Dudley one of the first fitness buffs
Rick Dudley had a reputation as a player as a tough, hard-nosed winger who would do just about anything to win.
As a coach and general manager, the former St. Catharines Blackhawk made sure his teams were in the best shape possible.
“I was a guy who put a great deal of stock into being the most fit team we could be,” Dudley said on this week’s edition of Ludzy’s Lounge web cast. “I think if I had one attribute it would be that my teams were in better condition than anyone else.
“That’s also true of Mike Keenan. Mike Keenan was ahead of the curve and won Stanley Cups because of it.”
Dudley, who played for the Blackhawks and was a favourite of former Standard sports editor Jack Gatecliff, fondly remembers his playing days with the Buffalo Sabres and how little off-ice training the players did in the 1970s and 80s.
“Fitness in general has changed,” said Dudley, currently the assistant general manager of the Montreal Canadians. “It’s so much more complete than it was back then. When I started we didn’t do anything off ice. We did skate hard on the ice and then we became somewhat aware of things like stretching and a little bit of lifting. By the time I left the game they started to talk about it only because the Russians had taught us so much in that series about how strong you could be.”
Dudley, who was a fan favourite due to his rambunctious style of play, wrapped up his career following the 1981/82 season. He played at the height of the NHL’s tough-guy era — he accumulated 272 penalty minutes in the American League in 1971/72 — but loves the current style of play the Tampa Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks are displaying in the finals.
“Best hockey I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The last game (Game 2) was off the charts with the excitement. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a hockey fan or just a sports fan, if you watch those games you understand the passion.
“Both teams are exciting, both teams have offence to them, and I think you are seeing what the National Hockey League should be.”
Dudley recalls something former Sabre Peter McNab, now a broadcaster with the Colorado Avalanche, said when talking about the NHL.
“Peter McNab once said the perfect hockey game is 5-4. I think if you ask most fans they’d rather have a 5-4 game than a 1-0 game. There’s enough offence that you are excited almost all the time in this particular series.”
Dudley recently took in the NHL combine in Buffalo where prospective players are interviewed by teams.
“It’s almost fruitless because they are all very well schooled,” he said. “You almost get a misrepresentation of what they are and I also believe somebody who handles an interview particularly well and answers the questions exactly the way you want them to doesn’t necessarily equate to what they do on the ice.”
Among the players in attendance were Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.
“Connor McDavid is a wonderful athlete and you can’t say 100% that’s he’s a better player than Jack Eichel 10 years down the road,” Dudley said. “There’s no competition between the two of them now. They both can be franchise players.”
Dudley said this year’s draft represents some challenges for teams.
“It’s a very tough draft because they are incredibly high-end people to a certain point and then you get a few who are really good hockey players, and then you get a whole whack of people that it seems to go on forever who are very similar,” he said.