Local nemesis was Downie’s favourite player
Considering the late Gord Downie was an unabashed Bruins fan, you might think his favourite hockey player would have been a Boston legend like Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque or Cam Neely.
Former National Hockey League great Doug Gilmour, a fellow native of Kingston, would also be a good pick. Downie also had a soft spot for Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team — coached by his godfather Harry Sinden — that included Hall of Famers like Phil Esposito, Bobby Clarke and Ken Dryden.
But instead of a household name, the Tragically Hip singer’s rather obscure choice, according to fellow musician and friend Dave Bidini, was Laverne Hennessy.
Music, pop culture, and of course, hockey — a popular subject in many Hip tunes — were all part of Bidini’s wide-ranging conversations with Downie. When the topic of favourite hockey players came up several years ago, names like Dave Keon and Wendel Clark were mentioned before Downie made his head-scratching choice of Hennessy.
“I remember him telling me that he watched (Hennessy) as a kid,” Bidnini recalled earlier this week following Downie’s death Tuesday night. “I guess he had the moves.” So who is Laverne Hennessy? A longtime opponent from Downie’s youth hockey days in eastern Ontario, Hennessy played four games for the OHL’s Cornwall Royals in 1982-83.
“I hated him, he hated me, but really we liked each other, you know what I mean?” Hennessy said. “I guess he must have liked how I played, and I liked how he played.”
In 1982, the Royals drafted Hennessy — then a six-foot, 177-pound forward — from the Picton Midgets. A medical issue cut short his hockey career just as it was taking off.
As a youngster, Downie played the goaltender position in nearby Amherstview, just outside of Kingston. He would face off against Hennessy’s team at least four or five times a season.
“I played centre. I wasn’t scrappy, I didn’t fight, but I know I scored a lot of goals on him,” Hennessy said from his hometown of Hillier, Ont. “But he probably made a lot of saves on me too. Did he and I ever sit down at a table and have a conversation? No we didn’t.
“But walking through the rink, (I) would see him and stare him down and he would see me and stare me down.”
Downie maintained his love for the game into adulthood. Bidini’s Toronto-based band Rheostatics joined the Hip for three national tours in the 1990s and he frequently laced up the skates with Downie for shinny and recreational hockey games.
Hennessy said he has been told on a couple of occasions in the past that Downie was a fan and had asked how he was doing.
“I was kind of surprised that he even remembered who I was,” Hennessy said. “Everybody knows who he is. But obviously I was shocked that he would remember who I was.”
The Picton-Amherstview hockey rivalry was intense.
Hennessy recalled that parents and spectators would fill the local rinks and there was plenty of trash talk on the ice.
“I would go in and razz him when I would score,” he said. “When he would save it, he would razz me back.”
Bidini said the Hennessy talking point was one of many fascinating discussions he had with Downie.