When he joined the NHL in 1990, Odjick insisted on wearing No. 29, the number his father was given when forced into a far-away residential school as a boy
After leaving his home on the Kitigan Zibi reserve in Quebec, 17-year old Gino Odjick found it tough to comply with the dress code of his new team, the Junior A Hawkesbury Hawks, just across the border in Ontario. A local men’s clothing store provided the youth with a nice sweater and a spiffy pair of corduroy pants.
For Mr. Odjick, who died Jan. 15 of a heart attack, his roots were fundamental. One of only a handful of Indigenous players in the league when he joined the Canucks in 1990, he insisted on wearing No. 29, the number his father was given when forced into a far-away residential school as a boy. At the start of a hockey season, the player would often smudge his uniform and equipment with wafts of sweetgrass smoke.
He evoked rare emotion from normally gruff coaches, who fell hard for his hockey heart, work ethic and dedication to the team. “He’s one of those players – I could easily say that I came to love him, you know,” said Pat Quinn, head coach for most of Mr. Odjick’s years with the Canucks, in an interview several months before Mr. Quinn died.
Though renowned for his fighting ability, Mr. Odjick was also a good skater with a hard shot, able to hold down a spot on his team’s third or fourth line. The year he spent time on the Canucks’ power play, he scored a career-high 16 goals. And there may never have been a louder roar at a hockey game than the night Mr. Odjick scored on a penalty shot against all-star goalie Mike Vernon. “I looked right, shot left,” he shrugged afterwards.
When young Gino wanted to play hockey, his father thought he was such a poor skater that he put him in figure skating for a year.
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