party started. But something happened you know, when you get on the ice and you you got guys that you're responsible for. And this was the same when I was younger too. It was the biggest kid the biggest kid on the other team did something to one of my guys. My brother was my brother had 10 times a temper I had my brother was a bit of a hothead. I used to see him fight a lot when he was when he was growing up you know he's four years older than me so you kind of watch your brother handle himself a little bit my brother and I had a few neighborhood fights we took on some of the other families in the neighborhood the two of us and we won most of them but it just it just I always I always look at my fighting I never fought just a fight I was either one or two things I was either trying to kind of pick up the morale on the team get out and get you know light a spark in a light a little bit of a flame get guys going. Most of all, probably was taking care of my teammates. Even in junior when I played with Mike one Chuck and Dennis object. Anytime anybody took any liberties with those two guys, I was the first one there. And that carried over into the NHL on average. First year, not so much but the second year when Brian Traci came, you know, Traci was my sentiment, it was my sentiment for a very long time. And I said, nobody's gonna touch Brian Traci as long as I'm around. And then Mike bossy after that came and played with Traci and I. So it was always more. I won't call it protection, but I will call it you know, it was was a was a great I didn't know what the hell they call it. But I was kind of the factor that kept guys away from them. If I wasn't out there, the guys took liberties with him when I was on the ice. Nobody did much. So I use it as one for intimidation to protect my teammates. And three it was was I don't want to call it instant entry into the NHL. But you know, when you're when you can skate, shoot and score and fight. We got a pretty good chance of playing, you know, major, major hockey.

You've had a long career. What do you attribute to that? We all know there are injuries along the way. Didn't that try to stop you from playing at certain points?

Well, you know, being one of the bigger kids in town didn't didn't help or didn't hurt. I was doing most of the hitting instead of getting hit but there were times when you know you get crushed a little bit. I was fortunate that I now have both my knees replaced but I didn't hurt or hurt my left knee you The second last game of the season and 83. So I missed six weeks, I had a torn lateral ligament, which I came back from in six weeks and missed, missed the first two rounds played the second two rounds. But it worked extremely hard to get back in six weeks. That was, that was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. That's what you're talking about, there was a lot of dedication to want to come back and play. Then I heard my right knee in my last year up in Buffalo, but for the most part, I stayed pretty healthy. I had a few, you know, bump broken bones in my hand from fighting and stuff like that. But I didn't have anything that kept me out for a long time. I had little mononucleosis back in the late 70s 7778. I missed Mr. month of the season there. But I think, you know, I think we I followed, you know, our training regimen pretty steadily, we had to do certain things. Between riding the bike and lifting few few weights, whenever I did a heavy weights, but we live, we lifted weights to keep certain parts of our body strong, we did leg weights, we did all the stuff we were supposed to do. So things a little different was a little different back then it is now but whatever training we had, I thought, pretty much if you stuck to it, you're going to keep yourself in pretty good shape. And the healthier and better shape you were the more physically you were going to be sound. So I think just kind of following all the rules following the training regimen. No, as I said, going back to doing the things you're supposed to do, and it'll help you in the long run long career. Some people say you played 14 years and now 14 years still pretty long career. But you see some guys now playing youngers case, you know, 25 years. I mean, come on a lot of guys 16 1718 years. And I always tell people well, I played 14 Regular seasons. And I said I played two seasons of playoff games. And playoff games are about five I would say five times the intensity of a regular season game. So if you really want to do the math here, we're getting up into that 1718 year career that if it was only regular season then might have lasted longer.

But what about pregame jitters? Was there anything you did in order to keep yourself under control or calm or like in the zone?

I used to have a really bad problem when I was younger. I remember one instance I was out in the hallway and I'm looking down at the other locker room I'm like, all I can do is think about going after those guys down the hall that's we're playing these guys in a few minutes I get I would get so intense. I didn't sleep very well during the afternoons I'd wake up at a pool of sweat thinking about you know, depending on which team I was playing who I might have to fight tonight. And I would get by the time I got to the rink at five o'clock I was so I'm like I'm ready to play the game now. And I get so intense I go for the warmup and I go so hard to warm up I'd come in after a while I had nothing left. So I had to try and do things to sort of take my mind off the game was my fight said to my wife one night I said honey i i had a real problem tonight. I peaked too early. When she goes What do you mean you're you're peeking at the other guys or what were you doing? I got Nevermind. Nevermind what I used to that so I actually I think I went to I may have gone to a psychologist or something to talk about that. And the advice that I got is that you that you can't wake up on the day of the game and have the game. So in your head that you don't think of anything else you got to distract. Find certain distractions. So what I started to do, I would eat my pregame meal around noon, go to bed at one and I would watch soap operas. And I would watch all my children started at one One Life to Live started at two. And then General Hospital hospital started at three. And by the time General Hospital started at three o'clock, I was so tired of watching the other two that I kind of fell asleep for an hour I'd get up at four shower getting the car be at the rink by six we were playing at eight o'clock back in those days. So I hadn't even really thought about the game until I actually got to the arena that night. And that believe it or not. So when helped me because then I would go through it. So when the game started, that's when I was peaking. That's when I was most ready to go. But it was a huge problem for me. I would just I would just burn myself out before many many games. Yeah. I couldn't control it. I just couldn't control my emotions. And finally, I learned how to do it. That was a that was a big turning point for me because I played I played so much better after I could control it like that.

So your team made it to the memorial cup. What was that experience like? What did you do to make it happen? What do you think the reason for your success was that year? Well,

I think, you know, I've had a lot of talks with Brent Sutter. And you know, Brent has had a very successful career with the red yo. What are they now the rebels are rustlers, whatever they were called the wrestlers back then but in rent told me one time it's junior hockey is kind of goes in three year cycles, right? You start with a bunch of young guys and they're 1718 years old, and then you go three years and bang, hopefully you get a shot of the World Cup. And if you don't, then you kind of start over again with a lot of young players and then they grow and you get another shot. And that was kind of the thing with our team. 13 guys started together in 1972. We went actually 13 rookies, we went to the Western final against Edmonton in our first year, almost went to Memorial cup our first year as a bunch of 13 year old or 17 year old 13 1317 year olds. But like anything else, we got disappointed, we didn't get there. The next year we were the year better. But unfortunately, a little cockier than we were the year before. And we played the Flin Flon bombers in the first round of the playoffs and got beat for straight and this team was picked to go to the memorial cup again that year. So as much success as we had and everybody was very happy for us the first year the hammer came down pretty hard on us the following year when we got beat by Flin Flon they go this this team was wasn't supposed to lose the Flin Flon you're supposed to be better than that. And the following year, a couple of guys got sacrifice for one of our guys de falter came to us from Victoria. He helped our team a lot. We lost two of the 13 through the 13 guys got traded in Victoria for him. So the team was making some moves. One of the key things are last year junior one. Most junior teams get a couple of weeks off during the Christmas season. Or last year junior our management took us to Sweden. And we played in a two weeks tournament played about five or six exhibition games against elite teams in Sweden, Finland, played outdoors a few times over there, which kind of cool, but we played in what's called the Ahern cup, and it was Sweden, Finland. Czech checklist of akhiya there, I think there was a Russian team there about sixteenths. So instead of taking two weeks off, we went over there and stayed playing for two weeks. We were away from home missed the holidays, of course, and all that stuff. But when we came back to the second half of our junior season, or last year, we were far and away the best team. We had gone over there, we'd gotten their heads beat in a little bit because we were playing older guys. And it was tough, but it was a great experience. And that kept us in really good condition. I think it kind of hardened us a little bit you know where the rest of the guys are home party and a little bit at Christmas time we're out there still playing, came back breeze through basically breeze through the rest of the season and then ended up beating Calgary in the western final and went to the memorial cup in Calgary. Now. I think one of the advantages that we had will, I've always said even when we won with the founders with distri ingredients, you got to be good, which we were you got to be healthy, which we were and you got to be really lucky. And I think all of those three things, you know, really come into when you win. Well, we knew we were good. So confidence wise we were we were right there. We had done everything as a junior team that we needed to do. We were healthy guys stayed in pretty good shape. We were pretty tough team. So teams didn't take advantage of us in any way shape or form. And of course, you know, you get your breaks along the way. But going into Calgary I don't know I don't remember if we were considered the favorites. There were the St. Catharines Blackhawks had well fame on Rick Hampton. You know few guys that ended up being pretty good players in the NHL. And then again, they the Quebec ramparts and at that time they had I think each one ARD was on the ramparts. They had a couple of tough one tough guy Richard Dante's but you know all talented guys, so I'm not even sure if our team was favored to win them on World Cup. We went through, you know, the round robin tournament where you play everybody in this and then then they I don't even know how they break it down. But we ended up playing in the final game against a couple back ramparts. And I think after the first period we we were losing three to one. So now we come into the locker when the coach comes in and everybody's kind of befuddled right? Because we're a better team than the comeback ramparts. And the coach left the room with all the kind of looked at each other. Alright, well was, what do you got to do here? And I said, I'll get things started donor, don't worry, I'll get things started early in the second period. So I went after this guy Richard, Dante's who was their toughest guy challenged him to a fight and beat him pretty good. And all the guys on the bench like, Yeah, well, at the end of the second period, we were winning five to three. So it just was somebody needed to get things going. That was part of my leadership role on the team to go out there and what we had all guys all the guys were all leaders, they're all I mean, dentists, ob Chuck is was the top junior player in Canada that year, Greg jolly, who was the number one pick overall and 74. Myself. Goalie at Eastern hausky played first round pick for the St. Louis Blues in 75. Much a tough guys bunch of role players, it's like everybody, you know, it's like a lot of the top three or four guys get all the headlines, but there's other 16 guys that dress for every game, you know, they all had a job to do. And fortunately, every guy went out there and did their job.

So you've gone on to achieve your life long dream of winning the Stanley Cup. What was that experience like for you? What did that feel like?

By day, it wasn't as heavy then as it is now. But because it was held a lot stronger. But yeah, that that that 1980 playoff series was was very memorable. It's just, we started against LA, played the kings in the first round. We beat him pretty easily. In New York, the first two games went out to LA they actually beat us in game three, somehow. And then we beat him pretty good in game four. And then we get to go to Boston to play the Boston Bruins. And funny story that night we got into Boston, we were sitting by I was rooming with Bobby Nystrom at that time. And we're watching the 11 o'clock news as we all did, you know and you want to watch the sports see what the sports report guy the sports anchor has to say. So the news anchor turns it over to you know, Hey, John, what do you think of the Bruin Outlander series? How many games you think will go he says out and he said well, he said the Bruins the Bruins intimidate down there so bad. He said that islanders Warren they forget about playing in the garden. He goes forget about playing in the garden. He said there'll be so scared to come in here he says I see the Bruins winning this thing and game five year back in Boston. So with that, I thought Bobby Nystrom was gonna go through the TV at this guy. I hope to calm down Bobby calm down. He goes no, there's no goddamn way that's gonna happen. He says I'm telling you right now Clark. He said you gotta Riley I got John Wayne sick. How he's got Wayne Cashman he went just that went down the list Gordon lanes got so and so and those are gonna be our designated guys and if anything happens those are the guys that were in a fight. I said alright, fine. Then that was really a major and he didn't just say it to me. He said it to every guy in the locker room all the tough guys that what this guy said. So there's not we're not gonna let that happen. Turns out game one was a was a pretty mild game. There were two minor penalties. We ended up winning one nothing and overtime. Second game day in between the sports guys from Boston were all over the Berlin's Bruins didn't play their game. They didn't come out. They didn't play tough. They let down is off the hook. Yeah. So we're ready for game two. All Hell's gonna break loose in game two. And sure enough, it did. I was first a second shift. O'Reilly comes after me. We go at it. Shortly after that Bobby's fighting Wednesday. And then towards the end of the first period, because I know Bobby and I were still in. I had a second fight with O'Reilly at the end of the first period. So Bobby and I are both in the locker room with because we have less than five minutes to go on the period. And also I'm here all this ruckus out on the ice and don't you know the benches are cleared and there's a brawl going on? Well, Bobby wants to get his skates back on. He's going back on the ice. I had to tackle him. Because if he goes back in the ice, he's suspended probably for the rest of the playoffs, whatever. I get all of them. And we sit there and the guys come in one by one. Bobby Lorimer was good teammate, great defenseman for our team. He comes in he's got to cut he's got to cut under his eye that is like Gosh, gushing blood but he's gone he just did just fine stand Jonathan and Jonathan hit him with one of these classic government cuts split his face open. They throw him off the ice but he doesn't even know he's cut right he's just like I know he's part of it. This is awesome. Bobby Clarke you get incomes Gary Howard. He had just finished one of these boom a cash from boom. They're both in a nice punching each other and then so on. So on Gordy Lane comes in. And that was such a turning point for our hockey team that the Boston Bruins didn't run us out of Boston Garden. And I think the whole league kind of stood up and took notice of what happened that night. And we ended up searched, long story we went on and won that game two to one and overtime as well. So we know we go back to New York. We're up to go back to New York. Again, here we go. Riley and I the first shift back at it again, right. This back and forth back and forth. Before the end of the first period of Riley night had two fights. He got out of the penalty box, he tried to stick me and we went at it again. And this just went on, we ended up winning game three. So we're up three games and nothing against these guys. And sure enough, we got a chance to close it out. We don't have to go to back to the Boston Garden. And we're playing we're winning two to one with about 20 seconds to go. O'Reilly who just never quit. I mean, I got to give the guy total respect. He just never ever stopped no matter what you did doing. He comes out he scores the tying goal and end up scoring overtime. We go back to Boston. We ended up winning. I think we won the fifth game four to one and beat the Bruins. And that's when everybody else went. Did anybody see that series? Did you see the islanders? Did you see what they did to the Bruins. And it took the whole league I think just kind of went nice. And we played buffalo on the third round, beat them in six games for games too. And then went on to play the flyers. And flyers still at that time. You know, they were pretty tough hockey team they home grand and Ben Wilson and think DuPont was done playing by them but the Watson brothers on defense and pretty good goaltending. And they had well I think they had went 35 games that year without losing which set a whole new streak. I think it still stands in the NHL. So they had a good hockey team. And they were still tough but we went in you know went into Philly in the first two games were in Philly, and I think we won we won Game one I don't know if it was in overtime Dennis fosmon scored a power play goal I think might have been an overtime because they were talking about them getting a penalty and overtime we lost game two went back one game stream and four so we're one away from from winning the Stanley Cup went back to Philly last game five and came home with a chance to win the cup Sunday Saturday afternoon may 24 1980 There was a two o'clock start out it's hella tough to go to the rink when is wet at five degrees but I don't know that I slept the night before I didn't sleep much for six weeks so between knowing I had to fight this guy and fight that guy and then how important the games were in this net but remember waking up that morning just this is it this is do you want to go back to Philly? Not really you know we would want one the one game we needed to win there. And now if we went out at home we got it so that afternoon was probably the most spine tingling excitement that I've ever felt going into hockey I mean you just you can't breathe you're so you're just so intense and you never know at any given moment what's going to happen on the ice because both teams are are very talented both teams are tough. I ended up having a fight with Paul Holmgren at the in the third period close towards the end of the period we had we'd gone up for to two up to two periods and then they came out and got two quick ones tied and for him and I don't know what happened with longer than I but we got into a pretty good skirmish in the corner and a couple of heavyweights going at it and I think it just kind of showed both teams that there was not gonna be any quit and anybody we're gonna go out there and pay the price and do whatever we had to do that's all history now but go into overtime and and Bobby Nystrom got a great Pastor John Deleon scored a seven will have enough needless to say, it was a big moment. Yeah, I didn't see much because I had just gotten off the ice and somebody said what did you do a nation scored? I said well, at the time he scored I had my head between my knees. I was sorta breath. I had just gotten off the ice and I finally looked up and I see Oh, you guys are jumping on over the boards and I go Holy shit. We just won the Stanley Cup and mob and Bobby in the corner and stuff and it was a moment that it's hard to describe. hard to describe. Because as you said it was just kind of the 30 some odd years of almost 30 years of playing hockey and you finally get the cup. Right? And to, to have that moment was priceless. And when you say, How much does a cup weigh? And what does it feel like that lifted over your head? I had I was a captain in 1977 to 79. And before the AD AD season, I went to El Arbor and I said, Well, I think I want to give up the seats. I don't know whether it's bothering me, it's helping me hurting me. I don't feel comfortable with the see. And I can be a leader on this team without this thing on my shirt. I felt be honest with you, I felt more like a messenger than I did a leader when I was on the edge, because every time there was a penalty. Now go, go ask him what that was all about. I said, Ally trip that guy. What do you want me to rewind, go ask him about it. So I currency the referee. I figured out wants to know what that was all about. He said, got a tripping penalty. I said, Good. Good. I go back down. Now goes, What do you say? Just what I told you. It was a tripping penalty. He tripped the guy. So he'd look at me. You're an idiot.

And I was just laughed back down and say, Well, you asked me to go. I said I didn't want to go. I told you what happened. But I felt there was a lot of that stuff going on in certain things that I wasn't comfortable with. And I so I turned it over to he asked me who do you think would be a good fit? I said, I think Dennis Popham would be a great captain. You know, Danny had the ego he had, he was, you know, one of the elite players on the team. He had the ego, good leader in the locker room on the ice, and I said, Hey, it'd be perfect. And then he was low, and they handed him the cup. There are some photos. You see, the first guy standing behind them is me. And I think Danny had the cut for all of about five seconds. And I took it. And I took it and I didn't hold it like this. I had the bottom of it. And I skated around the ice. And I skated around the whole width of the ice just to the fans. And they just had it over my head. And I'm like, this is this is worth every minute of blood, sweat and tears that we've gone through that I've gone through that we've gone through to to get to this point. And I think the cup at that time weighed about a pound. Now I can't even lift it over my head. It's so heavy, but the great, great moment and and then to go on and win it three more times after that three in a row was was pretty special.

Yeah, so when Gratz Gretzky was my coach, and I remember talking to Wayne, and he told me about the time that you guys were playing and you just won the Stanley Cup and his team walked past the locker room and you guys were all covered in ice bags, and physically and emotionally spent. He said at that moment, he realized that maybe there was something missing from his team, and that maybe they hadn't really learned what it takes to win. You guys kind of had their number for a couple of years there.

I think you just hit a key point they hadn't learned what it takes to win. You have to go through some disappointments in order to experience that winning feeling we had with us and 78 when we lost to Toronto and 79 We lost the Rangers. We didn't do the things that we were supposed to do to win. And then in 80 We finally did them more physically. Sacrifice more, skated harder, hit more did all the things that we needed to win needed to do to win but we didn't learn that until we had gotten slapped in the face a couple of times I I've heard this story 100 times where were Wayne was walking by room and we're sitting in there and that that part is very true. I mean, granted it was the fourth cup so the the thing of jumping champagne and burning each other's eyes we've kind of gotten over that you know how are we gonna do this again? We know how much it hurt the last time we did that stuff. So we're sitting there this time we're probably just drinking Bud Lights and relaxing a little bit but there were plenty there was plenty of partying after that. But yeah, we had a lot of guys that played really really hard. And you know, you were you're gonna have you're gonna be beat up Kenny Morrow comes his. This is a guy that really comes to mind. Kenny Morell, who we got from the ad gold medal team. Played a bowling green watch. I watched him play during the Olympics and I'm like, you know, he looks looks like a bit of a slow lumbering defenseman, is that the best we could do as far as draft picks off that team, right? Not giving him any credit whatsoever. But it's it's a true test of my ability to pick out talent because Kenny Morrow came to our team and probably was, I think, to this day, in my opinion, he was one of the top five defensive defenseman I've ever, ever played, but he was so solid, so solid. But he played with so much pain. I would see Kenny, his knees were so bad. He would go in and have arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday and play on Thursday and not grimace one bit. I mean, we've all had surgeries, right? You know, even when you go in and you start cutting things out and stuff, it doesn't come back in a day. And Kenny would have it done. He gets shot up, you get cortisone shots and things like that. And he just go out there and play Dave longin. Another big burly defenseman, we had they just call him bammer farmer would play with those two of those big D rotation braces on each leg. And those things had to wait probably 10 or 15 pounds apiece back in those days. They weren't made out of fiberglass, they're made out of steel back in those days. And bammer were two of those right? He go out there and just play as hard out you know, and actually use them. He used to go down like that. And this whole thing was like steel. So guys a drill it off his leg and bam, we're just going. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. And so so we played with guys guys played a lot of injuries. I saw Brian trochee play with two broken ribs for the last second the last few rounds of the playoffs. And I've never broken a rib. But you know, I've gotten hit in the ribs and I bruised my ribs and stuff and how painful that is he played with two broken ribs Scott Stevens hit him in a second round of the playoffs crushed him on the boards. And he broke a couple of ribs but never missed the game. They wrapped them up even on blade. So you know that it takes it takes a certain breed of player and then a lot of guys that go I can't go I can't go where the guy that we had on our team just sucked it up and played and went out there and played hard. So and when you have teammates that are hurt, and they play, it makes you play at a different level to to listen, if he can play like that. I mean, I gotta go out there and put in solid effort to so. But in Wayne's defense, they they were really pick to beat us that year. And for us to beat them for straight was worse, I still don't believe it after you know, 30 years, I still don't believe that we beat them, you know for straight. But but it was it was a process that they had to go through. Unfortunately, the next year we played them they were much more prepared. And then they beat us in five in the for our run for the fifth cup. But but they they went on I said when when they finally beat us, I said if they can keep that team together, which back in those days, the player movement wasn't what it is now. They keep that team together, that team could win five in a row. And if it wasn't for that little mix up with I forget his first name Smith. He tried to shoot it up the middle hit the back of fear, skate and win and that and they lost the Calgary they would have won five in a row. I swear to God, I think they would have won five in a row. But seven out of five out of seven isn't bad either. So.

So after you retire, did you ever think that you would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Everybody said to me after I was retired, I retired in 88. So you got to wait five years. So what's that? That's 93. Then when 93 rolls around, you think well, maybe I'll get on the ballot for, you know, for the Hall of Fame. And it happened a couple of times. And I missed I think somebody said I missed by by one vote a couple of times. So I just sort of started to kind of forget about it. Now was disappointed a couple of times it was sort of really you know, I didn't know how it would take it. But I was very disappointed when I was so close and I missed it by a vote. And so I just gave up on in 2002. I was I was actually headed back to Moose Jaw for my mom's 80th birthday. And my wife Pam and I and our three daughters were sitting there during our layover in Toronto to head back to Regina. And pam, pam took the three girls. They went to the bathroom. And I'm sitting there and the phone rings. And it's my secretary from New York. And she goes call this number is 416592 something some I go who smooth that she goes just call him and call me back. Right? So I dial the number and I said that's a Toronto number. I wonder who's calling me. I don't really know anybody in Toronto at that time. And the phone voice on the other end. Yeah. Hi. Oh, hi, Clark. It's Kelly Massey. From I need you to speak with Jim Gregory. And I go Jim Gregory said he knew the head of the Hall of Fame. And sure enough, he comes on. And he goes, like to inform you. You've been chosen in the class of 2002 to be inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Well, as you can imagine, I was a blubbering idiot. I'm just speechless. He goes, cook, Clark. Hey, I need to ask you a question. I get hold on a second. And I'm like, bawling, right? And my wife is not there. She's in the bathroom. I'm sitting in the waiting room waiting for the next fight. All these people are looking at me like, oh my god, poor bass or what happened? And my wife comes back, she sees me crying. I tell her what happened? She goes, No, she goes, Oh, my God. Did something happened to your mom? I go, I didn't know. And I told her, and she and the girls, they all start crying. Well, then I look around to their way to go I go, Well, these people must think something really bad happened. I mean, he's he's obviously lost a member of the family or something. Because we're all crying. And I said, No, Jim, I'm fine. I said, Oh, thank you so much. And it was it was the probably the biggest struggle I've ever had. I've had a lot of good good moments, but that was that was special. And then Hall of Fame weekend, of course, you go up there and they you know, they treat you like royalty. And I was lucky enough to go in with Bernie Federico Rod landway. Myself and Roger Neilson when his builder at from his coaching which Roger passed away a couple of years after that, but the night of the acceptance speeches, which we all watch now, faithfully, every November when they, when they have the inductees. I as I said, I don't follow scripts too well, so I've made some bullet points, you know, 10 things wanted to start with, you know, some of my coaches growing up and you know, some of the influential people in my life and, you know, between family and, and friends and coaches and players and you know, the whole the whole basic list, you want to leave anybody out. And so I get up and I ready for my speech and I reach into my jacket pocket and Oh, shit. Now, please, things that I wrote down. I think I left him sitting on the on the bureau back in the hotel room, so I got away. Yeah. And it was probably the best thing I ever did. Because there was no looking down anywhere. It was just simply speaking from the heart. You know, thanking someone my first coach is obviously my parents, my brother and sister. And then of course, Arbor Tori, teammates, Traci, bossy. PIFA. And the whole the whole list. I mean, got through it. took a deep breath. Thanks, everybody, again, went sat down. But that was the weekend probably had 50 or 60 Close friends from New York up there for the weekend. Party the whole weekend long. It's anybody that's going to go to a Hall of Fame weekend, be ready because it's a long weekend. But so special. And to this day, it's it it means it means so much to me. It's really helped me you know, off the ice. I mean, when they introduce you to go you know, inducted in the Hall of Fame and 2002 is not a lot of guys can say that. Or have that moniker before they. But I've always I've always said that it's you know, there's a plaque of me in the hall of fame. But certainly wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for you know, the 20 guys I had around me for 12 years and we're playing for the islanders. So pretty special. But it's it's more of a it's a wheat trophy not a night trophy that's for sure.

You mentioned al Arbor so many times during this interview was he one of your biggest influences when it comes to your career?

Like it's so emotional I think but he just the way he was Al ever was such a father figure you know, I used to smoke when I was a younger kid everybody on the team smoke so I'll copy smoking one day he goes if everybody's gonna smoke around here I'll do the smoking. I don't want you smoking. Okay dad was like okay dad because he just looked at me. I mean, he me that looked at the only other person ever did that was my dad you know? And and just the way he just all through my 12 years with the elders that is my coach every year. Just the way he would we can be hard on yet and then he just so compassionate and just tell you things, you know. Along the way. Now the guy to build story built or our general manager was still still down in Florida working at 8586 years old with the Florida Panthers. One of the smartest hockey guys I've ever seen, he made some, he and his scouting staff made some amazing moves during up and up to and during our cup years. That didn't make that much sense to me. But again, I didn't think any more was going to be a good player either, but but I think owl and Bill Tory were probably two of the fairest Dofus influential guides that that I was fortunate enough to be around. And always has been as much as I wanted to be a bit of a crack up once in a while it was odd. Like I said, it was always late for the guy life of the party life or the locker room that's always always trying to play practical jokes on guys. l told me a story one time he goes, he goes I remember coming in. You guys were horrible. You guys were playing horrible. And I think you had one hit I came in and I was going up them up one side down the other and I said one hit you guys had one hit. That's unacceptable. And he walked out the door and he said I put my ear to the door to see what you guys would say. And he says I know is you. You stood up and go. All right, who ruined our perfect record who had that one hit? I said, No, I didn't I don't think I see this. I know it was you. He says I know. It probably was it sounds like something I would say you know, we had one incident which didn't turn out well for the for the one guy but owl came in one day. And he put an egg he had two dozen eggs and he put an egg in each guy's stall and lock room. So we're coming in, right and there's an egg sitting there. And there's a message coming here, you know, just waiting for Allah to come in and deliver the message about the egg. And so he comes in and he goes by you're probably all wondering why there's an egg. In your stall. I go malreaux Go Yeah, kinda. It's not breakfast, you know? So I guess I'll bet you when we play tomorrow night, I want each and every one of you to put those eggs, put an egg in your pants. And I'll bet you half of the eggs on unbroken when you get in here after the first break. Oh, very funny. Very funny, right. But he's delivering a message. I know, we've played soft and we need you to play harder. So with that, I was thinking of taking the egg and when Al turns back, I was gonna go plop it on top of his head. Well, before I had a chance to do it, Pat price got up and went over and slammed his egg on top of Al's head. Well, I have never seen l Arbor so mad. So pissed, like wanting to kill somebody. He didn't he he was almost speechless. And two weeks later, Pat price was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins and not the islanders. So and I to this, I always wanted to ask him, I never got an opportunity to play I always wanted to ask him, he said, Well, what do you think would happen if I broke that egg over your head? Do you think I'd have been playing in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks. And fortunately, I didn't do it. But I use some better judgment. Unfortunately, price he didn't. And it was gone. And I think to this day price, he still feels that he just kind of blew his chance to win a Stanley Cup. So because we wanted a couple of years later.

What was he like as a coach? What did he do differently than everybody else? Yeah,

Al was was a real technical guy. It was He was system had to really be followed very strictly. And we didn't have anything really exciting to have to do. I mean, there were times in practice, we would do two on ones for half an hour. And we go out we've been doing these things for two on ones for half an hour. How are we going to do this? You go to get it right. And that's all he would say. And then we do three on twos for the same thing. We do three on twos for half an hour, I go home guy getting tired of this. Keep doing them till you get it right. And then he would do it. His idea was that we found out later on. Yeah, of course we were getting it right. But he wanted to do it. So many times that when we got to if you ever got into one of the game, didn't have to think about it. It was automatic. You knew, you know and then we obviously did them as linemates you know you didn't go out there and play with the guy in the third line didn't play with the guy in the first line. You went with your teammate. So you're always practicing together. And the same thing with three on twos and we don't want to whatever the case may be 301 We just did things over and over and over again. So you didn't want it to happen. It just happened so naturally, because he uses the It's easy, especially me to, to get yourself in trouble when you start thinking. He said, If you don't have to think you're amazing, you know, he doesn't call me stupid. But what he was saying was, is that it's, it has to happen naturally. Or it's going to take you that split second and think about it. And then the moment is going to be gone. So everything happened really naturally for us. I had the good fortune, our lines were together a lot, I played with Trochim boss for four or five years and right from from day one, we never had to think about where each other were, we knew, you know, good positional players are in the right position most of the time. And, you know, I was going to the net, I mean, I knew my job, I'm going to the net, I'm taking as many guys with me to the net as I can tranches over here, boss just comes in behind picks up all the good stuff, and I was in front to get a rebound if need be. But we did different things. I mean, as a line that were sort of just never anything that we designed it I just sort of worked. And then once in a while we would get a little cute at practice, you know, and, and throw a couple of wrinkles in there that we had one called a triple weave, which was kind of fun. But nobody ended up nobody knew who was going to end up getting the puck but it was a guy that was open at the end of three weeks and stuff like this, but but everything everything like I said getting back to the way our worked with us was that it became it had to become natural. It's not something we had to think about when when the moment arose. And Al's other thing that was that he drilled into us we did we worked so much in our offense in our own defensive zone on defensive schemes to make sure everybody was covered this net, because his his theory always was that take care of your own end, the other end will take care of itself. I mean, it's true. I mean, you got guys like Traci and you got bossy, and you know, down the line, we have a bunch of guys going 25 3040 goals. The other end to take care of itself. But that's where you got to work in your own end is keep the puck out of your net, you're gonna put it in the other end. So defend it was always defense first and then let the other side take care of itself. I remember when Bill McMillan billing McMillan played, he played for our team for a while. And then when he retired, he became a coach. And he was there during the first couple of cups. And I don't remember it so much in in 1980. But in 81, something like that we were going for a second cup, made a pretty good year. And we were playing pretty well going into the playoffs getting close to the playoffs. You could see the you know the end of the seasons coming. And we're in first place right and doing what we're supposed to be doing in and out just at some point. It was like, didn't realize it, but it was about a month before the end of the season. We have the toughest practices between scrimmaging and drills and in skating after practice. I mean, literally up and down, up and down. And I went over to Billy McMillan, and I said, I said his nickname was Jackie, I said, Jackie, I said, is he got Is there something wrong here? I said, I said we're playing pretty good. I said he'd beaten the crap out of us. I said, a knee, you know, you can talk to the assistant coaches, you couldn't talk to Al like that. But you can talk to him. He goes. He said, I don't know if you've noticed, he said, but it's been going on for a little bit. I said, No, it has. He said, You're going to be like this right until the playoffs start. Because he wants you in the best shape you can ever be in when they dropped the puck for the first game in the playoffs. He said because once the playoffs start your conditioning slides a little bit because you don't get to practice that much. You're playing every other day every day, day off and you don't really have too much time to work and conditioning and do this and that plus you're tired and you said so you're gonna be in the best shape you can possibly be in when you when you start to play us. And that's what he's doing. Owl just little things like that he would deliver subtle messages, you know, didn't do a lot of yelling and screaming what certain players he handled differently like Dennis buff, and he would then he would have a pretty good first period right? And he knew he could get more out of Danny and he come in after the first variable might be up to one or something. You know, Danny's got a goal and assist or something like that feeling pretty good about himself. I would walk in the room go right over to him and go you like right in his face you you better pick it up. All right. We're not gonna win this hockey game unless you start playing better like that and he'd walk out of the room and then he wouldn't What are you kidding me? You get so pissed at Hell, that he would go out there and play even better the secretary. You know, he come in and I'd have a bad very nice Keith. He walked by me and he's just go. Like, that's all you got like Just look at me like, I got the message I got you know what I would get the message in a different way. He didn't have to do what he did to Danny. And he just handled every guy a little differently like Wayne Merrick was, you know, a heck of a player, but if he came in and screamed at Wayne Merrick, I mean, why America would would grind take his equipment off. You know? Not really, but that's the kind of he was very sensitive. Dwayne Sutter, he could probably scream at that dog dog wouldn't even know what he was talking about. But Nystrom never had say a word to Nystrom. Boss he just said don't even talk to me. I mean, I know what I have to do to be successful. And Traci the same thing, but he handled each and every guy. You know, with kid gloves if he had to or scream at him if he if he had to when he knew what he could do to each and every guy on the team. I think that was probably probably his biggest attribute. Certainly, most, most successful coaches will will tell you the reason I was so successful because I had great hockey teams that played for me. But that does take it does take some handling on the coach's part to really get the best out of each and every player on a team.

As we wrap up, is there any final words of wisdom you'd like to impart upon the kids wanting to make hockey their career

as they said hockey was just just nothing but great enjoyment for me until later on until I was 1718 years old, but growing up. You know, I was Bobby Hall. Robbie Hall was my favorite player. Due to the fact we had the Chicago Blackhawks, jerseys and stuff. Chicago was my favorite team. Bobby was my favorite player. When playing in the street, I was always brought me home, you know, playing at the rink, those Shini up at the outdoor rink up up the corner, that was always Bobby Hall. And you know that I dream about being playing Chicago Blackhawks someday and wearing number nine and that kind of stuff? Yeah, probably. But it was just a dream, I never really thought it would become much of a reality. And then on draft day in 1974, when I said Holy shit, that's actually happening. You know, I think at that point, you start to think with a little bit of luck, and you know, some of the right, right things happening. You can get to the point where you're going to win the cup. Certainly once you get to the NHL, the only thing you think about is the Stanley Cup. But for the for the greater part of my life. It was it was not in not in my thought I never saw my first NHL game live until I was 18. So I didn't even experience it till much later in life. All we watched was Hockey night in Canada on Saturday night, we got one game a week and sat there every Saturday and watch that, you know whether it was the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Montreal Canadiens, whoever they were playing but no. And that's the way I like to when you when you talk about what message you have for kids. I don't think I think they should just really, really play for the enjoyment of the game. I mean, there's a small percentage of guys that are gonna play in the NHL, less now than, you know, less American kids less Canadian kids, because now that amount of players that are coming over from Europe now is I don't even know what the percentages are now, back in when I played probably 70 70% of the players that play in the league are from Canada. That percentage now it's probably closer to 3035 40% Maybe, I don't know. So the real key with this game and it's it's so much fun. Maybe you seek hockey, but you had fun playing. We all had fun playing. And you see the looks on these kids, my grandson's play. They had never gonna play in the NHL. But they have so much fun going out on Sunday mornings and skating around having fun with their friends. And I think that's the real message is that, again, this message really has to go pass the player it has to go to the parents. And just make sure that these kids, you don't put too much pressure on him. Make sure they go out there every time they put on their skates and just enjoy the hell out of what they're doing. And I think that's the key message for me. It's just, it's such a fun game. Enjoy it while you can