"Hockey Stars Speak: Mark Recchi" (1996)

From the book "Hockey Stars Speak" by Stan Fischler (Warwick Publishing, Toronto, Los Angeles, 1996). Pages 145-154:

To describe Mark Recchi as likable would be a consummate understatement, but it is the first thought that comes to mind.

With a genuine, winning smile, the right win from Kamploops, British Columbia, has charmed both fans and media while playing first for Pittsburgh, then Philadelphia, and most recently Montreal.

I have interviewed Mark many times and invariably came away feeling better than I had before our discussion started. He's that kind of guy - gracious, warm, amusing, and thoughtful. It might very well be a function of his low-key beginnings.

Invariably regarded as "too small" back when he played Junior hockey in New Westminster and Kamloops, Recchi had his doubts about whether or not he would someday be given a chance by an NHL club. The Penguins finally plucked him 67th overall in the 1988 Entry Draft, and 3 years later, he was a 40-goal scorer in the bigs.

Win or lose, Recchi is completely lacking in pretension, unaffected by the trappings of a star. He appears to be just as well-liked by his teammates, which hardly comes as a surprise to those of us who have known him since his rookie NHL season, 1988-89. If, as the tune goes, a good man nowadays is hard to find, well, we've found one in Mark Recchi.

I was born in Kamloops which has since developed quite a reputation as a Junior hockey town. In terms of learning the game, my brother and I got a head start because our dad had been a goalie and had played organized hockey himself. He had a great love of the game from his own experiences and passed that on to us.

My first hockey experiences were on homemade outdoor neighborhood rinks. I'd just shoot the puck around, play some games and just generally have a blast. Fortunately, my father never pushed me into goaltending, although I was always fond of the big equipment goalies had. But that's as far as it got; liking the goalie equipment but not liking the position. I wanted to play up front where it was fun.


Of all the NHL players I admired, Bryan Trottier was at the top of the list. When he was in his prime as an Islander, he could do it all - score, set up plays and check hard. But since I was living in British Columbia, I rooted for the Canucks. Vancouver is a great city and we lived pretty close, geographically, plus my family also rooted for them. When the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1982 against the Islanders that was one of the most exciting times in my life.

Once I started into organized hockey, my parents were of tremendous support. I can tell you now that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them.

They'd wake me up at five a.m. for the morning practice and drive sometimes three or four hours to get me to a game. Hockey is an expensive sport and at one time my parents had four boys doing it at one time. They never complained as long as we went out and worked hard.

My dad was the chauffeur. Even though he had four guys in different towns playing on weekends, he would have everything figured out. Still, it was a little bit of a madhouse at times. We did a lot of traveling. I remember one trip to Edmonton where we played a couple of games and also got to see the Oilers play at Northlands Coliseum. Watching guys like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey zip the puck around was absolutely awesome. It was like the puck was attached to their sticks by some invisible string. Those trips that my parents took me on were what really helped my career.

That's why when I accomplished anything significant in hockey, I always credit them for getting me started. Among my hockey souvenirs, one of the best memories was playing in the World Junior Championships. We took a tremendous team over to Russia and won all the way. One minute, I was thinking I'd never get the chance to do it and all of a sudden I was playing with the best Junior players in the world. Adam graves, Joe Sakic, Theo Fleury, Trevor Linden, Greg Hawgood, Rob Brown, and Robbie DiMaio were some of the guys we had. I made a lot of great friends out of that group. We played against guys like Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Teemu Selanne, and Teppo Numinen.

My career got going in the earnest when I went into the Western Hockey League in 1985-86 with New Westminster. This was my first experience away from home, and it was tough. I mean when you're close with your brothers and your family the way I was - and all your friends are back home - it's tough to be a seven-hour drive away. It was a strange situation for me because on the one hand we had a great coach in Ernie MacLean but not a very good team, and the organization was talking about leaving town. I decided that it would be better for my career if I moved to Kamloops, my hometown. I'd take a chance that the Blazers would want me. What happened was that I got traded two days before the start of the 1986-87 season.

It wasn't an easy move, but it turned out to be the best thing I ever did because I wound up with a terrific organization with great players and it gave me a chance to show that I could play. I was a pretty emotional kid - still am at times - and they taught me how to control my emotions. Hockey skills such as passing and shooting were drummed into me, and I was taught to stay intense every day.

Not that I expected to jump right into the NHL. Far from it. I always dreamed of the big leagues, but there were a lot of negatives that I carried as baggage and the biggest was my small size. However, once I had established myself in Kamloops between 1986 and 1988, I developed a lot of confidence and believed that I could crack the NHL with my work ethic being the prime asset.

I was drafted in 1988 and, let me tell you, that was a pretty exciting day. I already knew Eddie Johnston and Tony Esposito from the Penguins' front office, and when they picked me - 67th overall - I said to myself, "Mark, this is the step toward what you want to do."

I knew then and there that I had a chance to make it to the NHL; the only question on my mind was how long would it take? They invited me to camp in September 1988 and, all of the sudden, I'm stepping on the ice with Mario Lemieux. Was I ever in awe!

Frankly, I thought the Penguins would send me down to the minors and give me a taste of lower-level pro hockey. I needed that because no matter how good a young player might be on the Junior level, it's a whole different ball game in the big time.

Fortunately for me, the Penguins were in no big rush to get me going in the NHL, and they finally assigned me to their International League team in Muskegon. This was a good minor-league club with whom I could gradually gain confidence in my skills that would enable me to stick in the NHL.

There were a lot of reasons why it was a good move, starting with the fact that we won a championship down there,and I scored 50 goals in only 63 games during the 1988-89 season. The other reason why it was good was that Muskegon is a small town, like Kamloops, and it eased my transition up to the top. I lived with a family in Muskegon and that was good for me. Also, I had some neat linemates like Jock Callender and had a lot of fun. Meanwhile, the Penguins kept an eye on me, and I eventually managed to get in 15 games and even got my first NHL goal. But they still didn't think I was ready for the bigs.

My first NHL game almost turned into a disaster. I had to make a connection flight - which, by the way, I missed - and because I was late getting into Toronto, I missed the morning skate. In those days, I wore a Mohawk hairdo and a crooked one at that, so you can imagine what the veterans were thinking when I finally checked in to play with these guys.

I didn't score in my debut and got sent back to The I, but when they called me back, we went to Winnipeg and broke the ice. I was on the ice with Mario [Lemieux] and Phil Boruqe. Phil passed the puck to Mario and I went to the net. Pokey Reddick was the Jets' goalie at the time. Lemieux did what he does so well; he flipped the puck between me and Pokey. All I had to do was get my stick on it and tip it by him. Man, was that ever nice! The first thing I did was reach into the net and grab the puck. The first one always is memorable.

After I made the IHL Second All-Star team [1988-89], I figured I was ready for the big jump. The Penguins weren't sure. In 1989-90 they sent me down for four more games in the minors, and when I was through with them I had eleven points. I guess second goals and four assists in four games was enough to convince them because I never skated in the minors again after that.

The IHL experience gave me the realization that I could do the job in Pittsburgh if I got the chance. When I came back to stay, I was put on a line with Mario and, let me tell you, that was some experience. First of all, I wanted to do well simply because I didn't want to hold Lemieux back.

It worked out well. In 78 games, I got 40 goals and 73 assists for 113 points¹. That meant I was in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time. You have to remember that until that time, the Penguins had never won the Cup and they had been in the NHL since 1967-68. But getting into the playoffs is one thing and winning a Cup is something altogether different.

The trip from the first round to the finals is a very long one, and ours was complicated by the fact that we faced a very strong New Jersey team in the opener. We thought that if we could get by them, we would have a good shot at the Cup². The Devils had a good, young team and we had a tough time with them all year.

They gave us trouble, all right. We opened at home and lost 3-1. In the second game, we wound up tied 4-4 after regulation, but Jaromir Jagr³ saved our butts with a sudden-death goal just after the 8-minute mark of the first sudden death.

New Jersey seemed to be getting stronger and by Game Six had us on the ropes. The Devils led, 3 games to 2, with the next one at The Meadowlands. That was when Frank Pietrangelo⁴, our backup went into the nets and really saved the day. Tom Barrasso, our number 1 goalie, was hurt and so was Paul Coffey, who was out with an eye injury.

No question, we were square behind the eight ball⁵. And right off the bat, New Jersey scored and the Byrne Arena crowd went wild. But instead of folding, we got our act together and between Mario and Kevin Stevens, we wound up leading 4-1 in the 2nd period.

I give the Devils credit. They didn't quit either and before we knew it, they came back with a pair of goals and were trailing only by one late in the 2nd. At that point, they put in another, but it was disallowed by referee Bill McCreary who ruled that it was kicked in by Laurie Boschman⁶. New Jersey never scored again and we escaped with a 4-3 win.

Now we were home for Game 7 and Coffey returned to our lineup. We made no mistake this time with Pietrangelo throwing a 4-0 shutout at New Jersey. After that we beat Washington in 5 games and then took 4 straight from the Bruins after losing the first 2 at the Boston Garden.

In my first full NHL season, I suddenly found myself in the Stanley Cup finals. Wow!

On the other side was the Minnesota North Stars, a Cinderella kind of team that nobody thought would get that far. If we thought we could take them for granted, we got a lesson in Game 1 at Pittsburgh. They beat us 5-4, and Jon Casey was terrific in goal for them. What's more, their power play was hot so we knew that we couldn't take silly penalties else we'd be in big trouble.

I was a 22-year-old kid at the time⁷, and believe me, for the first couple of games, I was in awe of the surroundings. In game 2, at home, we won 4-1, but then the series moved to Minnesota and they conked us 3-1. We were scared and anytime you're in the finals your nerves are going to be affected.

Game 4 was the key. If they win that, they go up 3 games to 1 and put us in deep trouble. We figured that if we could stay out of the penalty box, we'd be okay because in a 5-on-5 situation we were the better team. And that's what happened. We shut down their power play and Mario took over. The rest is in the books. We won Game 4 5-3 and then took them 6-4 and wrapped it up on their rink 8-0⁸!

Game 6 was memorable to me not only for the score and the fact that we won the Cup. In the 2nd period I hurt my neck and sat out the rest of the game. I just sat on the bench with Phil Bourque and the 2 of us watched the clock tick down⁹.

It was pretty obvious by the 3rd period that we had the Cup in the bag, but it seemed to take an eternity to get the game over with. Remember, our coach at the time was the late Bob Johnson. Nicknamed Badger¹⁰, Bob was the kind of guy who was so into hockey that even if we had a huge lead, he still didn't believe that the game was in the bag.

So, here it was eight-zip for us with only 35 seconds left in the game, and Bob was behind the bench still coaching as if we had a 1-goal lead. Finally, I turned around and yelled, "Relax, Would ya!" And still the Badger kept coaching as if it was a one-nothing game.

Playing with Lemieux was an unbelievable event that I wish every professional could experience. In scrimmages, for example, there would be times we would watch him do something with the puck and just shake our heads in disbelief. I'm talking about seasoned pros like Ronnie Francis and Kevin Stevens who would look at Mario do a trick with the puck and just go, "Huh, how the heck did he do that?"

Teammates would always be doing double takes. That's how the North Stars reacted once he got going in the 1991 finals. But it wasn't only Mario's magic that got us going. As we moved closer to the Cup, a togetherness developed on our club that was just amazing. The brand of friendship that blossomed on that team in the spring of 1991 is something that I'll never forget, and the proof is that we're still friends every thought many of us aren't Penguins anymore¹¹.

Bob Johnson also was a big part of the bonding even though he wasn't a player. At first, I wasn't sure how to take his enthusiasm, and other guys on the team would ask each other, "How can a guy be that enthusiastic?" But that was just the way Badger was and how excited he was about hockey. One of his favorite expressions was, "This is a great day for hockey!"¹²

Even though we were professionals and many of us had been around for a while, this enthusiasm rubbed off on the guys and Badger made believers out of everybody. The proof was the Stanley Cup. And I feel fortunate that I got my name on it at least once because I know guys who have played in the NHL for a long time and never got their name on the silver. You do it once and you never forget it.

With the team we had in Pittsburgh, I figured we easily could repeat with a second straight Stanley Cup. I played 58 games for Pittsburgh in 1991-92 and was having another good year. I had 33 goals and 37 assists for 70 points, but everything changed for me on February 19, 1992.

That's when the Penguins traded me and Brian Benning [and Los Angeles' 1st-round choice in the 1993 Entry Draft, Jason Bowen] to the Flyers for Rick Tocchet, Kjell Sameulsson, Ken Wregget, and the 3rd round draft choice [Dave Roche] in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft.

Was I upset? Of course, I was. Leaving the Penguins was tough. My girlfriend - who is now my wife - was from Pittsburgh and I had some good friends in Pennsylvania. Plus, it was tough watching the Penguins going to the finals again, knowing that I could have been on that team. On the other hand, I was happy for guys like Tocchet, Wregget, and Kjell. It was nice to see them win the Cup.

Trades are tough especially when the player has no say in the matter. I remember when the Flyers first showed interest in Eric Lindros, long before they actually got him in 1992. A lot of us on the Flyers knew that we might be involved, although management did tell me that I would not be one of the guys.

I realized that if we got the big guy, it might mean that the club would have to take a step backwards if it wanted to move forward with a young superstar. And that's what happened. In the long run, getting Eric turned out to be a good thing for Philadelphia.

But any time a club makes such a big exchange for only a 19-year-old, you know it's a step backwards and that was the toughest part for a lot of us on the team. Ed Snider¹³, who owned the Flyers, told the team that we might not make the playoffs for a year or so because of the Lindros deal.

Personally, I did fine in Philadelphia. In my first full year, 1992-93, I scored 53 goals in 84 games, plus 70 assists for 123 points. I felt pretty secure with the Flyers and then - bang! - right out of the blue, I was dealt to Montreal while John LeClair and Eric Desjardins went to Philadelphia.

That was a shocker especially since my wife and I had just built a house in Philly and had a lot of ties in the city. They love their hockey in Philadelphia, but when it comes to hockey-mad, there's nothing like the city of Montreal.

Even before I arrived there after the trade was made, people warned me that there was going to be quite a hullabaloo, but I never expected such a big deal when it finally happened. Naturally, one of the things the press brings up is the issue of pressure. As a player, I didn't want to disappoint anyone. By the same token, I couldn't control what LeClair and Desjardins did with the Flyers.

There was a bit of pressure on me because they had done so much in Philly, and I didn't want the fans to think that Montreal got the raw end of the deal. I wanted to play well for Serge Savard because he believed in me by making the trade.

Both Eric and John had played well for the Canadiens, but they never lived up to their potential. They got new lives with the Flyers. John complemented the Lindros-Renberg line very well, and when Philadelphia came to Montreal and beat us 7-0, it was tough. It hurt our guys and in the dressing room later, they were all saying, "Sorry!"

I told them, "Hey, it's all part of the game."

What made it really worse was that we went into quite a tailspin after that which created a lot of tension in the dressing room. When that happens, believe me, it isn't fun especially when you have guys there who want to leave the team for one reason or another. Everyone knew they wanted out, but all it did was create a tough situation which lasted far too long¹⁴.

I know it's not easy making a trade in tihs league, but a general manager [Savard] can't let things drag on to a point where it really is affecting the team. At that point in Montreal, it did.

In a situation such as that, the tension affects the play on the ice. If the club is not close, guys won't go to battle for other guys. Players don't do whatever they have to do to win games. The negative feeling really bothered the team, particularly on the road. No one seemed to care for the other fellow¹⁵. Without togetherness, you're not going to have a very good team.

That made it particularly rough on a coach like Jacques Demers because what was going on in the dressing room was out of his control. A coach can't know all the time how a player is feeling or what's going on with a contract. He's got to coach. He shouldn't have to worry about that.

From a personal standpoint, one of the worst things that happened to me after leaving Pittsburgh was missing the playoffs for so many years - first with Philadelphia and then the Canadiens. It was very frustrating for the whole club, but I began to think, "Hey, maybe it's me!"

I've always felet that the playoffs are the best part of hockey; the funnest time. That's when you most enjoy being a player because you go through the grind of a long regular season in order to get this epcial bunch of games. It's amazing how different the feel is in the playoffs. Everbyody suddenly becomes so close. Everybody feels, "We have to play well every night." Playoffs bring the bset out of everybody¹⁶.

When the Canadiens missed the playoffs in 1994-95, I wasn't really that surprised. They had made some changes near the end - like getting Pierre Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov from the Islanders - and there was a sense that the team was rebuilding. That's why we were so optimistic at the start of 1995-96. Now everybody on the team seemed to want to be in Montreal and everyone was happy.

In 1995-96, we started off 0 and 5, yet we still had the feeling that we would break out of the slump. But the more we lost, the more the pressure on Demers and Savard. I know that guys wanted to play for Jacques and he was great to the guys. He couldn't have been too bad a coach since he won a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens not very long ago [1993]. He must have done something right.

But the top management felt a change was needed, and all of a sudden, Serge and Jacques were gone. To tell the truth, I was surprise. In fact, I couldn't believe it. Ron Corey [Canadiens' president] phoned most of the guys to give them the news. At the time,I was doing a photo shoot for a magazine when I got word that  "Mister Corey is calling".

As soon as I heard that, I said to myself, "Oh, shit, I'm traded again? Jesus Christ, what am I going to do now?"

Then, I found out the truth. It wasn't me. Corey went on to tell me that he didn't have any immediate replacements for Jacques and Serge but that he was working on it. He told me that he didn't like the direction that the team was heading in, and he felt that he had to do something about it.

Still, most of the guys were in shock over the news. The feeling in the room was, "Hey, they don't do that sort of thing here in Montreal."

But they did and I felt especially bad for Demers and Savard. I mean you don't wish that kind of thing on anyobyd, but these were good people and Serge had been in the Canadiens' organization for 30 years. Jacques had done great things for the team and the players loved him. It was terrible, but it was also an eye-opener.

We didn't do anything much during the 5-day interim period before they named the new leaders. Finally, we went to New York for a game against the Islanders amid a lot of guessing as to who the new Coach and GM would be, but we just didn't know who would get the job. We lost to the Islanders and headed home while more guessing went on.

One of the names we heard out there - with about 10 other guys who much succeed Jacques as coach - was Mario Tremblay, who had played for Montreal and now was a broadcaster¹⁷. We didn't know if it was possible for him to be coach since he didn't have any previous experience behind the bench. My guess was that they would hire a GM first, and then the manager would pick the coach.

Then, we got home, they called a press conference just before our game and, lo and behold, Corey names Rejean Houle the GM and Tremblay the coach. Let me tell you, it was pretty tough on Tremblay. Look at it this way: He never coached in the NHL before and here he is making his debut here at The Montreal Forum. There was a lot of pressure on him to do the right things, and he came out with flying colors. We won that game with a fraction of a second left and went up from there.

The big thing was that we finally started to score goals - which we weren't doing much of before - and that gave us the confidence we needed. Patrick Roy was playing good goal for us and everything began to fall into place. Tremblay adjusted some lines and moved Vincent Damphousse from wing to center. From that point on, we began to click.

Reuniting me with Pierre Turegon was a good thing. We think we can be a dominant force out there and take control of a game. We can score that big goal for a team and give it a lift.

One of the problems with Demers was that he was always juggling lines. We just couldn't find that good combination that we later found with Tremblay. A line would get hot and we would be in sync with each other. Instead of staying together, Jacques would try some different combinations. That was tough. I prefer knowing, game in and game out, that I'm going to play with the same guys.

Corey took a gamble naming Tremblay coach, but Mario immediately put his stamp on the team and we began winning for him. The biggest thing he did for us was lift our confidence level. He gave everybody a role; everyone knew what was expected of him.

I've been fortunate to play with a lot of really good players over the years, Pierre Turgeon being one of them and Vincent Damphousse being another, but there's no question that the best of them all is Mario Lemieux. He's in a class by himself, although I do believe that Eric Lindros will reach that level. I said when Lindros broke in that we wouldn't see his best hockey until he was 23 or 24-years-old¹⁸.

In terms of goal tending, Patrick Roy gave me the most trouble when I was with Pittsburgh. As a Flyer, I had better luck. Roy's success is built on a couple of factors. First of all, he's just so big; he fills a lot of net. And he never seems to get out of position. If you don't see anything to shoot at, you have to make the absolute perfect shot to score on him. In that way, he's intimidating to the shooter.

Emotion is a big part of the game. You take a guy like Dale Hunter of Washington¹⁹; he plays at a very high intensity level. He's a guy with a huge heart who I would like to see win a Stanley Cup some day.

I can relate to Hunter's emotion because I have it, too. Sometimes I have a bad temper; a fire burning inside me²⁰. I know if I ever lose that, then it will be time for me to quit the game²¹.

There are all kinds of tough players in our business and Hunter is just one of them. When I was a Penguin, I played alongside another one, Ulf Samuelsson²². HEre's a guy whodoes whatever it takes to win²³ and who gets criticized a lot. Personally, I don't think he really intends to hurt people²⁴ [at this point I refuse to continue typing up the positive things Rex is saying about this guy. So skip to the next paragraph].

At least in 1995-96, I didn't [want to leave Montreal]. Under the new management team, we got our act together and fooled a few people by making the playoffs. In the opening round, we fooled some more people by taking the Rangers in the first 2 games at Madison Square Garden, but they came up to Montreal and beat us twice²⁵ and wound up taking the series in six.

All in all, Tremblay did a good job, but if I had to pick the coach who had the most influence on my career, I would pick BOb Johnson. He was tremendous and fun to be around. In Philly, I haed Bill Dineen when I got there and he was a super hockey man. There have been a lot of good guys right down to the ones who coached me in Juniors, like Ken Hitchcock.

Hey, when all is said and done, I've been a lucky guy!²⁶

Now here are my footnote commentaries:
1: Holy shit I easily forget that Rex was such a prolific scorer. Of course he was, if he was on a line with Lemieux, but damn. He is awesome.
2: Obviously I couldn't help but draw parallels between everything Rex says here and the Bruins. Like here, it made me think of the Bruins facing the Canadiens in the first round. Although I don't think anybody thought getting past them would equal a good shot at the Cup..
3: Ugh why does he have to be a friggin Flyer now?
4: Any relation to the Blues' Pietrangelo?
5: LOL who says stuff like that?
6: Remember the days when there was no video replay, and only one ref for every game??
7: I bet he was just like a little Brad Marchand in the finals.
8: Hmm didn't Rex play on a team that won the Cup recently in a series that involved an 8-1 or 8-2 blowout?
9: Again, picturing the Bruins bench in Game 7 so hard.
10: Good lord isn't that Marchand's nickname?
11: Replace 1991 with 2011 and Penguins with Bruins, and it's still as accurate.
12: Also a favorite saying of Jack Edwards.
13: Obligatory comment about how I hate this guy
14: This is some really great insight, IMO, and a testament to how strong Rex's character is because he has experienced all those situations and brought that experience to Boston, and I don't think we will every truly understand how big of an impact all of this had on the Bruins win.
15: I feel like that was the Bruins pre-lockout. And also, I think Rex is really awesome because he is so conscious and reliant on his teammates, that too probably has had a huge impact on how the Bruins are such a close team now. This is also probably why he would make an awesome coach/assistant coach/team physician/any job with the Bruins please.
16: Again, I absolutely love his insight, and this was so long ago too!
17: Imagine a Bruins broadcaster coaching the Bruins. Brick as coach! Oh God, no, I would miss him in the pressbox too much.
18: You can tell how dated this text is by this statement alone.
19: Isn't Dale Hunter coach of Washington now?
20: That's kind of lame but also true...and makes me think of how Marchand is like that, too. Is it just me?
21: Clearly he never lost it as he had to force himself into a wine-induced retirement at 43.
22: AM LITERALLY SHOCKED AND APPALLED. >:|
23: Such as destroying Cam Neely's career with cheap shots. I wonder if Rex still feels that way about Ulf Samuelsson? God, I hope not.
24: Oh young, naive Rex.
25: Exact same thing as Montreal v Boston last year? Yes.
26: He wrote this in 1996...he still has so much more awesome ahead of him...isn't it weird to read something like this knowing what we know now?

What did you guys think?

This book features similar narratives for the following players:

• Pavel Bure
• Sean Burke
• Paul Coffey
• Ted Donato
• Steve Duschene
• Ron Francis
• Dave Gagner
• Todd Gill
• Glenn Healy
• Paul Kariya
• Darius Kasparitis
• Alexei Kovalev
• Jarri Kurri
• John LeClair
• Brian Leetch
• Trevor Linden
• Mark Messier
• Petr Nedved
• Bernie Nicholls
• Rob Niedermayer
• Adam Oates
• James Patrice
• Michael Pivonka
• Mark Recchi
• Kevin Stevens
• Mats Sundin
• Esa Tikkanen
• Mark Tinordi
• Doug Weight

It has 2 other features, "A Day In the Life Of...":

• Donald Audette
• Theoron Fleury
• Jeff Friesen
• Shawn McEachern
• Felix Potvin
• Jeremy Roenick

and "Press Conferences":

• Peter Forsberg
• Grand Fuhr
• Wayne Gretzky
• Ron Hextall
• Pat LaFontaine
• Eric Lindros
• Patrick Roy
• Joe Sakic
• Keith Tkachuk
• John Vanbiesbrouck
• Ken Wreggest
• Steve Yzerman

and "Cup Winning Coach":

• Mark Crawford

If you would like me to type any of these up, they aren't nearly as long as the Recchi one was, so I would be happy to help.