YORKTON - The Yorkton Terriers Celebrity Sports Dinner was held Saturday featuring Wendel Clark.
Clark is a former NHL hockey player who scored 330 regular season goals over his 15-year career and of course hails from Kelvington, Sask. a community only about an hour northwest of the Terrier city, who also played two years of Bantam hockey in the city.
With Dug Forster firing questions his way, Clark kept the large crowd at the Gallagher Centre curling rink entertained with answers to a range of questions such as who was the toughest goaltender he faced.
Clark broke that answer three ways encompassing his long career, ultimately picking Grant Fuhr, Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur, and then tipping his hat to teammate and former Notre Dame Hound Curtis Joseph as well.
So Forster asked about the best Leaf player?
Again Clark broke it down going with Bjorge Salming, Darryl Sittler, Dave Keon and then adding “George Armstong is probably the best leader.”
And, Saskatchewan’s Johnny Bower was tagged “the best person ever with the Maple Leafs.”
Interestingly when asked his favourite player as a youth, Clark said he really never had one.
“I didn’t watch sports. I played sports,” he said, adding he related more to the players on the local senior Kelvington Wheat Kings, because the NHL “was so far away there was no way I was going to be that good.”
But a Wheat Kings game versus the rival Wadena Wildcats “that was huge for us,” said Clark.
Now with so many NHL games on TV daily “it’s so much closer (for young players). So it seems like you can get there,” said Clark.
When asked about an agitating player to play against, Clark selected Dallas Drake for his ability to “yap” at opponents.
Clark then said the game today is missing the verbal jousting of his day.
“Players can’t play with any personality,” he lamented, noting everywhere has a microphone these days, and players have gone mute for fear of fines and suspensions.
When it came to the worst fans, Philadelphia was a quick choice by Clark.
And not surprisingly his favourite fans were at Maple Leaf Gardens, then adding anytime you were winning in an opposition building was “a lot of fun.”
In general Clark added the fans are an integral part of the game.
“The fans bring the energy,” he said, adding Canadian fans are best at doing that and players definitely feed off that.
What about Alexander Ovechkin breaking the all-time goals mark in the NHL?
“On TV you don’t really see how good he is. He’s a beast of a guy. It’s unbelievable what he did,” offered Clark.
