Team Canada 1972 by Andrew Podnieks

Author:Andrew Podnieks [Podnieks, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7710-7121-8
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2012-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Marcel Dionne walks the streets of Moscow during an off day. (photo credit 19.2)

#37 JOCELYN GUÈVREMONT –

EXPERIENCE IS THE KEY

(photo credit 20.1)

In the 1971–72 NHL season, newcomer defenceman Jocelyn Guèvremont recorded thirteen goals and fifty-one points, impressive numbers given he was also big and strong and solid in his own end. He was one of Team Canada’s young players invited to training camp to fill out the roster, even though he didn’t except to play in any games.

“The NHL wanted to have two players from every team at training camp,” Guèvremont explained, “so that’s why Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin were chosen from Buffalo and me and Dale Tallon from Vancouver. They needed to get thirty-eight players or so to scrimmage because they only had four weeks to get ready. The coaches picked their main team and then completed the roster with players from other teams.”

Of course, the twenty-one-year-old accepted the invitation, but it was clear he wasn’t there to challenge Brad Park or Pat Stapleton for a spot in the starting lineup. “I don’t know about the other guys,” Guèvremont said, “but they were very specific when I got there. They shook my hand and told me to enjoy the experience, but the feeling I got was that I wasn’t going to play. I can understand that. They didn’t want to have an extra sixteen guys floating around everywhere. But for me it was a great experience being on the ice with these guys. I was just a rookie, being out there with the top defencemen in the league.”

Like most others in camp, he wasn’t in top shape the day he arrived for first workouts at Maple Leaf Gardens. “I got the call only a couple of weeks before. We usually went to training camp to get into shape.”

And like most of the others, his knowledge of the international game was almost zero. Being born in Montreal, and playing junior hockey there, his dream was the NHL. “I knew nothing about international hockey at the time,” he admitted. “I was playing for the Montreal Junior Canadiens and I had been drafted by Vancouver. That’s it.”

Nonetheless, the experience was invaluable for Guèvremont, who happily accompanied the team across Canada and then on to Sweden and Moscow. Indeed, he played in both exhibition games in Stockholm. “The deal was that we would all go to Moscow,” he explained. “And most of the guys played at least one of the two games in Sweden. I was lucky enough to play both. That was my first time playing overseas, but it’s such a sad thing. I was just twenty-one years old and going with the flow, so I didn’t realize at the time how special that was and what was happening. Even when we left Canada and we had won only the one game, tied one, and lost two, I didn’t realize the importance.”

Going from the freedom of Canada to the Iron Curtain was not so easy for him. “Moscow was a big culture shock,” he said.

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