DEADLINE DAY COVERAGE ‘SHOULDN’T BE ABOUT JOY’
Current TV spectacle reopens wounds for former NHLer Hrudey, writes Eric Francis
I was furious when I was traded and I was deeply hurt. I said the last time I did (deadline day coverage), ‘I hate this day, it forever affected my life.’
Not everyone relishes the hype of trade deadline day.
In fact, not only does Kelly Hrudey detest the final day of the NHL’s annual swap meet, he vehemently disagrees with the very coverage he was part of Wednesday.
“When I was a player, it was the day you dreaded the most,” said Hrudey, who previously voiced his displeasure during one of his live hits on Sportsnet from the Saddledome before Wednesday’s deadline.
“Leading up to it, you’re on edge, you’re really highly stressed, your family is stressed. In particular, if you’ve ever been traded once, then every time the trade deadline comes, you’re always fearful you’re going to get moved. It’s so disruptive to your family life.
“So what I’ve not agreed with over the last several years is what it has turned into — a kind of a show or day of anticipation, like there’s something exciting happening. Unless you specifically ask to get moved, this is a terrible lead-up to this day. And I don’t find the tone or the messaging to be accurate at all.”
Asked what he’d change about the wall-to-wall coverage his network and others hype for months, Hrudey shrugged.
“It’s much ado about nothing — I get that,” said the 56-year-old netminder-turned-broadcaster who was traded just once in his 15-year career.
“What I can’t get over is how the tone has changed so that this is supposed to be an exciting day. It shouldn’t be about joy. It’s not an accurate representation of what it feels like for the guys going through it. It might be great if you’re in a fantasy hockey league because you don’t deal with people — you’re just moving a name somewhere.”
Hrudey cited Ben Bishop having just 90 minutes to pack up his life and meet his new team in Minnesota earlier this week as an example of how disruptive a deadline swap can be to a man’s life.
“The day I was traded, I had five or six hours before I had to be at the airport and move across the country to Los Angeles,” said Hrudey of a 1989 trade from the New York Islanders to the L.A. Kings.
“My wife Donna was pregnant and was due to give birth to our second daughter a month later. I’m missing helping out with all that stuff. She had to sell the house. Everything is wrong in your life.”
Hrudey concedes it’s a different world now thanks to all the rumours and reports generated on social media, linking endless players to possible relocations.
At least he was sheltered from that.
However, with all the fictional reports out there, exponentially more players than those who were actually traded Wednesday were unnecessarily sweating it out the last month.
“In my case, I did not see it coming,” said Hrudey of his trade, uniting him with Wayne Gretzky and the rebuilding Kings.
“There was no buzz or rumours. It was a different world — no Internet or cellphones. But still, oftentimes you heard rumblings. I was furious when I was traded and I was deeply hurt. I said the last time I did (deadline day coverage), ‘I hate this day, it forever affected my life.’”
One night earlier, Sportsnet analyst Curtis Glencross echoed that being traded two years ago by the Flames was his “worst day in hockey.” It happened on his wife’s birthday when she was seven months pregnant, making for an emotional phone call home to discuss his pending move to Washington.
The fact that things didn’t work out with the Capitals for Glencross or that Hrudey’s move to L.A. was “in hindsight the best move of my life” is irrelevant — the emotional damage of trade day was done.
That will forever prevent either from celebrating the day like the bulk of the hockey world does.