Reggie Leach says when the last floodlight is dimmed in the rink, and after all the shouting and the tumult is over, you still have to answer to yourself.
Such life appraisals are hard to see when you are in junior hockey and still early in your journey. But if the Victoria Grizzlies players are smart, they will absorb what the 66-year-old Leach has to say as the keynote speaker of the sa国际传媒 Hockey League team鈥檚 fundraising gala dinner and auction tonight in the Westin Bear Mountain ballroom.
Fans can also meet Leach during the Grizzlies鈥� BCHL game Friday night against the Cowichan Valley Capitals at The Q Centre.
鈥淲e all make stupid mistakes. I鈥檝e corrected a lot of them. So I speak to youth about life choices,鈥� said Leach, who came out of the junior Flin Flon Bombers of the WHL to win the Stanley Cup and sa国际传媒 Cup, and score 381 goals and record 666 points in 934 regular-season NHL games.
鈥淓very choice you make in life, you own. Whether that choice is good or bad. Everybody wants to own their good choices and not be responsible for their bad choices.鈥�
But Leach, who speaks to young people across sa国际传媒, tells them it doesn鈥檛 work that way.
He has lived it. His drinking began in junior hockey and cost him a lot, including his marriage. Leach has now been sober for more than three decades since entering rehab in 1985.
鈥淵ou have to be responsible for your bad choices, as well, or you will repeat them again and again,鈥� said Leach, who holds the Philadelphia Flyers team record for the most goals in a season with 61.
About his decision to go sober, Leach added: 鈥淵ou know when it鈥檚 time. But you have to do it for yourself, and not for anybody else, or it won鈥檛 work.鈥�
Leach was born into the Berens River First Nation. He is from Riverton, Man., and recently moved to Manitoulin Island, Ont., after 34 years in the U.S., and speaks extensively to First Nations youth across sa国际传媒 and also conducts hockey clinics.
鈥淚鈥檝e learned about who I am, and about the culture, and I鈥檓 still learning,鈥� he said.
Yet, there is another culture that has most impacted his life.
鈥淚 learned about life through hockey,鈥� said Leach.
That is a quintessentially Canadian sentiment. That鈥檚 why he brings his 1974-75 Stanley Cup ring, won with the Flyers, to his speaking engagements. And he isn鈥檛 particular about who tries it on.
鈥淭he ring is such a great tool because of what hockey means to people in this country,鈥� said Leach, who the following season, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoffs MVP, eventhough the Flyers lost in the 1976 Stanley Cup final to the Montreal Canadiens.
鈥淪ince the chances are so slim that any of them will win a Stanley Cup ring, I let the kids put it on their fingers and take pictures. It makes them happy.鈥�
Therein is his main message to parents. He makes his points even knowing that his son, Jamie Leach, played for sa国际传媒 in the 1989 world junior hockey championship and won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992 in a 10-year pro career that included 81 games in the NHL.
鈥淎 lot of parents are living the dream through their kids. But only one or two kids in a million will make it to pro hockey,鈥� said Reggie Leach.
鈥淪o give your kids a break from hockey sometimes. Do you work 365 days a year?鈥�
That said, Leach has great admiration for those few players who do manage to advance through the system to junior: 鈥淚n junior hockey, you leave your homes as kids [usually to play in another city] and come out as young men.鈥�
Leach said it is to those young men involved in that process, with the Grizzlies, that his remarks will be aimed tonight.
Leach was also an international and played for gold-medallist sa国际传媒 in the 1976 sa国际传媒 Cup. His autobiography, The Riverton Rifle: Straight Shooting on Hockey and on Life, was released last year.
Also on hand for tonight鈥檚 Grizzlies gala will be former NHLer Matt Pettinger of Victoria, former Winnipeg Jets player Lyle Moffatt of Victoria and BCHL president and former Canucks player John Grisdale.
Tickets for tonight鈥檚 gala are $125 and available by calling the Grizzlies鈥� office at 250-385-1555 or team president Lance Black at 250-514-5609.
