A couple of Island men have unique rooting interest, but for opposing teams, in the 2014 Stanley Cup final, which begins tonight in Los Angeles.
Cam Hope completed his second season as GM of the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League, but before that was assistant GM to Glen Sather with the New York Rangers when this roster was being built.
Bob Painton, meanwhile, was assistant trainer for Los Angeles during the 16 years the Kings conducted their training camps in Victoria from 1970 to 1973 and 1977 to 1988. Painton, who is still a welcome visitor in the Kings’ dressing room at Staples Center, remembers drawing a map detailing how to get from the old Memorial Arena to Paul’s Restaurant for a Kings rookie from Quebec named Luc Robitaille, who didn’t understand a word of English.
After all the lean years, Painton still labels it a surreal experience watching two years ago as Kings alumni Marcel Dionne and Rogie Vachon, along with the hockey-loving family of a Sandy Hook shooting victim, brought out the 2012 Stanley Cup championship banner to be raised to the rafters of Staples Center.
“It was pretty emotional for me,” said Painton, who has been awarded a Kings alumni ring and jersey by the club for his 16 years of service.
Dionne personally showed his appreciation by giving to Painton the stick with which Dionne scored his 500th career NHL goal.
While it’s clear who Painton will be cheering for in the 2014 final, so too for Hope. Named 2013-14 WHL executive of the year, the move from Manhattan to the Island has proved fruitful in terms of career. But isn’t there a bit of a tinge watching your old team go to the Stanley Cup final without you?
“I take credit, of course,” quipped Hope, with dead-pan humour.
Joking aside, he was there on the ground floor as this Rangers team was being built.
The lauded trade for defenceman Ryan McDonagh was the result of Sather’s management style, Hope said.
“Glen empowers people to do their jobs,” noted Hope.
“So when [head scout] Gordie Clark pushed really hard to have McDonagh included in the [Scott Gomez] trade, Glen listened.”
Hope admits the Rangers took a calculated gamble in several other moves by trading a bit of their future for established veteran players.
“When you swap younger guys for older guys, it needs to work right now,” said Hope.
Which it has for the Rangers.
“I’m still in touch with them and I’m really happy for the guys,” said Hope.
Hope said the Rangers occupy a niche market in New York among a core group of rabid hockey fans and it takes something like a run to the Stanley Cup final to break out of that into the broader market.
“In terms of sheer volume, there is no better sports city than New York,” he said.
“Even with the Yankees and Mets going, people across New York will be taking notice of the Rangers this spring because of the run.”
Not that Painton cares. He bleeds black and grey. But it used to be purple and gold, the Kings’ old colours.
“It was a different world back then,” he said.
“Training camp was a month long … in accumulated time, guys like Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer spent a year of their lives in Victoria in total time in training camp alone. The Kings used to play their exhibition home games not only in Victoria but also Duncan and Nanaimo. That’s why many people around here still feel a connection to the team.”
But much has changed.
“The players used to come into camp noticeably out of shape,” said Painton, who was also a trainer for numerous Island lacrosse and hockey teams.
“Back then, it was so laid back. Now it’s a business. Everything changed in 1988 with the frenzy that hit Victoria with Wayne Gretzky’s first training camp with the Kings.”
Painton still goes into the dressing room at Staples Center with retired Kings athletic trainer Pete Demers.
“Now the team has something like seven doctors there, all specialists, and its own MRI machine — almost everything you would see at Jubilee Hospital is there [in Staples Center].”
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
