“Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste.” — From the song “Nick of Time,” by Bonnie Raitt
Greg Millen met the love of his life, Ann Kelly, in Peterborough, where he played junior hockey. Ann and Greg were just cleaning up this week at their home in Kawartha Lakes after an ice storm battered the region. I smiled, thinking it was a good sign.
Ann gave birth to their first child during a blizzard years ago when Greg was an NHL goalie for the Hartford Whalers. Ann gave birth at 2 a.m. on a Saturday — another good sign, as Greg would become a Saturday staple on Hockey Night in Canada — and later that day Greg’s Whalers were scheduled to play the Islanders on Long Island. Despite not getting bed until 3 a.m., Greg jumped in a car with assistant GM Bob Crocker at 6 a.m. — but the drive home that would normally take two and a half hours required six hours because of a snowstorm.
Greg thought, “No biggie, I won’t be asked to play,” but he was wrong about that. Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and the Islanders faced him that night and Greg ended up being the first star in an unlikely tie game.
The next day, he beat Toronto.
Greg always maintained that that was the day he realized goaltending was all mental. Before that, he used to need to walk the hotel hallways for hours after losses. He needed hours to get set, and just as many hours to unwind. But that weekend changed him.
Fatherhood and fight gave him a new mission. He no longer fixated on goals against or wins, he became a student of leadership.
He had played junior with Wayne Gretzky. His friends Bob Gainey and Steve Larmer were mentors. His first coach was Roger Neilson, an epiphany.
Education became Greg’s practice. He went back to Peterborough to teach at the Roger Neilson Hockey School with Johnny Bower and Bernie Parent. Students included Tony Harris, the artist whose work includes the painting that was given to Alex Ovechkin after he broke Wayne Gretzky’s goal record on Sunday. Greg was proud to have taught Harris.
At the outset of Greg’s career, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins and assigned to Kalamazoo of the IHL, where he played two games before he was cut — so he enrolled at Guelph University. Angelo Bumbacco in Sault Ste. Marie called Greg just after Christmas and asked, “Why don’t you give hockey one more shot?” That begat a 14-year NHL career.
When it was over, Greg completed his schooling at Guelph. He coached and helped Peterborough writer Ed Arnold create two seminal books about the game: Whose Puck Is It, Anyway? and Showtime. Both are greatly influenced by Greg’s passion for leadership.
Greg had too many best friends in the game to mention, but Seattle Kraken GM Ron Francis, who Paul Maurice claims is hockey’s most brilliant mind, and NHL VP Colin Campbell are leaders who are where they are because of Greg’s help shaping the questions they should be asking themselves.
Bob Cole had one final request as he closed out his career. “I’d like Greg as the analyst.”
As Bonnie Raitt sang:
“You came along and showed me
I could leave it all behind
You opened up my heart again
And then much to my surprise
I found love again
Love, in the nick of time.”
