Johnny Hockey earns big praise from diminutive NHL heroes
Briere, St. Louis served as role models for diminutive Flames star
Daniel Briere had seen enough to know he would be seeing a lot more of this kid.
Then an alternate captain for the Philadelphia Flyers, Briere heard the buzz surrounding the teeny talent from that area who was terrorizing defenders at the NCAA level, but he didn’t sneak a peek of Johnny Gaudreau in game action until he tuned into coverage of the 2013 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship from Ufa, Russia.
“Everybody kept talking about how small he was compared to the other kids on the ice, and it’s funny because it reminded me so much of the same things I had heard when I was 16, 17, 18, 19 years old. I was hearing the same things about him,” Briere recalled.
“And the first time I saw him play, I never even noticed his size. To me, it was the way that he moved on the ice. It’s like he was floating on the ice. His hands were so quick.
“Right away, I was just so impressed that I turned to my friend I was sitting with and I said to him, ‘This guy is going to be a star in the NHL before long.’ Just the way he moved, that’s all I needed to see to know that he was going to be a really good player.” Bang on. Now in his fourth campaign with the Calgary Flames, the 24-yearold Gaudreau is one of the NHL’s marquee men.
The wee wizard was a lone bright spot for the Flames in Wednesday’s 8-2 drubbing from the Detroit Red Wings, assisting on Calgary’s first strike and authoring the other with a rip right under the crossbar.
Gaudreau is now riding an eightgame point streak, matching the longest spree of his career. Before Thursday’s games, he was running third in the leaguewide scoring race with 26 points in 18 outings.
“That’s why you buy tickets to hockey games. Those are the type of players that most fans want to see,” Briere said. “They’re electrifying. They get you out of your seat.”
Back when Gaudreau still needed a ticket to score entrance to a big-league building, Briere was the guy he would crane his neck to watch.
Next up for the Flames is Saturday’s matinee at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, a homecoming for Gaudreau, who was raised just across the Delaware River in Carneys Point, N.J., where he rooted for the Flyers as a kid.
Long before he was selected by the Flames in the fourth round of the 2011 NHL Draft or nicknamed Johnny Hockey during his standout stint with the Boston College Eagles, he was just a rink-runt waiting on a growth spurt that never really arrived.
Briere was, at that time, the smallest skater on his favourite team and among the most skilled, too. Plus ... “You know Danny Briere’s celebration, with the one-armed fistpump? I always loved that,” said the Flames’ left-winger with a grin.
Since arriving at the Saddle dome, Gaudreau has been asked countless times to identify his childhood hockey heroes. There are two. One is Briere. The other is former Tampa Bay Lightning stud Martin St. Louis, never outfitted in orange but another five-foot-something example of how a little guy could survive — and thrive — at hockey’s highest level. (Flames fans always cringe at the mention of St. Louis, who signed in Calgary as an undrafted free agent, spent parts of two seasons at the Saddledome before being cut loose via contract buyout and later played a starring role for the Bolts in the 2004 Stanley Cup Final. Yeah, that year.)
“I remember seeing Briere on the half-wall for Philly, scoring from there all the time. I watched him a lot and that’s something that can still help me in my game today, just watching him when I was younger on the half-wall,” Gaudreau said. “And then St. Louis, he didn’t play like he was 5-foot-7 or whatever he was. He got in the corners, got in the dirty areas, and he was skilled. Just the way he played was something that I tried to emulate my game after. It was difficult because I was a Flyers fan and he was on the Lightning, but it was still cool getting to watch him.”
These days, Johnny’s idols are watching him.
Both of his childhood faves retired after the 2014-15 campaign — Briere with 696 regular-season scoresheet mentions and just shy of a point-per-game clip in the playoffs; and the sturdy St. Louis as a member of the NHL’s 1,000-point club with a hardware haul that includes three Lady Byngs, two Art Ross Trophies and both the Hart Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award from 2003-04.
“Johnny is very slippery. I don’t think I was as slippery as he is,” praised the 42-year-old St. Louis, a leading candidate for induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame next November in his first year of eligibility. “But he thinks the game really well, he sees the ice really well, probably the way I did, as well. When he’s on the ice, something good always happens.
“Johnny plays on the move,” he continued. “There’s no doubt he can beat you in a phone booth, he’s skilled enough to get out of there. But he knows that hockey is a game of give-and-go. He moves it and knows where to go next. He moves it to get it back, you know?
“That’s important as a smaller player because if you don’t move it, you’re going to get hit. A fly on the wall is very easy to hit. I learned that quick as a smaller player, that you have to play on the move, and he’s doing that.”
If you were a fixture in the front row of your class photo, that can be a painful lesson.
St. Louis was typically listed by employers at 5-foot-8 and Briere credited with one extra inch, although squads seem to encourage the shrimps to stand on their tippy-toes for the measurements.
The Flames’ roster has Gaudreau sized up at 5-foot-9 and 157 pounds. There are NHLers who are shorter, but none with less meat on their bones.
“Because of his smarts, he’s able to buy time for himself and buy space. With his quickness, he’s able to get away and jump in the holes to get opportunities,” said the 40-year-old Briere, now vicepresident of hockey operations for the ECHL’s Maine Mariners, an affiliate of the Flyers that will begin play next season.
“I think those are the two major components in his game that really make him who he is. But it’s more than that. He seems to have a knack to score big goals at big times. When you need a big play, he seems to step up his game, and that’s a really good sign.
“I can’t wait to see him play some more playoff games and meaningful games. The Flames are going to be a good team for many years to come, so I think we’ll have the chance to see him play some meaningful games down the stretch and into the playoffs, and that’s what I’m excited about because he seems to me to have that knack for big plays.”
Gaudreau must be accustomed to that sort of flattery, but it’s still something special when it’s coming from a guy you dreamed of being as a kid.
He now knows both of his role models — his father, Guy, coached Briere’s oldest son and the Flames’ scoring sensation shares an agent with St. Louis.
“When I was younger, I didn’t think I’d be in this position, standing right here, having them say those kinds of things about me. It’s something I just try to take it all in and it’s something I won’t forget,” said Gaudreau, who still has some aw-shucks in him despite three consecutive invites to the NHL’s all-star showcase and a nod as the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner last season. “Because if I didn’t really learn from those two guys and watching them play, I probably wouldn’t be in the position I am today. Those are two of the smaller guys that helped show the path for small guys getting to the NHL.”
Now, Gaudreau is one of those guys.
“I’m sure there’s already a lot of kids that want to be Johnny, especially in the Calgary area and the Philly area,” Briere said.
“I truly believe that’s a wheel that keeps on turning,” St. Louis echoed. “Right now, he’s inspiring some other small players somewhere and not just small players, just some hockey players. For me when I was growing up, and especially in my teenage years, I would see Theo Fleury doing what he’s doing and it was like, ‘Wow. If he can do it, why can’t I?’
“And now, it’s going to be somebody else in six to 10 years who makes it that they craft their game after and look up to Johnny. That’s the beauty of our sport.”