Espo!

I'm off today, enjoying the quiet and cleaning and reminiscing about my day on set with Phil Esposito. A nicer man I've never met. He's a gentleman and all class. Every time someone asked him to sign something, 'my pleasure' would come the response, every time another reporter turned up to do an interview, 'absolutely!' he would say. 'Mr. Esposito, would you mind playing some ball hockey with the boys after we're done?' 'Not at all, I'll be right out!'

And that's what we did. I ran for my camera, which ended up taking nothing but crummy snowed up shots, but that may be due to all the cameras that were around flashing like crazy the entire time. I took over in net for Jeremy Wright and stopped the first shot, with my . . .ahem. . . unprotected groin. What an honour! Then of course, Phil shot a couple that no one even saw ( we were playing some two on two with Rick Campanelli of ET Canada, under the watchful eye of his camera crew and our documentarian Baby Z) until they were well past me and dangling somewhere in the mesh of the net.

It must have lasted only ten or fifteen minutes in real time, but it felt like an age a fleeting moment, or maybe an hour! He even explained to us how that hard orange ball that had been bouncing off my groin area was his creation! He'd come up with the idea for a ball that wouldn't bounce and behave more like a puck. It was made by some company (name eludes me) that incidentally only paid Phil for three years, and presto ball hockey was born again!

Rick said when he was growing up they called them 'Esposito balls'. heh.

Anyway, I got my Mcfarlane Esposito statuette signed and Jeremy Wright graciously shared with everyone he could several of his Espo rookie cards that Phil had signed.

Phil showed us the snapshot, how it was supposed to be done, how he'd taught it to kids over the years and bounced a few off my blocker, making me look good in net! I am really taking a liking to the netminding. I think if I become a better skater I may try it for awhile. Yet another hobby.

The episode we shot with Phil was great, in all of his scenes he was funny, lively and quick to improvise. The show is going to be even better for it. He was a legend in his day and remains one to this. A truly humble, gracious human being.

That's my take for the week, only two left to go. Time to start thinking of gifts for the crew.