Doug Gilmour talks about new memoir: 'This is my life in hockey'
Hockey fans clamoring for a book celebrating Doug Gilmour's Hall of Fame hockey career have finally been granted their wish.
Gilmour's memoir, titled "Killer: My Life in Hockey," hit bookstores Tuesday. It chronicles Gilmour's journey from undersized seventh-round pick to eventful 20-year career in which he recorded 1,414 points in 1,474 games with seven NHL teams, won a Stanley Cup championship, and became one of the most beloved players in Toronto Maple Leafs history.
The decision to share his biggest moments and fondest memories from his hockey career wasn't at the forefront of Gilmour's mind in the initial years following his retirement at the conclusion the 2002-03 season.
"I've been 14 years retired, and I've been asked pretty much every year to do a book," Gilmour told theScore earlier this week. "And I said no. I didn't want to, I didn't feel like it at the time. I didn't think anybody would be interested. But you're thinking all the time, and as time passes ... when my dad (Don) passed away five years ago, I started thinking about it.
"As I say that, about a year and a half, maybe two years later, my mom (Dolly) was diagnosed with dementia. And that's when I really got serious about it. When my marketing (rep) called me and said 'HarperCollins wants to do it,' and I said, 'Let me think about it.' I might have thought for half a day. I knew it would be work; I mean, it's my life, from growing up to where I am now."
Gilmour teamed with Rogers Sportsnet senior writer Dan Robson, who had previously co-written "Crazy Game" with one-time NHL netminder Clint Malarchuk and penned a biography of Pat Quinn, one of Gilmour's former coaches. Gilmour said those associations, among other reasons, made Robson an easy choice as co-writer.
"I met with Dan ... I knew his background," Gilmour said. "I know Clint Malarchuk, I obviously knew Pat Quinn, and after getting to know Dan in person, it was like, yeah. He was right on it, walking me through it. Honestly, it was a fun time ... Dan's a great guy, and it was fun to work with him."
The book opens with Gilmour, now the general manager of the Ontario Hockey League's Kingston Frontenacs, sharing intimate details from his childhood - including an incident in which his sister, Donna, nearly drowned after falling through thin ice on Lake Ontario. Gilmour says he wouldn't have told the story at all if not for Donna having reminded him of it.
"The part about my sister? I forgot about that," he admitted. "It never left my mind, but I didn't bring it up. Because I would never go back onto lake ice. People would ask me to go ice fishing. No.
"I grew up on Loughborough Lake (12 miles outside Kingston, Ontario); we moved out there when I was 13. Did I skate on the ice? Yes, I did. But it was only 3 feet deep underneath. I wasn't going out in the middle of the lake; it just terrified me. My sister was the one that brought the story up, and I was talking to Dan, and he said, 'You didn't tell me this.' and I said, 'I had kind of forgotten about it.' You don't want to remember certain things."
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
From there, the book mostly focuses on Gilmour's hockey career - from winning the Memorial Cup with the Cornwall Royals to being the 134th overall pick in the 1982 entry draft ("I had a chip on my shoulder. I was pissed."). From there, Gilmour shares a parade of career highlights with readers, including winning a 1989 Stanley Cup title with Calgary and leading the Leafs to back-to-back Western Conference final appearances in the early 1990s.
Yet, for all the great stories Gilmour tells - and there are a lot - he didn't get to share everything.
"There was probably another 150 pages that we had to take out," Gilmour said. "Dan had a good vision on where he wanted to go with it and what we were doing with it. It would have been great to get some other guys to tell stories, people who have passed on or other people who we really didn't get to. We really had so much in there."
Among the omissions are details of his personal life, which Gilmour made a conscious decision to leave out - though he doesn't mind discussing certain aspects. The 54-year-old has been married three times and has four children.
"This is not my personal life - this is my life in hockey," he explained. "And this is where I wanted to go with it. Dan asked me some questions about other things as far as my relationships, and I said no.
"A lot of that stuff with (his two ex-wives), there are things that are my business and their business. We're all friends to this day. You don't get married to get divorced, but it happens. I'm not here to say whose fault it is, it's nobody's business.
"I'm not ashamed of it. It's life, and it's my life. I made mistakes, they made mistakes. We're at the stage of our lives where I'm not going to worry about it. I don't live in the past. I still love my relationships, and I have great kids, and that's the most important thing to me."
That focus on family is clear throughout the book, particularly in an emotional final chapter in which Gilmour shares the experience of going through his father's garage shortly after he passed. As Gilmour comes across newspaper clippings his father had saved over the years, a song comes on the radio - "Big League" by Tom Cochrane, the same song that was played at Don's funeral a few days earlier.
"He always played it," Gilmour says in the book.
And in some bittersweet symmetry, Gilmour shared a similar story of the moments prior to his mother's death earlier this month.
"About 10 minutes before my mom passed away, we had the TV on for her, we're playing oldies music. Her name is Joan, but she was called Dolly before she had kids ... and 'Hello Dolly' came on. It was really sentimental.
"I was happy I wrote it, just to be able to thank her."