If the players on the Victoria Royals think they have it hard in practice, they should read former NHL defenceman George Pesut’s new book about his days in the Western Hockey League, which included playing on the first Island team in the major-junior WHL.
The Fourth Period by Pesut, with a foreward by Winnipeg Jets owner David Thomson, will be available on Amazon beginning today.
Pesut was part of the Victoria Cougars club that entered the WHL in 1971-72.
He was sent packing here in a trade that season from the Flin Flon Bombers, where he worked in the northern Manitoba town’s mines in the morning to earn more spending money, before skating in coach Paddy Ginnell’s famously punishing practices in the afternoon.
“I was traded to Victoria because I didn’t get along well with Paddy’s hockey philosophy,” said Pesut.
Ironically, the late Ginnell himself came to Victoria in the mid-1970s and brought some wildly chaotic nights with him to the old Memorial Arena, including a verbal confrontation on the bench with then-Victoria mayor Peter Pollen, following a Cougars line brawl.
But Ginnell also changed the fortunes of the Cougars with homegrown Island talent such as Mel Bridgman and Rick Lapointe that won world junior silver with Canada, were drafted in the NHL first round and had pro careers, along with fellow future NHLers from Ginnell’s Victoria teams such as Gordie Roberts, Al Hill, Kim Clackson, Curt Fraser, Lorry Gloeckner, Geordie Robertson and Murray Bannerman.
Saskatoon native Pesut, named WHL defenceman of the year during his career, was out of junior hockey by then and in the NHL with the California Golden Seals after being selected 24th overall in the second round of the 1973 draft by the St. Louis Blues, who flipped him to the Seals.
Pesut played 92 games in the NHL but that was hardly the extent of it in an eventful 21-year pro hockey career that included time in the NHL rival and now defunct WHA, and 10 years in Germany, including on the Iserlohn ECD club that was sponsored by former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
“Gaddafi’s name even appeared on the front of the jerseys and the club picked up a cult following,” said Pesut.
“There were so many crazy things I went through back then in hockey.
“I’ve read a lot of sports books that are boring. I wanted to model my book after Jim Bouton’s Ball Four.”
Pesut was referring to the late pitcher Bouton’s laceratingly witty and irreverent take on his pro baseball career, which is considered one of the funniest, most insightful and honest sports books ever written.
Perhaps The Fourth Period was also fated to be written unvarnished, as Pesut was known as an equivalent free spirit in hockey.
“A lot of time has gone by but all these stories in my book are true,” said Pesut, who considers the 1970s the toughest and yet zaniest era of hockey.
Pesut, 71, returned to live in Victoria in 2006 following eight knee surgeries and numerous broken ribs and resides in James Bay.
Following his hockey career he was a merchant banker, but also full circle, represented a mining company. Only this time, it was white collar and there was no hockey practice afterwards.
The Fourth Period — Between the Ice Sheets — Hockey on Two Continents will retail for $35 on Amazon.
