Terry Ryan was sitting at the Blue and Water bar in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He had downed “five or six pints” and “who knows how many shots” because after all, he was celebrating his 47e birthday. Then, the phone rang: he was offered a return to professional hockey, more than 20 years after his last game.
Fans of the Canadian will certainly remember the name Terry Ryan. The team made him the eighth overall pick in the 1995 draft, notably preferring the tough guy to Jarome Iginla, selected three spots further down.
Ryan only played eight games with the Habs, between 1996 and 1998, before working his way through the lower circuits until his retirement in 2003.
But that’s not the point. Instead, let’s go back to this evening last Saturday when a tipsy Ryan received a phone call from Zach O’Brien, a friend and forward for the Newfoundland Growlers of the Premier AA Hockey League (ECHL), who was feeling his interest in playing with them the next day.
“I said to myself, it’s my birthday, April Fool’s Day, and I hung up.”
A few seconds later, his phone rings again. This time, it’s the Growlers’ director of development, another friend of Ryan’s, Adam Pardy, who repeats the same request to him. The Growlers are decimated by a virus and need an emergency replacement.
“I know when “Pards” calls, it’s serious. I told him, “You tell me now because I’m going to go home.” “That’s what I did, I took a taxi, I drank 4 liters of water, I ate a bite and I went to bed,” he said in his long interview. post-match, Sunday.
Some presences and a fight
Because, yes, at the age of 47, he played his first professional match in 21 years.
“I played professionally, but I used to joke to the guys: Sometimes you can get reassigned to the minors for two weeks, but now, two decades is a long time!” he joked about his physical condition.
But Ryan didn’t lace up the skates for the first time in 20 years. He skates four or five times a week with the Growlers, in addition to playing ball hockey regularly.
“People might laugh, but I told myself that if I had the cardio or, at the very least, a fraction of it, I would be able to play and not make a fool of myself and be an effective player for the my hometown team.”
In a 6-2 Growlers loss, Ryan finished with seven penalty minutes. He threw down the gloves in the third period against Zach Walker, a 25-year-old “youngster”, 22 years his junior.
“I wasn’t planning on fighting. I know it’s no longer a major element in hockey today and that’s okay with me. On the other hand, I turned around and saw my friend, my teammate [James Melindy], without helmet. I had done my homework and I knew Walker liked to fight. What did I have to lose? I was supposed to lose this fight, right? It’s like when I fought with Tie Domi when I was 18. As long as he doesn’t kill me, people will be pleasantly surprised.
“If this was my last appearance in professional hockey, which it probably was, I think that having fought against a player who had hit James Melindy, I will forever be happier with that statistic than any what other.”
For his daughter
In the end, Terry Ryan felt a sense of accomplishment.
“After my first appearance, I sat on the bench for quite a while and I would have been OK with that. It’s an honor, at my age, to be a part of this. “Because of the low probability of that happening, this moment is in the same place as my first NHL game,” he added, before becoming emotional while talking about his 13-year-old daughter, Penny-Laine.
“My daughter was here and she had never seen me play pro. I knew she was there with her friends and I didn’t want it to be awkward.”