WEBER’S ROAD TO NHL INCLUDED MILWAUKEE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
During a news conference after he was named captain of the Canadiens before the start of this season, Shea Weber talked about some of the people who influenced him early in his pro hockey career.
“My first time living by myself and a guy by the name of Rick Berry and his family and Greg Zanon lived in the same building,” Weber recalled about starting the 2005-06 season with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals after being selected by the Nashville Predators in the second round (49th overall) of the 2003 NHL draft. “I had a lot of free meals then. It was a lot easier then when I could walk 10 doors down and hang out with them and not feel so lonely. So I think those guys were instrumental in kind of showing me the way, especially early on, the older veteran guys who were good to me and helped me adjust to the life of a pro.”
Weber made the jump to the NHL with the Predators later that season as a 20-year-old, but Berry still remembers fondly the time he spent that year as Weber’s teammate and defence partner.
“I remember I got traded into that organization and one of the first meetings I had with the coaches was kind of like: ‘We want you to work with this young kid,’ ” Berry recalled during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from Denver, where he now works as a financial consultant. “I came in and played half a period with him and I’m like: ‘This guy doesn’t need me.’ I could see a lot of good things in Shea’s game. He just mimicked Rob Blake almost with the way he could hit and with his mean streak.”
But like today, Weber was a man of few words off the ice.
“He was definitely super quiet and he had unbelievable manners,” said Berry, who was near the end of his career in Milwaukee after playing 197 NHL games with the Colorado Avalanche, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.
“The thing I still love about him, he’s obviously a tremendous person and he was so quiet, but then you’d get him on the ice and you’d see his compete level and you’re like: ‘Whoa! I’m not messing with that guy.’ He was the full package and we always bugged him about that, too. He could run the power play, he could run someone over and go fight the toughest guy. It was always fun to watch him play.”
Berry also enjoyed being Weber’s defence partner.
“Being his D partner, you’d just see that glare come in his eyes and he’d just go run somebody over,” Berry recalled with a chuckle. “We’d have a little competition to see who could throw the best hip check and, obviously, his were a little better than mine. But as soon as the game’s over, the switch goes off and there’s that mild-mannered kid again.”