The time Ray Whitney’s Dad had to play net because Dominik Hasek was too wasted

Bear with us for a moment hockey fans, but we’re going to go back in time to the darkest period in hockey history: The 2005 NHL Lockout. With the entire NHL shut down for an entire season, players either played in the AHL or Europe to keep themselves in shape, one such player was young 25 year old offensive defenseman John Michael Liles of the Colorado Avalanche. 

Lies joined the IMG Tour and toured seven cities in Europe as part of a charity hockey tour with other NHL players under representation with IMG Sports. Joining Liles in the tour were legitimate NHL superstars like Mats Sundin, Joe Thornton, Sergei Fedorov, Daniel Alfredsson, Rick Nash, Ray Whitney, Daniel Briere, Tony Amonte, Rob Blake, Luc Robitaille, Martin Brodeur and Dominik Hasek. With so much star power and so much downtime between games… well let’s just say the boys had some good natured fun.

On the latest episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast with Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonette, Liles shared some stories from that European tour and in particular, had the hosts rolling in laughter when he described a situation in which Ray Whitney’s father had to strap on the pads on go between the pipes when Hasek was too hungover to play.

Check out these BEAUTY quotes from Liles himself:

“We went and played like 12 games in 15 days on this tour through Europe and it was an absolute… it was unbelievable… but it was a disaster.”

“Fedorov showed up on our plane in like Ugg boots and the biggest fur coat you’ve ever seen. I was just dying…”

“Ray Whitney was on that trip and Ray Whitney’s Dad had to play goalie for us one night because Hasek was too hungover from the night before and he couldn’t leave the training room. He was in full gear, asleep on the trainer’s table for the entire game.”

How awesome is that!? The Dominator wasn’t so dominant that night! Suffice it to say, Liles had more awesome stories to share from that tour, as well as a few other good tales from his 14 year NHL career. Click the link below to listen to the full podcast: