Last April, in the midst of his 15th comfortable year in the front
office of the frustratingly comfortable (read: bad) Los
Angeles Kings, Rogie Vachon got the news: He was being
canned. Well, actually, demoted, from chief hockey
operations officer to vice
president of special projects. Canned? Rogie Vachon? The best
goaltender in Kings' history? How could this be? Yet in
what was a sweeping shakeup of the L.A. front office,
Vachon was cool. "No big deal," he says.
"I've been a King through good and bad. This is
where my heart is. I've faced a lot tougher days than
that."
Indeed, Vachon, a 1968 Vezina Trophy winner and thrice a
Stanley Cup winner, has often faced difficult challenges.
Like coaching the Kings three times—all on an interim
basis—when they were one of the worst teams in hockey.
Like trading Wayne Gretzky,
as he helped do in 1996 as L.A. president. Like having to
stand up to the likes of Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, as he
did as a
5'7", 165-pound goalie during his 16 NHL seasons.
Canned? Big deal. Ever take a shot by Howe in the face,
sans mask? "When you're my size, you've got to be a
stand-up type of person," says Vachon, 52, who with
wife Nicole has three children, including Nicholas, a New
York Islanders center. "I played when players were
smaller, but I was still really small. I
took my bruises, but I didn't want to back down.
Never."
He didn't. He helped lift the Montreal Canadiens to Stanley
Cup titles in 1968, '69 and '71. Those were among the best
teams in hockey history—strong up front with bone-jarring
defense. "Everybody feared us," he says. "I
remember the awe other teams
felt. There was no way we could
lose."
After he quit in 1982 (he played five years in Montreal,
seven in L.A. and briefly with the Detroit Red Wings and
the Boston Bruins), Vachon, a Palmarolle, Que., native,
didn't dwell on his 355 wins (fifth alltime), his 1976
Canada Cup MVP award and the
retiring of his number 30 by the Kings. Instead he looked
forward. He has since held virtually every position with
L.A., from goaltender coach to head coach to general
manager to president to operations officer to his current
position, in which, he
says, "I mainly work with clients—playing golf,
entertaining."
Last year the Kings celebrated their 30th anniversary with
an alumni game against some Hollywood stars. Vachon started
in goal, his first time in net since retiring. "I
practiced, just to make sure I could still skate," he
says. "I didn't want to
embarrass myself." So? "One goal scored," he says.
"But I stood tough." He always
has.
—by Jeff Pearlman
photograph by Neil Leifer
Issue date: October 6, 1997
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
|
