The Killer calls it a career
Gilmour hangs 'em up after 20 NHL seasons

`Body is telling me the time has come,' fan favourite says

September 9, 2003
MARK ZWOLINSKI
Toronto Star

Tie Domi was three-quarters of the way into a five-alarm sunburn last week when he got the call that he and most Maple Leaf fans had been dreading.

"He said he was retiring," Domi said yesterday as teammate Doug Gilmour went public with the news that he was ending his 20-year NHL career.

Domi, one of Gilmour's best friends, wasn't about to take Gilmour's decision lying down. In fact, he had to leave the pool area at Shutters Resort in Santa Monica, Calif., because he began yelling and cursing as he tried to persuade the man known as Killer not to hang up his skates.

"There was a lot of swearing for the next two hours, more from me than him," Domi said. "I was going a little crazy, then there were tears and a lot of other things."

After getting Gilmour's call last Wednesday, Domi spent the rest of the day in the California sun writing a speech for his friend's retirement.

Actually, he wrote 15 speeches.

"My wife (Leanne) kiboshed all of them until I got it right," he said. "That's why my face is all red now. I was lying there all day in the sun, trying to get it right."

Gilmour, 40, was joined by his wife Amy and Domi as he made his official announcement yesterday at the Rosewater Supper Club downtown.

Members of the Leaf organization were conspicuous by their absence. Domi was the only player. Team president Ken Dryden was on hand, but there were no heartfelt exchanges.

It's believed Gilmour, a hero to legions of Leaf fans since he lifted the team on his slim shoulders for a glorious playoff run back in the spring of 1993, was miffed with John Ferguson Jr.

The Leafs' new general manager — four years Gilmour's junior — said on his first day on the job last week that Gilmour was not in the team's plans.

"It wasn't a slap (in the face), but it was disappointing," Gilmour said yesterday. "Yes, my agent called and things were explained and that's where it was left."

Said Domi: "I don't think John's comments were inappropriate, I think the question was inappropriate, being his first day on the job. It doesn't matter, because I don't think (Ferguson's comments) had anything to do with his decision."

So why did Gilmour decide to retire now?

"I've been rehabbing my knee (after major surgery) for the last four months and the process has been a bit slower than I would have liked," Gilmour said. "My body is telling me the time has come."

Gilmour's surgery was the result of one of those weird hockey moments, an awkward half-hit by Calgary's Dave Lowry four minutes and 28 seconds into his first game back with the Leafs after a late-season trade from the Montreal Canadiens. The medical report was heart-stopping — torn ligaments, sprained ligaments, just about everything that could go wrong did.

Through the spring and summer, Gilmour never remotely embraced the thought of retirement.

He always said he would return to the ice and then decide whether to continue a career that has produced 450 goals, 964 assists and one Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames.

But with his four-decade-old knees aching, he had a heart-to-heart talk with his wife last Wednesday, shortly before he called Domi.

"You kind of see the kids come in from school and everyone is there, family. ... We just agreed it was time to get this done. I'm very comfortable with the decision, I've moved on. I'm starting another phase of my life ... and I can say I don't think that's ever going to change."

Domi flew home from Santa Monica last Thursday and rushed immediately to Gilmour's house for one last attempt at talking the unrestricted free agent out of retiring. There he saw Amy, Doug, their young sons Jake and Tyson and Gilmour's older daughter Madison, and he knew there was no point.

That brought them to yesterday, with the trio posing for pictures through the hugs and the smiles and the tears.

"He was a great practical joker, he was one of the best," Domi said of Gilmour, who was notorious among his teammates for puncturing holes in coffee cups, cutting down hockey sticks, adjusting helmet sizes, painting golf clubs and firing pucks so they struck players' skates the second they stepped on the ice.

Domi recalled a favourite story about former Leaf coach Pat Burns and the sauna at Maple Leaf Gardens.

"Dougie put some kind of oil in the plastic water bottle — you know, the one you squirt on the steam rocks in the sauna," Domi said. "Here comes Burnsie and he's got on this big bathrobe and he takes it off and sits himself down.

"Pretty soon he reaches for the bottle and squirts it on the rocks, only the oil catches fire and the whole sauna is up in flames ... and there's Burnsie, running (naked) down the hall, screaming, `The sauna's on fire! The sauna's on fire! Someone help, the sauna's on fire!'"

Gilmour said he plans to dive into full-time fatherhood, but it's rumoured several TV networks are chasing him to be a commentator on Leaf games.

"I've got a lot of things on the plate right now," was all Gilmour would say.