Maven's Memories: Joe Reekie, Stand-up Comic and Stand-up Defenseman
Joe Reekie was a comedian in the room, but no joke on the ice
ByStan Fischler
Special to NHL.com
When Joe Reekie became a New York Islander in 1989, he could have been mistaken for a refugee from Saturday Night Live.
Or, as one reporter remarked after a few interviews with the native of Victoria, British Columbia, "If you didn't know better, you'd mistake Joe for a stand-up comic. The one-liners pop out of his mouth faster than poke checks from his stick."
It wasn't that the 6-3, 195-pounder was imported from Buffalo on June 17, 1989, to entertain the troops, but being a clubhouse comic merely added to his value as a morale booster.
"He's a laugh-a-minute character if ever there was one," another beat writer noted, "but not to the opposition. Reekie hits and hits hard."
But redoubtable Joe's personality definitely was of the "split" variety. "The Reekster," as he was dubbed on Long Island, was a consummately serious dude once the game began.
One scouting report in the early 1990's put it this way: "Reekie will recklessly toss his body in front of shots and distributes lethal
body checks. He takes his defense work seriously and sometimes will pop the odd goal."
Plus, he was respected by the opposition. Former NHL backliner and later coach Jim Schoenfeld was one of The Reekster's fans.
"He makes the simple play," recalled Schoenfeld, "and knows how to stand people up while maintaining the blue line. Joe's also one of the best-liked people in the game."
Isles fans took to him immediately and Reekie did likewise with The Faithful.
"I liked being on the Island," he reflected. "We had a young team that was building."
Joe had picked the right guy -- Montreal Canadiens Hall of Famer Larry Robinson -- to be his role model.
"To me, Robinson exemplified what a defenseman was -- and in my case -- what I should be," Reekie explained. "He was tough but he didn't have to fight that much."
Likewise, the Reekster proved to be a rough and ready type when the spirit -- and the situation -- moved him. This was a far cry from the youngster who began playing at the age of four in Victoria. In a retrospective moment, he chuckled thinking about his mother's role in getting him into the ice game.
"You see, mother wanted me out of the house," he remembered, "so she found something for me to do -- play hockey."
Joe's dad served in the Royal Canadian Navy and his last posting was in North Bay, Ontario. When the family moved from British Columbia to Ontario, The Reekster already had demonstrated that he was good enough to play Junior hockey.
Reekie: "I started with the North Bay Centennials but didn't see eye to eye with coach Bert Templeton so I asked to be traded and it was the best thing that happened to me. I wound up with Cornwall and that's where my game developed.
"My coach was Floyd Crawford and he did wonders for me. He pushed all the right buttons to get me going both mentally and physically. Without Floyd's help, I never would have made it to the NHL."
He firmly established himself as an Islander during the 1989-90 season. Joe regarded that year more as a stepping stone than anything else.
"I had a career year in my second season on the Island," he said. "Over 66 games that year, I had a team-best plus-17. Everything was breaking right for me going into my third season. Then, I had another break that I could have done without. I broke my hand."
Up until that point he had impressed both the fans, media and general staff by doing everything a hard guy was supposed to do. He hit hard, blocked shots and played ice cop.
One day a reporter asked Joe to put his "toughness" in perspective and he unhesitatingly reverted to elementary school arithmetic.
"I rate my toughness at a six or seven out of a possible 10," he shot back. "There are better people at it and there are worse. The way I see it, this comes down to how tough you can get and hit a guy and take him off his game."
"My thinking is that the emphasis should be on the complete package. When I was playing, Rick Tocchet and Cam Neely were those kinds of guys -- hockey tough!"
Being a rugged individual had its setbacks for Joe, especially the broken hand that he suffered in his third season with the Isles. "As I look back on my career, I have to say that the injuries were the big downer. Every time I would get rolling some sort of injury would happen."
Still, Joe's superiority wearing the Blue and Orange was evident during his second season. In the Islanders commemorative 25-year history volume he was rated the best defenseman on the team side by side with Rich Pilon.
In fact, The Reekster's overall -- though low-key -- excellence seemed to guarantee a long career in Uniondale, but it didn't happen that way. To everyone's surprise, management left him unprotected and he was claimed by the Lightning. He later would excel for Washington as well.
An 18-year NHL man, Reekie retired in January 2003 after 902 major league games. The matches he played for the Isles over three years were memorable -- though underplayed -- in their own right.
Looking back at Joe's career in Nassau, historian Andrew Podnieks noted the following in his definitive who's who of hockey called Players:
"Big and strong," Podnieks concluded, "Reekie had become a defensive defenseman of the most reliable order."
And, as far as the funnyman Reekster was concerned, that was no joke either!
