Interview With Los Angeles Kings Legend Kelly Hrudey

Who were your hockey heroes and idols growing up?

For sure it was Jacques Plante.  I read his book many, many times. It was simply called “Goaltending” and it was my go to for learning the position and the craft. And then after Jacques Plante was Bernie Parent. I admired virtually every guy in the National Hockey League but those were the two that really stood out for me.

Are Plante and Parent the reason why you decided to play the position of a goaltender?

I don’t think so.  You know what, it was just very, very simple. I was playing ball hockey with my buddy one time and I was about 11 years old and I was thinking of joining a hockey team. I was having this discussion with my buddy and his dad was around, he said, “Kelly, I don’t want to influence you too much but whenever you guys play ball hockey and you’re in net, you stop the ball more than anybody else.” That kind of led me down that path.  I finally joined a team when I was 12 years old and once I started playing it, that just captured everything for me.  I had to keep going.

You were drafted into the NHL by the New York Islanders in 1980.  During the 1983-84 season, you made your NHL debut.  What was your experience like as a rookie playing in the NHL and playing in Long Island?

Well my experience was a golden one. I wish every rookie had that sort of experience that I did. I joined the Islanders just after they’d won their 4^th consecutive Cup so I’m playing with Legends in the industry. Trust me, I didn’t talk very much back then.  I just watched and observed and listened. And followed a whole great bunch of leaders and learned how to become a professional.  And when you’re around Legends like that, a lot of good things rub off like work ethic and many other things. Like dedication, things like that I really admired the most from those guys.

Speaking of Legends, recently last summer one of the greatest coaches of all time Al Arbour sadly passed away.  He was your coach for those early years as an Islander.  How was your experience playing for THE Al Arbour?

My favorite coach. I had other fantastic coaches but Al just knew his job better than anyone else. And the reason why I say that is because back in those days, he knew that he had to be a part-time coach and a part-time psychologist. So he treated all of us a little bit differently. For instance, the way he treated Denis Potvin was not the same way that I was treated. And it was the same for a guy like Pat Flatley, who was not treated the same way as Mike Bossy.  It was just a tremendous learning experience because what I always felt at the end of every day, and Al could be hard on you if he needed to, but I always felt at the end of every single day he cared about me. And I can say that about a lot of coaches but he was the first when I really experienced that in the NHL.

Something that I remember dearly as a child, really for two main reasons, first because it was “Epic” and second because it was the first time ever in my life that my father allowed me to stay up late so I could watch the end of a certain hockey game.  That game being the “Easter Epic” playoff battle that you and the Islanders had against the Washington Capitals in 1987.  Could you take us back to that historical game and tell us about your experience playing in it, especially playing in those 4 straight overtime periods?

Jeff, you stayed up until 4 minutes to 2 in the morning to watch the end of it?

I did! It was the first time I was ever allowed to do so.

Holy cow that’s cool. What I remember was that going into that game we were missing 3 key players.  We were missing Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy and Brent Sutter* because of injuries.  And then to make it even worse, Bryan Trottier was playing with a separated shoulder so I knew how difficult the game was going to be. When we entered it, I had no idea that it would take 4 overtime periods to solve that game. I recall that Washington was the better team in regulation but I really believe that we were the better team throughout overtime. [Capitals goalie] Bob Mason was phenomenal in overtime. He made so many incredible saves! I think a little bit of luck played a part in it. As much as there was an amazing spin around goal by Pat Lafontaine and had it not been for all the traffic in front including by Dale Henry, one of our wingers that screened Bob Mason, that game would have continued to go and I don’t know for how much longer?  We were all wearing down but it was kind of cool throughout part of the game Jeff that we would look up at the scoreboard and it would say on there, something like, “this was now the “5^th longest game in NHL history” or something of that significance and so all of us knew that we were playing in some kind of historical game so that was not lost on us and it was very exciting to have come out as the winner in that one.

*(Brent Sutter is the brother of Kings’ head coach Darryl Sutter)