Coffee keynote speaker at BASF Knowledge Harvest 2017
National Hockey League Hall of Fame defenceman Paul Coffee shared some behind the scenes stories from his allstar career during the BASF Knowledge Harvest 2017: Farming Out Loud event on March 9.
Coffee was the keynote speaker at the capacity event hosted at the Living Sky Casino’s Event Centre. During his lengthy address, he stressed the importance of team work which leads to success in both hockey and in farming.
“It’s all teamwork,” Coffee said. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and if you’ve got guys that aren’t working they’re not going to be there, because you stick out like a sore thumb. For the farmer’s there’s too much going on.”
“It’s the same in hockey, if you’re not playing and you’re not working hard, you’ll weed yourself out.”
Coffey, had a 21-year NHL career, winning the Stanley Cup four times (with Edmonton in 1984, 1985 and 1987, plus once with Pittsburgh in 1991), as well as capturing the James Norris Trophy as the NHLS best defenseman in 1985, 1986 and 1995.
Coffey was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility in 2004 on the strength of appearing in 1,409 career regular season games with Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia, Chicago, Carolina and Boston. He retired as the NHL’S highest playoff scoring defenseman with 196 points in 194 playoff games.
He shared with the audience his new found appreciation for farmers.
“It’s important. It feeds the towns. It feeds the cities. It feeds the country, it feeds the world. It’s unreal. You never really think about that. You live in Toronto, and you just think, oh, there’s food on the shelves and you buy it and you get food. It comes from somewhere, right. A lot of it comes from Western Canada. So a lot of respect and admiration out here for sure.”
During his trip he had a chance to visit the Spring Lake Hutterite Colony south of Swift Current, and previously did not know much about the vast prairie before he has this closer look at agriculture.
Coffee admitted he enjoyed connecting with grassroots prairie hockey fans.
“Western Canada is hockey right. They love hockey. They love the Canadiens, they love the Bruins, they love the Leafs, they love the Oilers, they love the Flames, they love the Jets.”
He also passed on some advice for young players who are hoping to chase the dream of playing professionally.
“It’s so hard. You just need to work hard, have fun, leave it all on the ice, and have no regrets. That’s pretty much it. Don’t walk away saying ‘what if?’ ‘What if I had worked harder?’ ‘What if I had done this?’ ‘What if I had done that?”
“I never took anything for granted. I love the game. I respected the game. It’s a very humbling sport. Just when you think you’ve got it made, it can, bang, knock you right down.”
“The biggest thing is, not just me it’s every guy, you tried not to cheat it,” Coffee said. “When I say cheating the game is not work hard in practice, working when people when somebody’s not watching. Getting in that weight room and doing your reps, doing your bike work, doing what ever you’ve got to do. you don’t need a coach walking. You’ve got to do that yourself. And if you do that, at the end of the day, you can hold your head high.”