Tales From the Zamboni Part 2

When Scotty Bowman gave me the stink eye/ Sabres Hall of Fame private locker room tour.

Sometimes when you're working behind the scenes of a big operation you get to see some pretty cool stuff. Sometimes you see stuff you wish you hadn't. Sometimes you have to laugh when someone of high stature makes a point of not being happy you're in their work space even if you're supposed to be there.

In the mid 80's when I came on shift in the afternoon I was informed by my boss that the Buffalo Sabres made a surprise pit stop for a few days of R&R before they tripped over to Vancouver for a game.

I'm like cool ! They had a fleet of stars I liked. My job that night other than to run the ice plant and drive the zamboni, was to check their dressing room regularly to make sure the heating fan units stayed on, and make sure the door was locked.

Back then there was no air conditioning and just two small heating fan units hanging from the ceiling.

So after I did my first ice clean and no one was around, I ventured into the dressing room. When I opened the door I was bowled over by the most obscene smell of sweaty hockey gear ever mixed with hot blowing air. Talk about the expression "make me gag !". I thought I had smelt it all but this was off the charts!

The Sabres were at the end of their long road trip, and back in that day there wasn't the laundry facilities set up at the arenas like there is today. No wonder it stunk like a pile of you know what.

I closed the door behind me ensuring it was locked and began my tour of the room as I acclimatized to the stench.

The names on the jersey's hanging up with all their gear laid out had me in awe making me forget for a moment the awful smells. It was like a HOF display... Andreychuk, Housley, Ruff, Foligno, Playfair..... then there it was.. the holy grail.... Gilbert Perreault.... the key player to the famous French Connection line.... the player every Canucks fan like me wishes to this day that we had won in the lottery draft.

To wish I had a phone camera with me ! I carefully touched Gilbert's jersey like I was handling the crown jewels....then looked down to his skates. I was stunned to see an old looking pair of skates with black hockey tape covering both skate toes.

Who would have thought one of the top players in the game would have a pair of beat up old looking poor kid skates like I used to have in my minor hockey days instead of top of the line CCM skates ? LOL

I carried on with my tour around the room checking out all their jerseys and gear until the smell finally maxed me out. My later room checks were very brief.

Two days later I was on the day shift and the Sabres had a practice. As any icemaker/engineer does, I took pride in my ice quality and liked to observe the games and practices from the mezzanine level. Watching NHL players ramp it up full speed on ice that I had made was something special for a rookie icemaker like myself.

As I was conversing with the janitor on how the ice looked great and the Sabres were flying around warming up, out comes Scotty Bowman on his skates with a stick ready to fire up practice... the impact really hit me... there he was... the man with all that history... all those Montreal Canadian teams, all those Stanley Cups. I was suddenly in awe of this guy though I was never a Habs fan. (that's another story).

Then things got weird. Suddenly Scotty looks up and locks eyes with me, and he wasn't happy at all we were there. I say low key to my work mate... "why's he looking so pissed off ?"

It was obvious he didn't want us there. He must have had some private practice rule. Too bad Scotty, I work here and I ain't moving. He slowly skated away looking pissed we didn't leave. We watched the practice for awhile longer then went back to work.

Years later I always feel honored that I got stared down by the great Scotty Bowman's stink eye, but held my ground staring right back, and I'm not one for confrontation. If looks could kill !

I've since read that he is a stickler for details and gets thrown off if something isn't to his liking. I could only imagine what the players went through with all the stories of what a tough coach he was.

I guess the famous Steve Shutt quote sums it up: "We all hated Scotty 364 days of the year. On the 365th day we collected our Stanley Cup rings. "