McGill sports hall inducting Habs executive
Back in 2007, Shauna Denis felt she had some unfinished business before leaving McGill University.
“I was graduating with a B. Comm in marketing and international business, but I felt there was something missing,” said Denis, who will be inducted into the McGill Sports Hall of Fame this year as an individual and also as part of McGill’s 2008 national championship hockey team.
“I played hockey for four years and we had a very good team,” said Denis. “We were ranked No. 1 for most of the 2006-07 season, but we lost 4-0 to Calgary in the national final. We didn’t play well and I was disappointed. I was graduating, but I had a chance to do some graduate work and I thought if I didn’t go back, I would regret it.”
Denis has no regrets today. The extra year at McGill resulted in the national championship and Denis won the Marion Hilliard Award, a national honour recognizing athletic and academic achievement as well as community involvement. It also opened the door for her career as director of strategic content for the Montreal Canadiens.
“After we won, the Canadiens invited us to attend a game and we met with Bob Gainey and Ray Lalonde in the directors’ lounge,” said Denis. “As the captain, I was asked to write a letter to Ray Lalonde to thank him and, since I was completing a program in public relations and I had been doing some work for (McGill sports information director) Earl Zukerman, I made a pitch for a job. They were gearing up for the centennial and I was hired to do a little bit of everything.”
Denis serves as the Canadiens’ director of strategic content, which means she oversees the Canadiens’ website and is responsible for the videos displayed on the giant screens above centre ice at the Bell Centre.
Denis said she was surprised by the individual honour and pleased that the 2008 team is also slated for induction.
“I was surprised because I wasn’t the best player on the team; some nights I wasn’t even the best player on my line,” said Denis, who was the captain of the championship team. “I’m glad that our team is being recognized because there were so many great players. We had so much talent that some of the players were under the radar. But it took a team effort to win. We had a great group. Most of the players had been on the team that lost in the final in 2007 and that gave us a great incentive.”
Denis, 33, played five seasons at McGill and had 68 goals and 162 points in 195 games.
There’s a 10-year waiting period for athletes to be selected to the Hall of Fame and Denis was picked in her first year. Down the road, she can expect some company as Olympic gold medallists Charlene Labonté and Catherine Ward become eligible.
Denis grew up in Stittsville, Ont., and sold lemonade at what was once the largest outdoor flea market in North America. She started playing hockey when she was four and played on boys teams until she reached peewee age.
When it came time to go to university, Denis visited a number of U.S. and Canadian universities before settling on McGill.
“My mother went to McGill and was on the fencing team, but I was attracted by the campus and the size of the city,” said Denis. “Coming from a small town, it was big but it wasn’t as big as Toronto.
“When I first visited the school,
We had a great group. Most of the players had been on the team that lost in the final in 2007 and that gave us a great incentive.
I was late because I got lost,” said Denis. “Those were the days before GPS and I had to call (coach) Peter Smith for directions. I told him I was heading north on L’Acadie and he must have been wondering how I got into McGill.”
Denis spearheaded the Canadiens’ association with Les Canadiennes, the local entry in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. After finishing at McGill, she played one season with the Montreal Stars (before they were renamed Les Canadiennes) and helped the team win the first Clarkson Cup.
“We beat the Minnesota Whitecaps and I scored the first-ever goal in a Clarkson Cup final, but you’d never know it,” said Denis.
“All the stories started by saying we took a 1-0 lead and then listed all the Olympians who scored after me. I didn’t get much time to celebrate because the game was in Kingston and I had to rush back to Montreal because I had started working for the Canadiens and we played Toronto at home that night.”
Other Hall of Fame inductees in the class of 2018 are Olympic rower Doug Vander; soccer players Danielle Day and Adam Mar and hockey player David Urquhart. They will be formally inducted at a luncheon on Oct. 11.