Dion Phaneuf grew up in Edmonton, admired the Great One — Wayne Gretzky — but modelled his game after Scott Stevens, of the New Jersey Devils, one of the toughest and hardest hitters to ever lace up the skates.
In his first game after being traded to the Maple Leafs, Phaneuf logged more ice time than any other player and ended the game with some fisticuffs. Leafs fans swooned. They had a new hero.
Now, in his first season as team captain and on the shelf following a gruesome cut, the rock solid defenceman sounds off on the team’s fortunes and his frightening encounter with a skate blade.
So tell me about the day you heard you were traded to Toronto.
It was definitely a shock. It was a shock to me, but it was also the best thing to happen. It’s been an exciting time, and we’re going through changes, but everyone, from the organization to the city to my teammates, has been great.
And what do you think of the city, now that you’ve been here a while, and where do you like to go out?
I love the city. I live right downtown. It is a great walking city. I’ve got nothing but positives to say.… I go to Barberian’s Steak House a lot, Jacob and Co., and I also like Italian, this place Frascati, a little Italian hole in the wall on Elm.
Your injury, did you know right away how serious the cut was?
Ya, as soon as the skate hit me, I could feel it. I knew I was cut, but I could feel something a little deeper.That’s why I didn’t get up right away. I didn’t want to do any more damage to it. But any time you can pull your pant leg up and can see inside your leg, it is not a very good feeling. I knew I had to get off as soon as possible.
Were you scared of losing your season at any point?
Well, when you’re sitting there on the trainer’s table and the orthopaedic surgeon says we gotta go to the OR, you’re definitely wondering. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.
It must have been tough, not only being hurt, but watching the team go through that tough patch last month.
It is tough being hurt, but it doesn’t make it any easier when things aren’t going well for the group. You wish you could try and be out there to help them. But, I think our team has shown resilience through it all. They’ve all got the right attitude. No one got down on each other. Everyone stuck together.
And what is the plan moving forward?
Coming in to this, we knew we had young players and we were going to go through the good and the bad, and we’ve seen both sides early in the season. We just need to reload and get ready to go to work tomorrow.