STACKHOUSE: THE IMPACT OF RICHARD ZEMLAK

By: Mike Stackhouse

Last week I wrote about impactful NHL players on my life and closed it out by saying Richard Zemlak was the most influential to me.  I felt one small paragraph wouldn’t do it justice so I wanted to write a full article about him this week and I hope you find it to be a decent read. 

In 1985, I was ten years-old.  Most kids my age at that time played with Hot Wheels and GI Joe action figures.  To some degree I did too, but my go-to for passing the time was a notebook, pen, and hockey magazines.  I knew hockey stats inside and out. When it came to the local American Hockey League team, the Fredericton Express, I could recite the roster top to bottom and I knew every minute detail about that player’s career from junior to the present day.  I was a big, big fan.

I didn’t attend many games, however.  The Aitken Centre was on the opposite end of the city and coming from a single parent family where money was in high demand and low supply I was often left to check the newspaper each morning to find out how the team performed.  Even though I was 10, I knew I wanted to work in sports when I grew up. To that end, play by play man Dave Morell was maybe my favorite person associated with the Express rather than any one player. I was already out of minor hockey (too expensive to play) and knew that any future I had in sports would be with my mouth and not my hands and legs.

My mom was a frequent blood donor and on this one particular day, she called the house and told me that Richard Zemlak, Taylor Hall, and Frank Caprice were signing autographed team calendars for the folks coming in to donate blood.  I don’t remember if I ran all the way there on foot or if I got on a city bus; but I went to the blood donor clinic while my mom went through the usual donating process and I ended up getting my calendar and then started a conversation with these three players.  All of them were very friendly but it was Zemlak I was drawn to. I don’t remember much of the conversation, but I recall all of them being entertained by my ability to recite their stats. I want to say this (for me) major event took place around November or December of 1985.

After Christmas, Devon Pharmacy launched a contest for kids age 12 and under to win a road trip with the Express.  My mom entered my name for this every single time she was in there and she made a point to go several times a day I think.  I don’t have much luck when it comes to this stuff. I often joke that if my name was in a box 9 times and there were only 10 ballots in the box, I’d still lose.  But, my hopes were high and I was on pins and needles the night of the draw. The catch to winning was that you needed to be in attendance at the game during which they announced the winner.   I don’t know why I recall this, but I’m quite sure the game I was at was an 8-0 blowout for the Hershey Bears with Ron Hextall in net but that’s not important. It was the end of the second period, Morell came out on the carpet with the draw drum and announced the winner of the road trip.  Mike Stackhouse of 254 Noble Street. Will never forget it for as long as I live.

The trip took place March 2nd and 3rd, 1986.  I had to take a grown-up with me and even though my mom did all the heavy lifting, I opted to take my Big Brother Reg Short.  We left Fredericton very early in the morning and bussed to Saint John, which is about an hour away. From there, we’d fly to Boston and then make our way to Springfield to play the AHL Indians later that night.  Well, I got stricken with a bad case of being shy and I snuck on to the bus and didn’t say a word to any of the players even though it was announced that Reg and I would be joining them. I was intimidated. While at the airport in Saint John, I was in line for some breakfast when I get rattled on the top of my head from….Richard Zemlak.  “Hey, I heard you won this trip. It’s going to be a lot of fun and looking forward to having you and Reg. I remember you from the blood donor clinic.” Well that was it. Instant comfort for me.

I didn’t sit near Zemlak on the bus and don’t really remember him on the plane or bus at all.  I do recall sitting across from Dunc MacIntyre and Scott Tottle (neither made the NHL) and David Bruce (with I think Yves Heroux) sat in front of me.  Bruce was a riot. He had a great sense of humour and zero filter. He swore like a sailor without any regard for the 11-year-old behind him. Well, I had a treat for him.  I had, in my possession, the NHL Register which was a very thick book that had every single affiliated NHL player inside and their career stats with it. Bruce had never seen such a thing and I thought he was going to steal it from me.  He went up and down the bus and marveled to his teammates about how this starry eyed kid has most of the book memorized. He autographed it for me and after the game against Springfield Saturday night, he was called up to the NHL for the first time in his career, summoned to the Vancouver Canucks.  Looking back, it was really cool to witness that and it had to have been an incredibly special moment for him. I maybe even joked about how different his next year’s Register would look. He also has the worst autograph I’ve ever seen.

During the game I got to sit in the press box with Morell and listen to his call.  I don’t remember if I was on with him during both games or one game but I made my radio debut that particular weekend.  Side bar – Morell told me a great story about how he covered for a coach (I don’t think it was current coach Andre Savard but it could have been) by lying about an icing during the live broadcast and making it sound like the stray puck ended up in the Fredericton bench and it looks like it clipped the Express’ coach.  The reason for this was that the coach had been in a bar that he wasn’t supposed to be in the night before and ended up on the receiving end of a right hook that resulted in blood being drawn. This allowed the coach to go home and say he was struck by a puck that left the ice.

The Express lost the first game to Springfield and after the game I was allowed into the dressing room to visit with all the players and then we went somewhere for a post game meal and I had my first and only conversation with Claude Julien, who was a veteran defenseman for the team and one of their leaders.  I also reconnected with Zemlak and I informed him that at 212 penalty minutes, he was within reach of the team single season penalty minute record of 242, held by Craig Coxe. Zemlak informed me it be no problem to do it the next night in New Haven, against the Nighthawks. I had my doubts about this as 32 minutes is hard to get without a referee kicking you out of the game before it ever gets that high. 

The next day Reg and I were shopping at the local New Haven mall when we run into Zemlak and a couple of others.  I wish him Happy Birthday, which he was stunned to see I knew, and he double checks with me on the penalty minute total and assures me this shouldn’t be a problem.  I’ve gone back and looked at the New Haven roster from that year and I can’t remember who Zemlak mixed it up with that night. It could have been Jim Wiemer or Dave Nicholls; but Zemlak made good on his promise.  He was in two fights and ended up with two misconduct penalties and a minor penalty to boot and surpassed Coxes’s single season total with his big one game collection. The Express won the game and afterwards I went down to the dressing room and I think Zemlak was happier for me getting to witness the record more than he was for himself setting it.  There were a group of players sitting around laughing about it all with Zemlak and myself, one of which was Gary Lupul, who passed away from a heart attack in 2007 at the age of 48.

There were a handful of home games remaining on the schedule after my road trip and Director of Operations Mike Doyle gave Reg and I tickets right behind the players bench for the rest of the season.  Back then there was no glass or anything separating the bench from the crowd so Zemlak would come out and give me a tap prior to the start of every game. He had a great fight with Don Nachbaur one night where Zemlak mis-dropped his gloves and they ended up in Nachbaur’s face before they hit the ice and Zemlak got in a couple of free whacks before Nachbaur knew what, literally, hit him.  

I know this is a story that’s dragging on so I will skip to the part where Zemlak spent much of the following season with the Quebec Nordiques and then he moved on to the Minnesota North Stars in 1987-88 and he wreaked havoc on the NHL with Basil McRae as there was a fight almost every night and Zemlak ended up with 307 minutes (I’d later read that he hated fighting and was super nervous before every game knowing he’d have to tangle with the likes of Dave Brown but he also knew that’s the only way he stays in the NHL).  Zemlak went on to play for Pittsburgh for a couple of seasons and then had a cup of coffee with Calgary in 1992 before ending his pro career in 1994.

Fast forward to 2001 and I’m now a mid-20’s smart ass on Fox FM in Yorkton and while co-hosting the morning show with Alex White, we get talking about our favorite NHL players.  I mention mine was Richard Zemlak of Wynyard, Saskatchewan. Alex, who knew pretty much nothing that left my mouth during the morning show was ever true, called BS and said I was trying to score points with a small community in our listening area.  I held firm and when we went to break, the phone rang and it was Amber Harvey, a woman I knew in passing from our local community. She was wise enough to know I am full of it most mornings so she really presses me and wants to know if I’m serious about Zemlak.  I said ‘yes’ and she takes my information and tells me he’s a real estate agent back in Minnesota. Within a day, I had an email from Richard Zemlak saying ‘long time no see’ essentially. Did he remember the road trip after all these years? Who really knows for sure.  Maybe he was being polite and didn’t want to crush me. But I enjoyed a back and forth exchange with him for a couple of days and haven’t connected with him since.  

Again, small world.  I’ve been involved with the SJHL since 2002 and I notice Zemlak’s name amongst the alumni of the Melville Millionaires, my second home team (after Yorkton). 

There really is no bow to tie to wrap this story up other than to explain why Richard Zemlak was the most impactful NHL player in my life and to point out just how small the hockey world can sometimes be, especially when you are poor kid living in Fredericton, NB and know nothing about Wynyard only to eventually live 75 minutes from there later in life.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)