CANTLON’S CORNER: WAYNE BABYCH RETURNS TO HARTFORD 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Every July over the last three years, the Babych brothers, Dave and Wayne, make a pilgrimage from Canada to Hartford, CT to share and enjoy the Whalers alumni weekend with the Hartford Yard Goats.

The two played briefly together in Hartford, an experience that Wayne treasures greatly.

“It was short, but such a pleasure for us,“ Wayne, with his trademark big smile, said. “We hadn’t played together since we were eight-years-old together and there is a two-year difference. It was clearly one of the highlights of my career. To play again with Emile Francis, who I was with in St. Louis, he put together a real good crew and made it a lot of fun a very special place as far I was concerned.”

For Babych, his connection with the fans was so important.

“I always love to play for the fans. You really feed off them as a player. My time in Hartford I saw both ends of it. When I was traded from Quebec, the Nordiques were in first place, and the Whalers were in last place the year before. So, it was a tough adjustment, but the following season was one of my best as a pro. That’s why I come back. I really love to talk to people, hear their stories of what the Whalers meant to them. The folks here (the Yard Goats) are doing everything first class. I can’t thank them enough. We’ll be back next year.”

The 1985-86 season was the high watermark in the NHL portion of the Whalers life.

Babych would gain a measure of revenge against Quebec when they swept the first place Nordiques in three straight – a team many felt that year would be a Stanley Cup Finalist.

Babych enjoyed his time in the majestic Quebec City and playing at the now-closed Le Colisee for an all too brief 15 games.

“I was on a line with the Dale Hunter, and Michel Goulet. We really worked well together and were a solid second scoring line behind the Stastny’s (Anton, and Peter) and Peter was simply among the best players in that generation. It was great to have played with a guy like that. Then to go to the Whalers, I admit I was a little skeptical at first, I didn’t like the trade.”

He was dealt to Hartford for Greg Malone. He posted 28 points in 37 games for the Whalers.

The Whalers played the behemoth Montreal Canadiens, the royalty of the NHL who featured Larry Robinson, Patrick Roy, and Bob Gainey in the second round.

The Whalers won Game Six in dramatic fashion when Kevin Dineen (who was just hired to be the head coach for the AHL San Diego Gulls) got around Robinson off the left-wing and slipped the game’s only goal past Roy to force a Game 7.

“We weren’t the biggest, fastest or strongest team, but we jelled over the last twenty games of the regular season and we battled right to the end of the series. Those two series are clearly among the highlights of my career. The reception we got back in Hartford was amazing (the parade). It was like we had won the Stanley Cup. There was so much pride in the team that spring, in Hartford. It was pretty special.”

In Game 7, Roy was his usual stingy self in goal and then-rookie, Claude Lemieux, tallied a goal at 6:65 of overtime to end the Whalers’ dream.

“That was such a great series and easily the toughest loss you can suffer…Game 7 and Hartford was electric. Then everybody was talking Whalers hockey and game night you felt the real energy.

“I always wonder had we won that series, I really believe we would have gone to the Finals. Beating that Canadiens would have been a rocket booster for us. We had really jelled as a team, and we had a lot of the right pieces that year,” Babych said. He had suffered an injury that altered his career in training camp in a game in Quebec City.

A strong, two-handed but clean hit from behind to his right knee that he received from one of the Nordiques ruffians, Ken McRae, leveled him. To this day it still isn’t the same.

“I played physical. It was part of my game, but he took exception to it then nailed me with a two-hander. I never saw it coming.”

Babych lost all feeling to his knee and underwent a mid-1980’s style reconstructive knee surgery.

“The techniques were nothing like they are today if I had the surgery today I could’ve come back for a few more years. They were using different body parts and everything to put it back together,” Babych joked.

“When I went to a disability exam in California when they looked at my knee on MRI’s and x-rays, they laughed at me and said, ‘Holy cow,’ and asked, ‘How are you still even walking?’ It came at a really bad time because we were talking to Mr. Francis on a longer-term deal. I wanted to stay here. Of course, my brother was here and I really liked that group. It’s one of the reasons we come back. I had so many fond memories.”

Babych eventually sued McRae. The case was settled out of court, but as the saying goes, the damage was done.

The end of his Whaler and NHL career was neither smooth or graceful. After returning from surgery he played four games, a three-in-three at home, then Pittsburgh, and Babych knew there was a problem.

“I skated up to my brother during the game and said, ‘Dave, I don’t think I can do this anymore.’ The pain, I knew my skating was way off. When you have no feeling in your knee and parts of your leg makes it very difficult to play hockey. “

He was assigned to their AHL affiliate in Binghamton, but he refused the assignment and was suspended by the team.

“A lot of people at the time thought I quit or was angling for a trade, that wasn’t the case. Even after the surgery, nothing felt right. I did go to Binghamton, put up some points (seven in six games), but I was nowhere near 100%. I tried to come back in the next training camp, but it was still very difficult. Several ice bags after a game, the pain was still there, and the loss of feeling around the knee was still there and still is.”

At that point, Babych, like ex-Wolf Pack’s Stefan Cherneski, fulfilled the insurance requirements and retired with his disability claim

The Babychs are a part of a rare fraternity of brothers to have played in Hartford. Just seven pairs have done so with the WHA or NHL editions of the team. The others included, among the first Europeans to come over to play hockey in North America, in goalie Christer and defenseman Thommy Abrahamsson (Thommy played half-a-season with the NHL Whalers in 1980-81), Jack “Killer” Carlson and Steve Carson (WHA only) who were the inspiration for the Hanson brother characters in Slapshot. Doug Roberts played just two seasons, both with his brothers, Gordie who played four WHA Whalers seasons. Gordie Roberts would skate just a season and a half years with the NHL squad before being traded.

Mark and Marty Howe, of course, played in NHL and WHA along with their late great father Gordie. Tim and Neil Sheehy with Tim playing with the WHA team from 1972-1975 and in 1977-78 ) and 15 games with the Whalers in their first season. Brother Neil who famously wore 0 as a uniform number (the only player in NHL history to do so) for his 26 games with the 1985-‘86 Whalers. There were also the Wesley brothers, Blake Wesley (1981-82) and Glen (1994-1997) skated for the Whalers and Glen’s son, Josh, skated for the Wolf Pack last spring appearing in 15 games.

The last of the brothers’ crew was the Brownschidle’s. Jack played just 39 games over a three-season span claimed off waivers from St. Louis in March 1984 and Jeff played just seven games with the Whalers (1981-1983).

Babych, now 61, resides in the Winnipeg area. He has a 12-year-old son, Cole, who’s playing hockey with the St. James Canadiens (MBAAA). He wasn’t sure if his father’s tales of the NHL were real until a special lunch.

Babych was taking him to Vancouver to see Uncle Dave and his cousins and wound up having lunch with Wayne Gretzky.

“He never saw me or Dave play, so he wasn’t really sure about us whether we were putting him on or not, but last year we took him to lunch with Wayne. He and I go back to when we were kids and played in the World Junior championship (1977) in Montreal and I think the stories and Wayne’s presence made it click for him; like you really played with him,” said Babych with a good laugh at the irony.

In fact, Babych playing with the young version of Gretzky in his coming out debut at the WJC at the fabled Montreal Forum, and two years he played in Pittsburgh with Mario Lemieux, so he got see greatness up close and personal.

“Some guys would say they would pass you the puck and you never got it back,“ Babych said with a chuckle. “Wayne’s skill level was simply incredible, and his ability to pass was unbelievable, but not just where and when was his gift. He passed it and he not only got it on your stick but at the moment you were in the best position to shoot on a goalie. Mario’s size and agility were so difficult for a defenseman to play against. He could be tied up and yet still send a pass from twelve feet the other way in the other direction with a flick of his wrists. He was a scary big man to play against.”

Babych also scored 54 goals in St. Louis in 1980-81 who had selected him in the first round (third overall) in the 1978 NHL Draft after back-to-back 50 goal seasons with the Portland Winter Hawks (WHL) with another great center, Bernie Federko.

“l played a lot of time with Bernie and Brian (Sutter), but I really did even better when our coach (the great Red Berenson) switched me to the left-wing on the second line with Larry Patey and Blake Dunlop and getting a pass from a person’s backhand on the off-wing was so good and it really worked for me. The previous two years, I was on pace for 40 goals but had some shoulder issues, but that year everything clicked.”

He is a Tim Horton hockey Dad now and that brings Babych a lot of joy and new dreams. “I told him, ‘You keep getting better and get that NHL bonus so I get that condo in Tampa and enjoy life on the beach. He is a forward and going through a growth spurt, but he wanted to play goalie at one point. He was doing well until one game he faced like 50 shots. He comes home and says, ‘I don’t want to be a goalie anymore.’ Seriously, whatever he does I’ll be proud of, and it’s a lot of fun right watching him grow and develop.”

Hartford is certainly a hockey home for Wayne Babych.

(Brother Dave was in attendance, but wasn’t available for the night session)