Brendan Shanahan had a 22-year career in the NHL in which he scored 656 goals (13th all-time) and won the Stanley Cup three times with the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998, 2002). He also won gold with Canada at the 2002 Olympics, the 1994 IIHF World Championship and the 1991 Canada Cup. He may have been the most prominent power forward of the modern era.
This weekend Brendan Shanahan is rightfully inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And I am certain in his induction speech he will thank his older brothers not just for letting their kid brother play along with them, but for beating him up.
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen tells us more:
Little did Danny (11 years older), Brian (eight years older) and Shaun (six years older) know how much they had to do with what Boyd was talking about. They helped Brendan develop that stomach and that compete level the scouts discovered, the two ingredients that helped Shanahan through his Hall of Fame playing career.
"Thinking back now, to be 10 years old, to be playing street hockey with your brother and his 18-year-old friends, hey, there was no crying," Shanahan said. "The rules for the 18-year-olds were the rules for the 10-year-olds. That's where I say they beat on me. If I was in front of the net and they wanted me to get away from the front of the net, they knocked me away."
By the time Shanahan was 14, he was allowed to play on Shaun's lacrosse team. When he was 18, he was playing summer ball hockey with Danny and his friends.
"It took me a long time to catch up with them," Shanahan said. "I was sort of the rink rat watching them play and how they played."
Shanahan quickly discovered in the OHL that the lessons (or beatings) he received from his brothers were worthwhile.
Here's the full story.
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