Gilbert Dionne:

RIVALS

As told to: Victoria Matiash

I will never forget: our biggest rivalry was with the Boston Bruins, the ‘Big Bad Bruins’. Every time we went to the Boston Gardens, back in the day the plexiglass – or the hard glass around the boards – wasn’t that high. So I was lining up for the faceoff in the offensive zone, and the commercial time out light was still on, and I’m facing off along the boards, and I’m getting punched by fans over the glass and they’re yelling at us to “go home frogs, you don’t belong here,” and taunting us.

“I’m not going back out towards the boards, I’m going to get choked here!”

I’m telling the linesman, “DROP THE PUCK, PLEASE!” and he says “I can’t, the light is red”. So I try to move closer inside the circle but then the linesman says “get out of the circle!” and I say “I’m not going back out towards the boards, I’m going to get choked here!” I’ll never forget that. Right after the game, out of 18 players we had 11 to 12 guys with an ice pack somewhere on their body because the rink was so small. And the games against the Bruins were so rugged. We had ice packs all over our bodies, trying to recuperate from the injuries.