Esposito ‘absolutely a fan of’ McDavid on 60th anniversary of NHL debut

Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is a huge fan of Connor McDavid, no matter that the odds are against the Edmonton Oilers superstar joining an NHL club whose membership stands at two.
 
Only Esposito and Mario Lemieux scored their 900th and 1,000th regular-season points in the same season. McDavid, who scored his 900th with an assist on Jan. 2, today stands at 907 points. He’ll have to average a little over two points per game over the last 43 games to join that exclusive club.
 
“Frankly, I don’t think that Connor McDavid cares about scoring his 900th and 1,000th point in the same season, if he even knows that’s a statistic,” Esposito said from Tampa on Tuesday morning, just home following a four-day Tampa Bay Lightning alumni cruise to benefit the team’s charitable foundation. “This guy wants to win the Stanley Cup, and he’s going to.”
 
Esposito was a champion with the Boston Bruins in 1970 and 1972, Lemieux with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

Phil Esposito in a portrait with the 1963-64 Chicago Black Hawks, and trying to elude Toronto defenseman Marcel Pronovost in a 1966 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Tuesday is the 60th anniversary of Esposito’s first NHL game, a minor-pro call-up to the Chicago Black Hawks for their Jan. 16, 1964, game in Montreal against the Canadiens.

“Really?” the 81-year-old said when told of the date. “You’re asking me about this? I don’t know where I was 15 minutes ago.”

Which isn’t entirely true. Esposito had excellent recall of the 1-0 loss to the Canadiens that night and what led to his arrival in the NHL, though he was happy to first talk about McDavid.

“During my career I played with some guys who had great hands but they couldn’t think, or vice-versa” he said. “Either the hands were too quick for the brain, or the brain was too quick for the hands. McDavid has got them in sync. When you have his speed and his hands and the ability to think like he does, and to execute the things he does, it’s very difficult to stop a guy like that. He’s smart, he’s quick, and his hands co-ordinate with his mind.

“Absolutely I’m a fan of his. I like to watch him play because of that. Bobby Orr was like that. Bobby Hull wasn’t. Hull was a big-time shooter.

Chicago Black Hawks center Phil Esposito battles with Toronto defenseman Marcel Pronovost in front of goalie Terry Sawchuk during a 1965 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

“But I was in sync: my hands, my feet and my mind all moved slow,” Esposito said, laughing. “I kept it that way to stay in sync. You try to slow down the opposition in your mind if you can. It’s wonderful to be able to do that. For me, the game looked slow because I was slow, I guess.”

Esposito scored his 900th point with a goal on Oct. 10, 1973, against Vancouver Canucks goalie Gary Smith, coming in the Bruins’ first game of that season and his 692nd game. His 1,000th came on an assist against the same opponent and goalie on Feb. 15, 1974, in his 745th game.

Lemieux reached 900 points in just 463 games, with an assist against Hartford Whalers goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz on Nov. 2, 1991. His 1,000th came in his 513th game, on March 24, 1992, an assist on a goal against Detroit Red Wings goalie Tim Cheveldae.

McDavid reached 900 this month in his 602nd game, an assist on a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers’ Carter Hart.

Esposito, like every other knowledgeable observer, is dazzled by the many skills McDavid brings to the rink.

Connor McDavid in a 2015 NHL Draft portrait. The Edmonton Oilers chose McDavid No. 1 overall that year.

“And he has Leon Draisaitl with him on the power play,” Esposito said of the flashy fellow Oilers sniper who, entering the Oilers’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNW, TSN4) has 45 points (20 goals, 25 assists) in 39 games, trailing McDavid’s team-leading 57 (16 goals, 41 assists) in 37 games.

“Draisaitl can think like McDavid. He’s not as fast but he’s as smart, he can think like McDavid and knows what to do. That’s why Hull and I got along so well on the ice in Chicago, and Orr and myself in Boston.

“I tried to think the way Orr would think coming up the ice. Where was the puck going to be? Wherever I thought it would be, that’s where I’d be. Sooner or later Bobby had to give it off and that’s where I’ll be. Draisaitl does that with McDavid.”

Esposito then flashed back to his arrival in the NHL, not that he saw much, or any, of Montreal Forum ice 60 years ago on this night.

“I don’t think I had a shift,” he said. “I was the rookie, man, just called up from St. Paul, Minnesota.”

Playing for the St. Louis Braves, Esposito was the Central Professional Hockey League’s scoring leader with 80 points (36 goals, 54 assists in 43 games). He’d just scored two goals with three assists on Jan. 15, 1964, in a 7-3 road win against the St. Paul Bruins when the Black Hawks placed the call.

Phil Esposito, second from right in the second row, in the Chicago Black Hawks’ 1965-66 team photo. Bottom row, from left: Glenn Hall, captain Pierre Pilote, co-owner Arthur Wirtz, GM Tommy Ivan, co-owner James Norris, alternate captain Stan Mikita, Dave Dryden. Middle row: head coach Billy Reay, Doug Mohns, Doug Jarrett, Len Lunde, Elmer Vasko, alternate captain Bill Hay, Eric Nesterenko, Ken Hodge, Esposito, executive Michael Wirtz. Top row: trainer Nick Garen, Ken Wharram, Chico Maki, Fred Stanfield, Bobby Hull, Dennis Hull, Al MacNeil, Matt Ravlich, equipment manager Don Uren (against whom Esposito scored his final minor-pro goal).

He guessed it was Cesare Maniago against whom he’d scored his final minor-pro goals but in fact it was Braves trainer Don Uren, playing in emergency relief of injured St. Paul goalie Marcel Pelletier, who left with a pulled muscle.

“That’s right, it was Donnie!” Esposito said brightly. “Next day at practice, he gave me a two-hander across the ankle, whacking me for having scored on him.”

Esposito had arrived with St. Louis the season before from the Eastern Pro league’s Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds, having his pro debut with six games to end the 1961-62 season.

“My left wrist was broken so I filed down my cast so I could get my glove on,” he said. “Probably shouldn’t have played. I never told Black Jack Stewart, our coach. But Jim Farelli knew. He was a teammate and friend of my dad, and he told the big guy from Kitchener who wanted to get me, ‘If you touch him, you’ll be looking for your teeth.’ ”

Esposito had 90 points (36 goals, 54 assists) in 71 games for the Braves in 1962-63, paving the way for his sophomore season and call-up to Chicago, never to see the minors again.

Chicago’s Phil Esposito battles with Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jacques Laperriere at the Montreal Forum.

“(Braves coach and GM) Gus Kyle called me into the room to tell me I was to join Chicago in Montreal,” he recalled. “I’d never been on a plane before. Two veteran teammates advised me to take the very last seat, against the window, of the DC-9, ‘because you’ll be most comfortable there, and you’ll be the first one off if the plane goes into a mountain.’ They didn’t tell me that my head would be a couple of feet from a jet engine.

“Gus was something. A game or two before I was called up, we had a power play. He called me to the bench before it began and told me to go tell the ref that we decline the penalty because our power play was so bad.

“And when I was called up, he said, ‘Good luck to you. If you come back here, you’d better be ready to play and not mess around, no drinking or carousing.’ So I decided to never come back.”

Esposito’s 60th anniversary came one day after the 40th anniversary of the final NHL game of his late brother, Tony, a fellow Hall of Famer who excelled in the Blackhawks goal.

“Isn’t that something,” Esposito said. “Tony still is Chicago’s record-holder in goal in a bunch of categories, for very good reason.”

Then, wistfully: “I regret this about my career: had I known I was retiring with 1,590 points, I’d have stuck around to score 10 more for an even 1,600. Maybe I’ll come back to get them. I can still lace ’em up, but I’ll need somebody to push me around the ice.”