Hrudey shares stories ahead of Kinsmen Sportsman Dinner

While Hrudey did play in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers from 1978-81, he never got to play against the Prince Albert Raiders, and says he’s excited for his first trip to the Art Hauser Centre. However, Hrudey was teammates for two seasons with a fan favourite Raider Ken Baumgartner.

Hrudey and Baumgartner were members of the Los Angeles Kings together from 1988-90, and Hrudey said that Baumgartner took his job as the team’s protector serious both on and off the ice.

“My memory of Ken was that do not mess with one of his teammates, and that would include off the ice. I remember there was an incident off the ice, and I won’t get into great details, but a guy in a parking lot decided that he wanted to beat up one of our teammates and Ken was not going to have any part of that, and so he made sure that other player stayed safe. So that’s the kind of people that you have when you have guys like Ken Baumgartner. Love him to death.”

Hrudey also played with another legendary NHL enforcer during his time in LA, Marty McSorely, for two stints between 1988-96. While McSorely was known as the famed protector of Wayne Gretzky and for protecting his teammates with his fists, he fought for his teammates off the ice in a different way.

“That’s the one thing when you sit down with a guy like Marty or you get to know him, most people just remember the style of play on the ice, but Marty is a really thoughtful human being. In fact, he was our player representative for our players’ association. So Marty took a lot of interest in that and making sure that he stood up for the rights of the players and especially since there was lots of turmoil at that time when we’re getting rid of our executive director of the association trying to find a new one which we did, Bob Goodenell. But Marty is a guy that he really understood his role.”

Hrudey also held the record for most saves made by a goaltender in the NHL for 33 years after a fateful game in April 1987 dubbed the ‘Easter Epic’, the longest Game 7 in NHL history. Puck dropped at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, and Pat LaFontaine scored the game winner on Easter Sunday, April 19 at 1:58 a.m.

As a member of the New York Islanders, the team that drafted him, Hrudey made 73 saves on 75 shots to help the Islanders win 3-2 in Game 7 of the second round of the 87 playoffs against the Washington Capitals.

When LaFontaine scored the overtime winner at the 8:47 mark of the fourth overtime, 128:47 into the game, Hrudey was hesitant to celebrate.

“Pure exhaustion. I was so tired. I remember, this is not an exaggeration, after Pat scores the overtime goal, first of all, I was in disbelief. I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case for some reason that the goal was called back or I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Hrudey goes on to say that once they were through all the post game festivities, handshake lines, media interviews, they didn’t get into the dressing room until about 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning. Hrudey was so dehydrated when he finally got to take his equipment off at the end of the game that his toes curled under when he took his skates off.

Being a good ol’ boy from the Canadian Prairies, you can guess what Hrudey used to quench his thirst.

“What would a good Western Canadian do to take care of that? I downed two quick beers in the dressing room. I’ve never been so affected by two beers in my life. It went directly to my head, and then unfortunately we went to the airport in Baltimore home and we were fogged out on Long Island. So we stayed on the tarmac I think for about three, four hours, in Washington or in Baltimore before we were able to fly home to New York.”

The conversation also touched on legendary Medicine Hat Tigers broadcaster Bob Ridley, playing alongside Wayne Gretzky, sharing the crease with Mike Vernon and Ed Belfour, and the move back to Canada that followed Hrudey’s NHL career.

In advance of his trip to Prince Albert, Hrudey also offered his condolences to the family of Prince Albert soldier Shaun Farrell, one of four officers killed in a training exercise at CFB Wainwright in Alberta.

The full interview is available in the audio player above, with more stories to come when Hrudey takes the stage at Saturday’s dinner.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Hrudey shares stories ahead of Kinsmen Sportsman Dinner

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