Former Muskie takes chance on a dream

If you were given one chance to live out your childhood dream, would you take it or let it pass you by?
When that situation arose for Sean Douglas, it didn’t take long for the former Fort Frances resident to contemplate the question, and in the end, he chose to take a chance at making it to the NHL.
“There’s not too many times that you get a chance like that, so there really wasn’t too much to think about,” said Douglas.
Douglas and more than 4,000 other Canadians participated in CBC’s reality television program, “Making the Cut,” which offered a chance over the summer for six players to earn invitations to an NHL training camp.
The show is now airing every Tuesday at 7 p.m. until the finale Dec. 14.
An open invitation was issued to any player 19 years of age or older, who wasn’t singed to a pro contract but still had a dream alive in their hearts.
Following a series of seven tryouts in major cities across the country, 68 players were selected for the show. Then after a two-week camp run by hockey legends Scotty Bowman and Mike Keenan, only six remained and were given invites to an NHL camp.
Douglas, a former Muskie goalie who has lived in Chilliwack, B.C. since ’91, heard about the show because “there was a local hullabaloo about it.” And when friend Cam Campbell came over one night, they took the first step towards living a childhood dream.
“We talked about it and we ran downstairs, looked it up on the Internet and sure enough, there was a registration form for it, so we both signed up for the tryouts online at my house at the same time,” recalled Douglas, who helps coach the Bantam ‘AAA’ Coyotes with Campbell, who was a junior hockey player in British Columbia during the early ’90s.
“As we filled the forms out, we kind of just reflected on what we’ve done in the past and what it would be like if we actually made it, and it was pretty neat,” added Douglas, whose favourite hockey memory was winning all-Ontario gold with the Muskies in 1986.
“I grew up from the time I was five years old dreaming of being a Muskie, and to me, a Muskie was the same as making the NHL,” he remarked.
Douglas and Campbell only had three weeks to prepare for their tryout date in Vancouver, and laughed that “we weren’t in our NHL shape, for a lack of a better term.”
When June 5 rolled around, Douglas was a volcano of emotions just ready to erupt.
With only three hours of sleep to his credit, he got up, had some coffee and a slice of toast (because “that’s all my stomach could take”), and drove the 100 km to Vancouver, like he does every morning to get to his job with Morris and Mackenzie Inc., where he works as an insurance broker.
“It was anxiety and nervousness, and not knowing how many people would be there and not really knowing what the calibre would be,” Douglas recalled.
The Scott Burnaby 8-Rinks, which is where the Vancouver Canucks practice and where the tryout was held, saw a little over 125 goalies turn out for the Saturday session, which brought thoughts of doubt creeping into Douglas’ head.
Because of the large number of goalies on hand (of the 4,200 players who tried out across Canada, over 1,000 were goaltenders), the show’s staff started with goalie skill evaluations to cut the number down to only six.
“I was actually really discouraged when I found out how many goaltenders were there and then Cam actually convinced me to carry on with my first ice time and I did, and I gave it 100 percent,” said Douglas.
And Douglas, a professional goaltending coach with Inside Edge Goaltending Training Systems and who played for the Vancouver Voodoo of the now defunct Roller Hockey International league for a couple of months in ’93, did exceptionally well in the skill evaluations and moved on to the next grouping.
The next ice session, which was only a few hours later, brought a greater challenge for Douglas as he and the other surviving goalies now were faced with stopping shots in drills—such as breakaways, one-on-ones, and two-on-ones—coming from the other NHL hopefuls.
“I let the first five shots in and Cam [who didn’t make it past the first ice session] was watching and cheering,” he remarked. “I was just so nervous and so excited about having the opportunity, and playing in front of several hundred people and cameras and producers.
“It was nerve-racking, [but] I basically dialed it in and I only got scored on one more time,” said Douglas, who was given saline treatments and a salt water wash afterwards because his legs starting to cramp.
But he managed to move on to the three-on-three session later that day, which was the show’s first episode.
Due to the large crowd expected, players were asked not to bring family or friends to the tryout. But Douglas’ three children and his wife of 12 years, Kim, were beside him July 1 when he would be told if he had made the cut and proceed to the show.
“Basically, the family made a decision to stay home that morning and miss the [Canada Day] parade and wait for the phone call,” he noted.
“At around 11 o’clock in the morning, the phone didn’t ring, so I went and checked my e-mail and sure enough, there it was. I read it myself and got a tear in my eye, and that was it.
“I told the kids, ‘Let’s go, kids, it’s all done, let’s go.’”
Jack Birch, director of hockey operations for the program, had written Douglas an e-mail at 4:20 that morning informing him that he didn’t make the cut—and the dream was officially over.
But even if he had gotten the call from Birch, Bowman, or Keenan telling him he had made it, Douglas probably would have bowed out.
“If they would’ve called me and told me, ‘Sean, you made the cut, in my mind I would’ve made it and I probably would’ve told the producers to give it to a young guy,” said the 34-year-old family man.
“I’ve got a family, I’ve got responsibilities, and can’t chase the dream anymore,” he added.
“But I look at it this way. There were 68 guys that made the show, and I think eight goaltenders make it,” he said. “And I know based on how I performed and my understanding of hockey, and how I teach hockey, that I was top 100.
“And being top 100 out of 4,200 in Canada, I’m pretty happy about that.
“From the same perspective, though, it’s actually kind of disappointing realizing that you were that close,” added Douglas, who admitted he wouldn’t try out again if the program were to have a second season.
Douglas used to dream of playing in the NHL as a child in Fort Frances, and is glad he got to be a part of an experience that let him not only relive his youth, but also settle a question he had for so long—“Could I have made it?”
“I remember playing with a buddy of mine, Paul Danku, and we used to play every day and I pretended to be Ken Dryden and he pretended to be Guy Lafleur.
“And it was nice to have just had the opportunity to dream again,” Douglas said.