![]() It follows then that Gord would appreciate Thornton, too, given that Sinden selected him. The singer who adored the team he was now playing for, in part, because of the man who drafted him. Thornton sat stunned as he glimpsed into the life of his favourite singer. “Back in the day, we supported every move Harry made,” Downie told Bob McKenzie in his book “Hockey Confidential” of his Bruins fandom. Downie’s parents asked Sinden to be godfather to their children. As a minor league coach, Sinden also worked in real estate and sold the Downies their home in Amherstview, outside of Kingston, Ont. Harry Sinden, then the team’s general manager, was a family friend. The Downie family obsession with the Bruins began at a young age. ![]() He said he and his brother talk nearly every day about their favourite team, a fact highlighted in Downie’s 2017 song and ode to his brother, “You, Me and the B’s.” Thornton, a wide-eyed teenage fan of the band at heart, asks about Gord Downie and Patrick details his favourite singer’s obsession with the Bruins. He works for the team, doing everything from producing interviews to DJ’ing games. Patrick is a lifelong Bruins fan who lives in Boston. When the interview finishes, Thornton and Patrick Downie connect. “That’s Gord Downie’s brother,” the interviewer says, and Thornton’s smile grows wider. The interviewer points behind him, to a man clad in black holding a boom mic. The Tragically Hip was played in his minor hockey locker rooms when he was as young as 12, he says, around the time 1991’s “Road Apples” was released. “Oh, you like that band?” the interviewer asks. Thornton’s wide smile, already his trademark, flashes and he says: “The Tragically Hip.” The musician helped him find a better path, one that eventually led him to the Toronto Maple Leafs.Īnd, Thornton says, “He made me a better person.” In a rare interview on a topic he has often declined to address, Thornton said he was thankful to have Downie in his life. “There was always an open door for Joe,” says Patrick.Īnd in those meetings, Thornton both grew closer with Downie, and became a changed man. Instead, they created an environment where Downie could rest when he needed to, focus on being around his children and make more music, as were his wishes.īut those rules didn’t apply to Joe Thornton, Downie’s favourite hockey player, who over time became a close friend. Gord Downie’s family, led by his brother and newfound caretaker, Patrick, were not necessarily open to regular visits from anyone who wanted to wish Downie well. The Tragically Hip’s final tour had finished months earlier. And the hockey player knows this meeting, which he kept private from his teammates, might be the last with his friend. The two friends share laughter because they have to: the musician is in a bout with terminal brain cancer. The hockey player wakes up the sleepy park with his boisterous laugh as the musician describes his game. Sinden was a also a real estate developer who helped Downie’s parents find their home in Amherstview, Ont.Beside him stands the other man: an adored Canadian rock musician, regaling him with exploits from the hundreds of games of shinny he’s played as a goalie on that rink. One more fact, "According to the book Have Not Been The Same Since: The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995, Downie’s godfather is Harry Sinden, former coach of the Boston Bruins. You held my hand and we walked home the long way You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey We all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the trigger If there's a goal that everyone remembers, Two years later in 1972, Sinden coached Team Canada and teamates Orr and Paul Henderson, who "pulled the trigger" on the winning goal of the Summit Series. Both immortalized in The Hip's song "Fireworks" Sinden coached Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins to their first Stanley Cup in 29 years. Bobby Orr and Gord Downie watching the #Sens/ #Bruins game.
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