NEW YORK – Jakob Pelletier remembers receiving one while playing in the world junior tourney, and another after his first NHL game.
Connor Zary got one the day he was drafted, and another the night he sat in the Saddledome press box with an injury.
Texts and calls from Lanny McDonald.
Small but memorable gestures from an icon who continues to be a Flames leader, motivator and mentor more than three decades after captaining the Flames to their lone Stanley Cup.
“You never know if it makes a difference,” smiles the effervescent 70-year-old of his contact with today’s young Flames.
“I text Huby (Jonathan Huberdeau) all the time to try to get him over the hump.
“That’s how you get inspired.
“It’s fun. Being on the outside and having an opportunity to try to help some of those guys is great.
“I’m just a friend and a fan of the game who loves the Flames, so if I can help in any way it’s awesome.”
It’s a lesson he recalls learning fifty years ago as a fresh-faced, pre-moustached farm kid from Hanna, Ab. arrived in Toronto with massive expectations and little clue how to fulfill them.
That’s when a friendly veteran took him under his wing and gave the Medicine Hat star a life lesson he’s paid forward ever since.
“Ronnie Ellis,” said McDonald, when asked who helped welcome him into the NHL as the league’s fourth pick overall.
“The amazing thing was he was a right winger and I said, ‘sooner or later, if things keep going I’m going to take your job,’ and he said, ‘remember that, because then you need to pass that along to the next guy.’”
He’d done it in spades.
“When Nieuwy (Joe Nieuwendyk) and Robs (Gary Roberts) came to Calgary it was Joey Mullen and I who did everything with those two,” reminisced McDonald.
“We’d always go to lunch, and when you do that it is so much fun and they were such good teammates, but then it rubs off on the rest of the guys too.”
He’s been one of the game’s great ambassadors ever since, carrying himself with a class, grace, poise, humility, generosity and selflessness that makes the 500-goal man one of the most beloved Hall of Famers the game has ever been blessed with.
So, when news spread of his cardiac arrest episode at the Calgary airport Sunday, one can only imagine how many thousands of texts lit up the legend’s phone.
“You’re not going to find a better person than Lanny McDonald, ever,” said Flames GM Craig Conroy, who has done his fair share of using McDonald as a sounding board.
“Everything he’s done in hockey, that’s all great, but just a good, good person.
I’d be around Lanny every day if I could.
“When we heard the news, it was scary.
“I’m just so happy he’s okay.”
Banged up, recovering in hospital from an episode so traumatic the resuscitation effort left him with many broken ribs, McDonald still wanted to take the effort to thank the off duty nurses, airport staff and good samaritans who came to his aid before delivering him to doctors.
“I owe them my life,” he wrote on Instagram.
It’s the thousands and thousands of people in Calgary he’s helped over the years who feel they owe him a debt of gratitude, including the young lads who ran their truck off a wintery road a few years back, looked up from the ditch to find No. 9 offering to pull them out.
Others have simply been blessed with a handshake, autograph, picture, pat on the back or thumbs up they’ll never forget.
Longtime Flames executive Rollie Cyr has watched it at endless charitable events, as well as annual sponsor trips McDonald takes with the team several times a year, where his tireless interaction with clients, players and even passers-by is awe-inspiring.
“John Wooden has a quote, ‘let no day pass without doing something for somebody who will never be able to thank you,’” said Cyr.
“He is the epitome of that.
“Every day he is doing something for somebody. He’s the ultimate ambassador. It gives me goosebumps.”
So thankful are the players for his efforts to guide them along, the team gathered during practice in Boston Sunday to record a message they sent to McDonald, saying en masse, “We love you Lanny.”
Anyone who ever played with him over his 17-year career would echo that sentiment, and all the players’ dads who joined the team two weeks ago agreed having McDonald, and his right-hand man Colin Patterson, along for the festivities was a highlight.
“I want the players to know these guys,” said Conroy of the alumni, who have been even more involved with the club since his promotion.
“When we were at Mike Vernon’s Hall of Fame induction and you see all the guys on that team, you realize why they won a Stanley Cup. I’m thinking, ‘this is how a team should be’ and Lanny is the ringleader of that, the glue.
“I’m surprised they didn’t win more cups.
“It’s amazing what he does for the city, what he does behind the scenes, and what he does for the Flames organization that nobody is ever going to know about.”
