TORONTO – As Shea Weber gave his speech to accept his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday evening, there was a moment that was extremely telling of who he is and what he meant to the game and to whoever crossed paths with him over his career.
Weber can’t play the game he loves anymore, and he misses it enormously. But it is the relationships he misses as well, the people he saw on a daily basis.
“To this day, my love for the game remains strong, even if my body didn’t hold up as long as I had hoped,” Weber said in his speech. “It’s because there’s so much to be grateful for when playing this game. And it’s not just the big moments, grinding out a playoff win or taking home Olympic gold. It’s the small, seemingly routine moments that matter the most.”
Weber went on to thank just about every category of person he came across over his 16 years in the NHL, including trainers and rink attendants.
And the last one was “Partner” in Nashville, which is the nickname of longtime locker room attendant Craig Baugh. Weber and just about every player who has ever played for the Predators considers Baugh to be a part of the family. But Weber mentioning him by name in his induction speech, on one of the greatest days of his life, says a lot about how he treated people, especially the staff members that may have seemed secondary but weren’t to him.
About how much he appreciated the little moments with them, as well.
When Weber was traded to the Montreal Canadiens and the team went on the road for the first time, Patrick Langlois was taken aback.
Langlois, now the Canadiens’ head equipment manager, was an assistant at the time, and there was a routine to follow after every road game.
“Webby, when he came in, we’ve always been used to, whenever we played on the road, after the third period we’d wait for the guys to throw their gear in the bag and we would carry them out onto the cart in the hallway to bring it to the truck,” Langlois said Monday morning. “Well Webby, when he came in, would be like, no, no, no. He would tell me and Gerv (equipment manager Pierre Gervais), guys are going to throw their stuff in their bags and carry it out to the cart in the hallway. That’s what he wanted. He was really adamant about it.
“We’d pick up a bag, and he’d be on us. While Webby was here, that’s how it worked.”
That first season in Montreal in 2016-17 began slowly. Weber had just arrived, so he wasn’t about to start making demands on the new group. But once he began carrying his equipment bag out into the hallway, other guys began doing it too, until eventually the whole team was doing it.
“I just thought it was the expectation because that’s always what I did,” Weber said Friday. “Trainers have enough work to do. They work their butts off. They’re going to the rink when we’re going to the hotel (when we arrive in a new city), so they don’t need to pack our stuff too. The trainers were great. They would always try and grab our bags and I was like, ‘Don’t touch my bag, I’m taking it.’ Then guys picked up on it and it was awesome.
“That’s culture right there. It’s just the little things that might not seem like they matter, but they do. It’s a little thing that matters.”
Though Weber always insisted he didn’t force anyone to bring their bags out, that it just happened organically, that’s not how Langlois remembers it. This was something that was enforced.
“He would tell guys to do it,” Langlois said. “That’s the way he wanted us to be treated.”
This was not the only relationship Weber fostered with support staff.
During his final season, Weber would arrive at the rink three hours before every game and every practice to get treatment in the athletic trainers’ room. His knee and ankle were barely functional and it took a lot for him to get out on the ice. But Weber insisted to the training staff that they not tell anyone.
Not general manager Marc Bergevin, not coaches Claude Julien or Dominique Ducharme, not his teammates. He built a circle of trust that was very small.
“My dad’s pretty much the only one that knew. The trainers, and some of the players would have known because they were in and out of there. But I still didn’t really tell anybody,” Weber said. “I was always telling (the trainers), don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell the GM, don’t tell the coaches. I always do that. Probably a dumb thing.”
Following the Canadiens’ 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night, their sixth loss in a row, each one more disheartening than the last, Alex Newhook was seen carrying his equipment bag out to the cart in the hallway.
Newhook never played a game as Weber’s teammate.
It is no longer universally done in the Canadiens’ room on the road. Some of the equipment managers are seen carrying bags out after road games, but some of the players do still insist on doing it themselves, even players that never played with Weber.
When Weber was told this Friday afternoon, a little smile came across his face.
“Good. I’m glad,” he said. “Let them keep passing that down, I hope.”
Which brings us back to Weber’s induction speech on Monday.
“It’s when a veteran player takes you under their wing and shows you what it really means to be a professional,” Weber said in his speech. “I want to thank all those players for demonstrating the importance of hard work and dedication. By passing on your knowledge to the next generation, you’re ensuring that the spirit of this game continues to thrive.”
In the crowd at the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night was Nick Suzuki, who was in Amalie Arena in Tampa after Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, Weber’s final game in the NHL. Amid the devastation of knowing he had fallen short of his ultimate goal in what would surely be his final game, Weber took a moment to pass his knowledge down.
He told Suzuki, only 21 at the time, that he would be the next captain of the Canadiens. And it is the little things, like taking your equipment bag out to the hallway to give the staff a break, that will continue to matter.
“I think we kind of have the same leadership style,” Suzuki said last week. “Obviously he was a lot older, had a lot of games under his belt, a lot of respect in the room.
“He really helps me out a lot. I still keep in touch with him.”
(Top photo of Shea Weber flanked by Lanny McDonald and Mike Gartner: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
