Return To Solid Ground
LaFontaine settles for LI family life
By Joe Gergen, STAFF WRITER, Newsday, Inc.
June 24, 2003 - He was 15 years old, living in
the Detroit suburbs, when the Islanders won
their first Stanley Cup. What makes the moment
so memorable today, of course, is what happened
thereafter. Let Pat LaFontaine tell the story.
"I was working in the yard," he recalled
recently, "raking leaves. My dad called me in.
He said, 'The Islanders are in overtime. You've
got to see this.' So we watch [the winning goal
from] Henning to Tonelli to Nystrom. We're
jumping up and down.
"Four years later, I'm in Maple Leaf Gardens. My
dad drives up. I'm centering Tonelli and Nystrom.
We win, 11-6. I get my first NHL goal, my first
NHL hat trick. And Nystrom, Tonelli and I are
the first three stars of the game."
LaFontaine's face glows with the recitation of
the details, transforming him into the
19-year-old boy wonder - fresh from the Olympics
- who provided an offensive spark to an aging
championship team.
Alas, his professional career was not without
trauma. The Islanders' Stanley Cup run was
derailed in his initial season and his
affiliation with the franchise was terminated by
a contract dispute. Half of his six years with
the Buffalo Sabres were scarred by injuries, and
a promising finale with the Rangers ended in a
fog of physical pain and mental anguish, the
result of post-concussion syndrome.
Five years after his last official game,
LaFontaine, 38, is clear-headed and thankful for
the bad as well as the good. "I embrace all the
times," he said over lunch near the old carriage
house he is renovating for his family. "The game
has given me so much. I have nothing but
gratitude."
His life has come full circle. He is back on
Long Island, where he began his pro career and
where he met his wife. On Nov. 3, he will be
inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in
Toronto, site of that dazzling debut in 1984.
Even his fellow inductees are reminders of where
he has come from and where he has been, their
presence enabling him to connect the dots of a
remarkable journey.
Mike Ilitch, the owner of the Red Wings for the
last 21 years, was elected in the Builders
category along with longtime successful junior
coach Brian Kilrea. Ilitch sponsored the Little
Caesars amateur club against which LaFontaine
competed in the Detroit area. Kilrea was an
assistant coach with the Islanders during
LaFontaine's first two full seasons with the
organization. And Grant Fuhr, the other former
NHL player in the Class of 2003, not only was
the goaltender for the Edmonton team that
stopped the Islanders' dynasty but was a valued
teammate for two years at Buffalo.
Some would call that kismet. Even the season
with the Rangers, whose supporters had reviled
him and shaken the ambulance that carried him to
the hospital after his first concussion in the
opening game of the 1990 playoffs, was a chance
to alter perceptions. "Eight years later," he
recalled with a smile, "I tipped in a puck for
the Rangers against the Islanders to make the
score 2-2 and I got a standing ovation from the
same fans."
Besides, the trade from Buffalo provided him a
unique perspective. "I'm the only player in NHL
history," he said, "to play for three teams and
not have to change my license plates." His New
York State of mind was not limited to hockey
considerations.
It was Lorne Henning, an assistant coach when
LaFontaine joined the Islanders, and his wife
who fixed him up with Mary Beth, a next-door
neighbor in Huntington. The couple celebrated
its 16th wedding anniversary earlier this month.
"Lorne and Cathy get an assist on that,"
LaFontaine said.
Henning also played a role, albeit inadvertent,
in his departure from the Island. Upset that
management promises weren't being kept,
LaFontaine asked for a trade in 1991. "We were
playing the Rangers that night at the Garden,"
he said, "and Lorne was wearing a bright,
flowered tie. I said, 'It looks like a Garden
party tie,' thinking of the Ricky Nelson song.
We won, and I think I got a couple of goals. On
the bus ride back, when we were about five
minutes from Cantiague Park, the song came on
and I listened to the lyrics ... 'You can't
please everyone, you got to please yourself.' I
knew I was doing the right thing."
But now he's back, with a family that includes
Sarah (12), Brianna (10) and Daniel (8). "In a
perfect world," he said, "I would have liked to
play two more years. But some veterans have told
me they probably played five years too long
because their kids don't want to have anything
to do with them. When I played, everything in
the family revolved around my life. Now my life
revolves around theirs."
Now he has the chance to watch and coach his
children, just as his father did for him. And
the skills he learned doing renovations on other
people's houses in Connecticut after his
retirement are coming in handy now that he's
helping to finish his own.
Even those days and months he spent
rehabilitating injuries or recovering from
concussions, all those visits to hospitals, are
being channeled through his Companions in
Courage Foundation that is pledged to build
interactive playrooms for youngsters at medical
facilities throughout North America, among them
Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park.
When he laces on skates now, it's for a cause
greater than himself or the Islanders. Playing
under the banner of the Microsoft Hockey
Challenge, he's helping to raise money for these
high-tech CiC centers.
"At 15," LaFontaine marveled, "all I wanted was
to get a scholarship to Michigan or Michigan
State."
What he achieved instead was fulfillment on
several levels. Said LaFontaine, "It's been a
great ride."
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