Pavel Bure’s NHL career wouldn’t have been the same without Gino Odjick.
The two tried to make it into the NHL at the same time and found each other instantly.
Odjick became Bure’s protector on the ice, and they became best friends and roommates.
Odjick and Bure had instant chemistry, and everyone could see it in their first NHL game together.
Although Bure didn’t score in that game, he showed the world what he was capable of, and as he became one of the superstars of the NHL, Odjick was always there beside him.
Pavel Bure won the Calder Trophy in 1992, and he probably wouldn’t have done it without the help of Odjick.
It wasn’t just about what happened on the ice; Odjick was just what he needed in a new city and a new country.
But it was for his protecting skills on the ice that Odjick got most of his praise. Nobody got to come near Bure, but once, Bure had to tell him to stop doing what he did best: infuriating his opponents.
In the documentary ’Ice Guardians,’ Odjick shared a hilarious story about a time when Wendel Clark simply had enough of him.
”We were playing the Maple Leafs and I decided I was going to hit (Doug) Gilmour to slow him down so we could win the game,” Odjick told Postmedia, per The Province. ”After the first period, Pavel said don’t hit him no more.”
Odjick didn’t think much about it, and it wasn’t until years later that he learned about why Bure had told him to stop going after Doug Gilmour.
”I said OK, but I didn’t know why until a few years later when Wendel Clark told the story that he told Pavel if I hit Gilmour any more, Clark was going to kill Pavel.”
