'He was all business in the crease': Long-time friend Dave Bidini on Gord Downie's passion for hockey

This week, as we celebrated the life and legacy of Gord Downie, long-time friend, tourmate and teammate Dave Bidini gave us a glimpse into a side of Downie we don't normally see - the " gravely serious goalie."

"Gord was super playful, super gentle, super beautiful, but he was all business in the crease," Bidini said.

The late musician's passion for Canada's sport was evident in his songs, including "Heaven is a Better Place Today," "Fifty-Mission Cap" and "Fireworks."

Bidini, who knew Downie for many years, also remembers him as an "endlessly supportive" friend.

"I'll remember [Gord] as that person who would be the first to call and the first to write in both good and bad times."

Listen to Bidini's conversation with Checkup host Duncan McCue:

Read a shortened transcript:

Duncan McCue: My next guest is a musician who knew Gord Downie for many years. Dave Bidini is one of the founding members of the Canadian rock group, The Rheostatics, who opened for the Hip on three national tours in the 1990s. He's also the author of 11 books including "the Tropic of Hockey" and "On a cold Road." 

I want to ask you about hockey because you obviously had a connection with Gord, The Hip and hockey. He sang about hockey, his songs played in hockey arenas, but he also liked to play hockey. How important was hockey to Gord Downie?

Dave Bidini: He was a hockey savant, in a way. He knew every player. He was a fiend for his yearly fantasy draft. He also loved to play. He moved on to Carlaw Avenue in Toronto—him and Laura's third or fourth house. He bought the house because it was across from a rink and he could just put his gear on and literally clock down the stairs of his home, cross the street and he was on the ice within a couple of seconds.

In the mid to late '90s, we would go from rink to rink and play teams, set up games and the beautiful thing is, there are hundreds of people out there who played and shot on Gord Downie without having any sense that the guy behind the mask was actually Gord Downie. He was a dyed-in-the-wool, very gravely serious goalie. He was committed to the vocation of goaltending. Gord was super playful, super gentle, super beautiful, but he was all business in the crease. [We went] to Whitby to play a recreational game and at one point in the third period, there was somebody in the crease talking to Gord and I thought it was an odd time for a fan moment. So I went over there to run some interference. It turned out the two were in an 'F-you' fight. Gord was like: 'F-you for skating through my crease.' The other guy was mad at Gord, who had slashed him. He was inconsolable after he lost, but he loved the game deeply. 

DM: You've written that you can tell a lot from a person by how they play on the ice. You've talked about Jim Cuddy not being quite the Jim Cuddy that people know on stage knows. What was Gord Downie like to play with and what'd you learn from his on-ice persona?

DB: He was a very serious goaltender. He tried and he cared. And he was stricken when he was scored on. He'd throw himself across the crease to make saves and he would stand up to any kind of shot. Yes, he dug in. He was a warrior in that. You couldn't really even talk to him when he was on the ice because he was so laser focused. I guess that was just part of him that he applied to that part of his life. 

DM: He was also very much a Boston Bruins fan and didn't mind showing that.

DB: He couldn't be perfect, right?

DM: There was a moment that he wore that Bruins jersey in Habs territory. Can you tell me that story?

DB: He loved the Bruins, but he loved Team Canada too. I can only imagine what [the 1972 Summit Series] meant for him, Mike, Pat and the rest of the Downie family. Gord's godfather, their family friend Harry Sinden was the coach of that team, so that resonated very deeply with [them]. We went down to Montreal to see the Bruins play. The "Phantom" Alexei Kovalev takes himself out of the play. Glen Murray goes and scores. The Bruins win in overtime at the Bell Center in Montreal and the first thing Gord's says is: 'We've got to go to the busiest Habs bar and we've got to walk right in there.' We waded into enemy territory and Gord was so gracious and so funny. He's taking pictures with all the Habs fans. Watching a game with Gord was an intense experience because he loved the Bruins so deeply and wasn't afraid to announce it to the world. 

DM: You mentioned the three tours that you did with The Tragically Hip and you still found time for hockey during those tours. How did that unfold? 

DB: Yeah, it was pretty fun. We would go into towns to play on these big national tours and whatever town we were in, the boys and their management would call the local university team or one of the senior teams and we'd get ice time. We would use all completely borrowed equipment and just play a game—the road crew would play and some fans would come out and local writers. We were touring in the winter, so we would go play at Max Bell Center in Calgary, we played in Halifax and Manitoba. [It] was just amazing to get on the ice.

I ended up becoming a goaltender because we needed somebody else to play goal. And now I pretty much play it full-time. I measure a lot in my life by whether I have as much fun as I do in the net, playing goal. I owe it to Gord for showing me that it's a beautiful, dreamy position informed by moments of pure violence. It was great to know him and the band on that level, not just as peers, musicians and friends, but also sportsmen on the ice.

DM: We're asking our listeners to give us their memories of how they'll remember Gord Downie. How will you remember your friend?

DB: I'll remember him as that person who would be the first to call and the first to write in both good and bad times. He was endlessly supportive and encouraging. He would want you to push harder even when you felt like you had pushed enough. And he shouldered so much of all of us. He would talk to a cat the same way he would talk to a king. He was true with everyone. He was a beautiful man and I'm so grateful to have called him my friend.

Duncan McCue and Dave Bidini's comments have been edited and condensed for clarity. You can listen to their full conversation above. This online segment was prepared by Samraweet Yohannes on Oct. 23, 2017.