SPORTS
Hockey in their blood
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Also by Tyler Mason:
- Connelly's kiss a perfect finish (February 11, 2008)
- Wisconsin earns Carnival victory (February 11, 2008)
- Four recruits enroll early, begin practicing (February 7, 2008)
Related Stories:
- Sophomores to play for U.S.A. (December 6, 2007)
- Geoffrion keeps it simple (November 30, 2007)
- Joudrey feels right at home on ice for Badgers (October 26, 2005)
- Johnson looking for another miracle year (October 5, 2004)
- Freshman Turris show's he's legit (October 23, 2007)
by Tyler Mason
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Patrick Johnson and Blake Geoffrion had no choice but to
play hockey. It was in their blood.
Since their fathers and grandfathers — and in Geoffrion’s
case, his great-grandfather — made their livings on the hockey rink, it’s no
surprise that the two Badgers chose to strap on the skates as well.
Both are the sons of former NHL players — Johnson’s dad Mark
played with Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Hartford, St. Louis and New Jersey, while
Blake’s dad Danny skated briefly with the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets.
Both are also the grandsons of hockey legends — Blake’s grandfather was Bernie
“Boom Boom” Geoffrion; Patrick’s was “Badger Bob” Johnson.
Perhaps the most famous member of either family is Blake’s
grandfather, “Boom Boom.” While his numbers alone were impressive — 393 career
goals, 429 career assists, six Stanley Cup championships — Boom Boom will be
forever known as the player who invented and perfected the slapshot.
After his playing days, he later went on to coach the New
York Rangers, Atlanta Flames and Montreal Canadiens for five seasons.
When Blake, a sophomore, was growing up in Tennessee, he and
Boom Boom developed a strong relationship.
“I talked to him all the time and he’d come up and see me at
least once a month,” Blake said. “I can’t say enough good things about him. He
was an unbelievable person.”
Surprisingly, the game they both loved was never really the
topic of discussion between the legend and his grandson.
“He didn’t say too much about hockey because the game had
changed so much,” Blake said. “He’s more about life lessons off the ice.”
Boom Boom died in March 2006 from stomach cancer on the same
day he was scheduled to have his No. 5 — the same number Blake wears for Wisconsin
— retired by the Canadiens. The entire Geoffrion family was in attendance for
the retiring of his number.
That was when Blake began to understand how influential his
grandfather actually was.
“I couldn’t believe how big of a star he was,” Geoffrion said.
“People noticed who we were, and they’d come up to us and say how sorry they
were to us.”
Just the Geoffrion name alone was enough for Blake and his
older brother, Nick, to get recognized at a restaurant while they were in
Montreal for the ceremony. After Nick ordered a drink and showed his ID, the
waiter immediately knew who they were and gave the brothers the star treatment.
“My brother showed it to him, and he goes, ‘Oh, you’re Boom
Boom Geoffrion’s grandson?’” Blake said.
The brothers were then put in a special room, given free
food, and introduced to the manager and the owner of the restaurant.
But the thing that stood out most about his time in Montreal
during that event was the actual raising of his grandfather’s number.
“When his jersey was hanging there at center ice and they
announced his name for the first time, everyone in the rink in Montreal stood
up on their feet,” Geoffrion said. “They just clapped and cheered for about
five minutes.”
“Badger Bob”
Johnson’s grandfather was very well-known in the hockey
community as well. Robert Johnson, better known as “Badger Bob,” began his
college coaching career at Wisconsin, where he coached from 1966 to 1981.
During his time on the UW bench, Johnson’s teams played in seven NCAA
tournaments and won three national championships. His coaching résumé also
included the 1976 U.S. Olympic team and the NHL’s Calgary Flames and Pittsburgh
Penguins.
Badger Bob died in 1991, too soon for Patrick to get to know
his iconic grandfather.
“I hear a lot of stories about him,” said Johnson, a
freshman. “He had a passion for the game and basically loved the game. It’s
what he did all day.”
It is his grandfather’s quote that hangs above the Kohl
Center ice at hockey games. The banner reads, “It’s a great day for hockey,”
something that Johnson uses as motivation.
“It gives you some goosebumps, for sure,” Johnson said.
“It’s used by everyone. You see it on TV, you see it all over the world.”
Tough breaks
Blake’s father, Danny, didn’t have the illustrious career
his father Boom Boom did. He played just 111 NHL games, finishing with only 20
goals with the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets.
For as short as his career was, Danny was able to use his
limited time in the league to pass down valuable lessons to his son.
“I think the biggest thing was, he just told me, ‘If you
ever do make it to the NHL one day, it’s all about the breaks,’” Blake said.
Danny appeared to have caught his big break when he was
drafted by the Canadiens in 1978. Atlanta originally had the No. 8 selection in
the amateur draft and was set to select him. But Montreal made a deal with
Atlanta to move up in the draft, and Geoffrion joined the Canadiens — coached
at the time by his father Bernie.
But Bernie never got the chance to give his son the playing
time he needed to get his career off the ground, as he wasn’t responsible for
assigning playing time.
“My dad was never going to have a chance to play, really,”
Blake Geoffrion said. “Back then, it was the management that chose who played
that night. It wasn’t the coach like it is today. So my grandfather was
coaching there, and it was really tough for him to see his son not playing.”
After Bernie resigned as coach, Danny was traded to
Winnipeg, where he had his most productive season in his short career. Before
Christmas, Danny scored 19 goals. But Winnipeg got a new coach, and Geoffrion
was moved from the team’s first line down to the fourth. He would go on to
score just one more goal that season.
“It’s just breaks like that my dad was telling me about,”
Blake said. “He always tells us it’s not nearly as easy as it looks out there.”
“Miracle” worker
Unlike Geoffrion’s, Johnson’s dad had a rather decorated
career.
Mark, the current head coach of the Wisconsin women’s hockey
team, began his playing career at UW, just like his son. As a freshman in 1977,
Mark led the Badgers to a national title and won the WCHA Rookie of the Year.
He later went on to win the WCHA MVP in the 1978-79 season, and finished his
collegiate career as Wisconsin’s second leading scorer with 256 points.
According to his son, however, dad rarely brings up his
playing days at UW.
“He’s a pretty modest guy,” Patrick said. “He doesn’t like
to talk about it. If you ask him a couple questions, he’ll spit a couple things
out. But he won’t go on and on about it.”
Johnson later went on to play for the United States on the
celebrated 1980 Olympic team that defeated the Soviets and went on to win the
gold medal. The team’s story was eventually made into the motion picture
“Miracle.”
Naturally, Patrick had to see it.
“We actually got out of school the first day it came out,”
Johnson said. “You kind of get goosebumps when you first watch it and say,
‘That’s my dad out there.’ It’s kind of weird. I don’t think it really hit me
until the movie came out how big it actually was and how big of an effect it
had on the world.”
The gold medal from the Olympics still resides at the
Johnson household, but it’s not the Johnson who won it that keeps it in his
possession.
“It was down in my room,” Patrick said. “It just sits down
there now. Funny story, my mom left it in the mailbox for someone to pick up
for show and tell, so that shows our family.”
Now that he is on the same campus on which his father
coaches, Patrick said the two continue to stay in touch.
“I think we’ve grown closer this year, just because we’re
kind of in the same boat,” Patrick said. “He’s getting to see a lot more of my
games, I’ll tell you that much. He hasn’t had a chance in the past.”
Four generations of hockey
The Geoffrion legacy extends back slightly further, as
Blake’s great-grandfather, Howie Morenz, is a member of the NHL Hall of Fame
and won three Stanley Cups with Montreal. He, like Boom Boom, had his number
retired by the Canadiens.
“I knew that he was a real fast skater, which I don’t know
quite what happened to me,” Blake joked. “He was kind of a down-to-earth guy;
didn’t really talk too much. But when he said something, people listened.”
Morenz’s career — and life — were cut short in 1937. After
getting hit into the boards during a game, Morenz was taken to the hospital for
treatment. He was ultimately unable to recover, dying at the age of 34.
“Everyone said he died of a broken heart because he loved
the game so much,” Blake said.
Making names for themselves
Living in the shadows hasn’t been too tough for either
Johnson or Geoffrion. Both realize they are not the same players their fathers
and grandfathers were, so they’ve decided to establish their own games.
“Everyone always asks me if I feel a lot of pressure from
it, and I really don’t,” Geoffrion said. “I think I’m a totally different
hockey player than those two guys were. They were kind of more goal scorers. … My
game is not necessarily natural goal-scoring.”
Like Geoffrion, Johnson realizes he isn’t the same player
his father was.
“I’d say I used to feel pressure, just because you’ve got to
live up to your standards,” Johnson said. “But I’m a totally different player.
… My dad was obviously a natural goal scorer, and I’m obviously not that. I
like to go in the corners a little bit.”
Regardless of the type of player he is, Johnson considers it
an honor to be able to carry his family’s name as a third generation Badger.
“I guess just the biggest this is being able to carry on the
tradition,” Johnson said. “My grandfather was at Wisconsin; my dad was at
Wisconsin. Just having the opportunity to be here and wear the jersey is
unbelievable.”
Johnson, a forward, is the team’s smallest player, standing
at just 5-foot-9. Despite his small stature, however, he has put up big numbers
in his first year with the team. Through 30 games, he has notched eight goals
and 16 assists, fourth on the team.
That production was the result of hard work Patrick put in
at a young age, as his dad saw a natural love for the game in his son.
“He liked playing the game, and obviously it was certainly a
big part of his life,” Mark Johnson said. “I saw him develop a passion for it
and really enjoy practicing and playing … and basically having fun playing it.”
Mark Johnson said he never really needed to push his son to
fall in love with the game. For all of his children, the move was a natural
one.
“For most of them, they gravitated towards hockey,” Johnson
said. “They liked coming to the Badger games. They enjoyed watching some of the
players that I coached. So they sort of developed their own passion for it.”
As far as becoming a Badger, Mark Johnson could only hope
one of his children would follow in his footsteps.
“I know they all had dreamed of it,” Johnson said. “But
[Patrick] was fortunate enough to put himself in position to get the
opportunity.”
Geoffrion, also a forward, is third on the team in scoring,
with 24 goals. After he was selected 56th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft,
he has continued to keep a level head.
“My grandfather and my dad have always taught me, just be a
good person and be humble in any successes you have,” Geoffrion said.
“Obviously my goal is to make it to the NHL, just like any other hockey
player.”
Johnson, who is undrafted, hopes to leave his mark on UW as
well.
“I’d say the biggest thing is just the opportunity to be
carrying on the tradition of my dad and my grandpa,” Johnson said. “Obviously
I’m not going to be remembered as as big as them, but hopefully a little bit
will carry on.”
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