Scrapping with demons

With chants of “Gino, Gino” raining down from the bleachers at Pacific Coliseum, Gino Odjick’s status as one of the most beloved players in Vancouver Canucks history began when he fought Chicago Blackhawks tough guys Dave Manson and Stu Grimson in his first NHL game after being called up from the minors early in the 1990-91 NHL season.

In Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick, longtime Vancouver sports writer Patrick Johnson and Peter Leech, a friend and colleague of Odjick’s, give an in-depth, up-close and insightful look at the too-short life of player who brought Canucks fans to their feet with his fearless play, and who, sadly, died from heart disease early in 2023 — after being given a year to live almost 10 years earlier.

The authors make the case the Canucks went from being talented underachievers to perennial Stanley Cup contenders with the arrival of Odjick, a tough-as-nails, team-first guy who would do everything he could to protect his smaller, more talented teammates from opponents who in the past would bully the Canucks with little or no pushback.

When Odjick arrived, he made it clear there would be consequences for those who dared to take liberties with players such as Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall and especially Pavel Bure, who from the moment he stepped on the ice was one of the NHL’s most exciting players and remained one of Odjick’s best friends until the very end.

While the story of Odjick’s NHL career (which also saw him play for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers) is interesting, his life off the ice is often a more compelling story.

The son of a residential school survivor who succeeded in the best hockey league on the planet far beyond what his limited skills would suggest, Odjick held his head high and valued loyalty above all else, whether it was from friends, teammates, coaches or managers. He never lost sight of his humble beginnings and was as selfless in his actions protecting his teammates as he was acting as a role model for Indigenous people everywhere.

Through archival material and extensive interviews with Odjick’s family, friends, teammates and opponents, readers are presented with a simple but complicated man who, although uneducated, was a voracious reader who spoke three languages (English, French and Algonquin) and was clearly smart enough to know his role on the ice and off, and embraced both with unbridled enthusiasm.

While Odjick’s on-ice life was fairly straightforward, his off-ice life was often complicated. To their credit, the authors do not whitewash his faults, but instead present Odjick as someone who was humble enough to learn from his mistakes and did his best to make life better for himself and those around him when he hurt himself of others.

As a high-profile Indigenous athlete Odjick faced discrimination, pressure and expectations that others do not, and he met these challenges like he did all others — head on.

One of the many examples of his determination to make things better not just for himself, but for others, came during the summer after the 1994-95 NHL season. Following a week-long drinking binge, Odjick had a vision that led to him giving up alcohol. Not only did he take steps to improve himself, he embarked on his Journey of Healing, a 20-day odyssey from Calgary to the Musqueam First Nation in southwest Vancouver, stopping at Indigenous communities along the way to share his story and remind the members of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.

Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick reveals aspects of Odjick’s life of which only those close to him may have been aware. Far from a simple story of a thug on skates, this account presents the reader with a profile of a hardworking, intelligent athlete who used the influence he gained from his success to try to make life better not only for himself, but for those around him.

Gilbert Gregory is the night sports editor at the Free Press.