TORONTO — Walking into Friday’s Hockey Hall of Fame ring ceremony, we were handed a pamphlet with detailed bios on all seven inductees into this year’s class.
The write-ups on David Poile, Colin Campbell, Jeremy Roenick, Pavel Datsyuk, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell were obviously impressive and captivating. The one on Shea Weber was, too, and it was also one of the longest ones.
There were 43 bullet points, painting a complete picture of Weber’s worthiness of hockey’s ultimate honour.
Still, it felt like there were at least two things missing.
It is so jarring to be reminded that arguably the most respected defenceman in hockey for almost the entirety of his 16-year NHL career never won the Norris Trophy or the Stanley Cup.
Weber was worthy, but the Cup isn’t an individual award. And no one could say he didn’t do enough to help whichever team he played for have a chance at it.
The Norris, though… That one’s tough to reconcile.
Weber was a three-time finalist and two-time runner up for the award.
In 2011, he lost to Nick Lidstrom. Just like anyone would’ve, with Lidstrom still playing at the level that made him the best defenceman of his generation and one of the best to ever lace up skates.
A year later Weber placed behind Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson, who had 78 points (or 29 more than Weber finished with). And in 2014 it was Chicago’s Duncan Keith.
Karlsson and Keith — two high-flying defencemen, paving the way for a new generation of puck-rushing, fast-passing, eye-popping blueliners that dominate today’s game.
P.K. Subban, who won the Norris with Montreal the year before Keith, was also one of those guys.
Weber understood. He was always gracious, never petty about how players at his position were being valued by the public — or members of the press, who vote on the Norris.
In my time around Weber in Montreal (from 2016-21, after he was shockingly traded to the Canadiens from the Nashville Predators for Subban), he came as advertised in that way. He was known to be quiet, humble, gracious and honest, and he conducted himself that way from Day 1 in La Belle Province.
People warned me this intimidating, six-foot-four mountain of a man might be a tough nut to crack, but that never proved true.
Not that it was easy to get Weber to talk about himself. That was practically impossible.
The closest I got, before Friday’s ceremony, was in 2017, for a piece I was doing in advance of what was supposed to be the first game between the Canadiens and Predators featuring both Weber and Subban post-trade.
I asked Weber if he thought the advent of the new-school defenceman had made us (media and fans) almost forget how valuable the old-school guys still were, and he knew exactly why I was asking. Weber knew how his trade to Montreal for Subban was initially perceived by large swaths of Canadiens fans and acknowledged the game had shifted to a place where the consumers of it would only naturally favour a player with a bit more flair than he typically displayed — even at his most dominant.
But then Weber said, “I was so happy for Drew Doughty when he won the Norris (in 2016). I think the game has so many great puck-movers and skaters, but he does it all. He’ll block a shot, throw a big hit, he can shoot it, start the rush. He does it all game after game.”
There weren’t many other defencemen you’d put in that box at the time, and there were none you could reasonably place in the same sphere as Doughty and Weber, who were the pillars of the defensive structure that enabled Canada to win gold at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the 2014 Sochi Games and the 2010 Olympic Games.
“Complete” is the first word I think of Weber’s name comes to mind.
He’d have probably never said it had I asked him to start describing how he views himself as a player. But he went there by talking about Doughty.
Weber had no choice but to talk about himself a lot on Friday, and everything he said made me think of the other thing that enabled him to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame: his competitiveness.
It was on another level from just about anyone I’ve come across in my 17 years covering the NHL.
“I played every game like it was my last and gave everything I had,” Weber said, “and I think I’m proud that I left it all out there and had nothing left behind.”
What the game took from him along the way was too much.
That last season — the Covid-abridged 2020-21 campaign, which ended with Weber falling three wins shy of his first and Montreal’s 25th Stanley Cup — broke him.
“Throughout the whole year, condensed schedule, I couldn’t get out of the bed,” Weber said. “I was just beat up. All the surgeries I had before just weren’t coming back. You get older, you just don’t recover like you used to, and I just kind of had a feeling (that would be it).”
If you want a sense for how intolerable the pain was, the 39-year-old Weber said on Friday that it still hasn’t fully subsided, that when he gets on the ice with his kids his ankle only enables him to turn in one direction, that his knee is so shredded it must be replaced.
Weber suffered greatly from those injuries over that magical playoff run with Montreal.
He came into it with torn ligaments in his thumb, and he tore his groin in the semifinal against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“They just taped it,” Weber said. “There was tape everywhere. I was like a mummy.”
But he played like a pharaoh, averaging 25:13 and offering the meanest — and arguably the most effective — version of himself night after night for the Canadiens.
The thumb injury made scoring like Weber did throughout his career impossible, but it didn’t limit him from intimidating any player that came within his wingspan.
Weber had that about him since even before he started in Nashville. He had that presence he became notorious for dating back to his time with the Kelowna Rockets, and he maintained throughout his entire NHL career.
It was the main subject of the piece I wrote about Weber ahead of his 1,000th game in the league, which was carried by the commentary of his defence partners.
That presence is now rightfully enshrined in the place where hockey memories live forever.
Weber a Kaiden Guhle fan
It should come as no surprise Weber likes this player.
“I have seen him play, I love his game,” Weber said of Guhle on Friday. “He skates really well, he’s hard to play against, he’s got size, he’s gritty. He’s got skill, too. He’s a good puck mover. I like him as a D-man. I had a chance to meet him when he was younger and chat with him a little bit, and I think he’s going to have a good NHL career. I think he’s a good defenceman.”
Now feels like a good time to remember Guhle’s still a young one.
He’s 22 years old, only 123 games into his NHL career, and he’s going to have off performances like the one in New Jersey on Thursday.
Watching Guhle uncharacteristically turn the puck over on the Devils’ second goal, couldn’t help but think moving him back to his natural side (the left) would be beneficial for him right now.
But Guhle is lining up to the right of Mike Matheson versus the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday because putting him on the left isn’t an option.
“Right now, with five lefties in our lineup? It’s kind of hard,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “I think it might evolve that Guhles will go back to the left, but I don’t think it’s something I’m overly concerned with.”
Guhle is not too worried, either.
He talked about the challenges of picking up the puck off the wall in the offensive zone, about the blind spots in his own zone moving over to his backhand side to make plays with the puck — like he had to do on New Jersey’s second goal the other night — and the different reads that come with it.
But he also said it’s a great benefit in the offensive zone, where he has a better vision of the ice with the puck on his forehand and a better opportunity to get his one-timer off if the opportunity presents itself.
Left or right, Guhle wants to pick up his game.
St. Louis feels he will.
“Guhle’s effort is there,” the coach said. “I think his touches are probably not as good as he’d like them to be, but we’re very confident when Guhle is in the lineup that we’re going to get something good out of him.”
Lane Hutson giving something great every game
It’s been a remarkable start to a career for Lane Hutson, who’s coming into his 17th NHL game with nine assists and a penchant for making something happen nearly every time he takes a shift.
What’s stood out is how fearless Hutson has been in every situation.
“I just think it’s the way he’s wired,” said St. Louis earlier this week. “I think he competes on every puck, no matter if it’s a big guy or small guy. He’s calculated in how he wins pucks.”
How he battles for them has been remarkable.
“His compete level has impressed me a lot,” said St. Louis.
I believe it’s what will take Hutson from star to superstar in short order.
The other stuff — the head and shoulder fakes and dangles and creativity — is just expected.
“It’s just standard now for the stuff he does on the ice and the moves he makes. It’s just par for the course for him,” said Guhle. “It’s fun to watch. I will never try that stuff and will never be able to do that stuff, but it’s just fun to watch. It’ll be fun to see him grow over the years and see his game grow in other ways. But offensively, and with the puck, he’s doing alright.”
Hutson is doing better than that, which makes it surprising he’s yet to put up a goal yet.
Perhaps Saturday night against the Leafs? Would be as good a time as any, with the Canadiens hoping to snap this five-game skid, with Weber in attendance, and with Hockey Night in Canada cameras rolling.
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