As Simon's Spirit Rises, So Does His Game
By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 3, 2000; Page D1
Nine years ago in a tiny dressing room in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Washington Capitals winger Chris Simon began a quest to save his life. Simon, just 19, was drinking himself out of hockey, and losing sight of who he was.
If not for the intervention of his coach and his family, if not for his own will to make a life-altering change, Simon might not be enjoying the best season of his career right now. Simon might not be tied for the team lead with 15 goals, one shy of his career high, nor would he have found a creative offensive game to go with his imposing 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame and reputation as one of the toughest heavyweights in the NHL. He would not have reconnected with his Native North American roots and spirituality. No one, not even Simon, knows exactly where he'd be.
"I know that if it wasn't for me stopping drinking I would not be here today playing in the NHL," said Simon, who has been sober for about nine years. "I don't know that I'd be alive. I'm a better person for it and a stronger person. Not drinking doesn't bother me anymore. In the beginning it was tough, but now it's my life and I'm happy being sober. I wouldn't want it any other way."
When Simon arrived in Sault Ste. Marie for the 1991-92 season, he already was in jeopardy. At 16, he had left the close-knit community of Wawa, Ontario, as a teenager to play junior hockey in Ottawa. After his nurturing outdoors life in Wawa, a northern outpost of 4,100 people, Ottawa seemed like New York City. Most of his teammates were 20-year-olds. He took his first taste of alcohol – everybody was doing it – and never really stopped. Drinking took a toll. Simon was gaining a reputation and getting in trouble off the ice.
"When I started playing hockey in the city I grew up pretty fast," Simon said. "I don't blame the older guys I played with; I don't blame anyone but myself for the way things went."
Simon played just 20 games in his third season in Ottawa, in 1990-91, and was suspended for 20 games by the Ontario Hockey League for off-ice conduct the next season. "I needed to change my life at that time," Simon said. "I needed to get close to my family."
Brian Kilrea, Ottawa's coach, realized Simon was in peril and called Ted Nolan, who grew up on a reservation near Simon's and was a friend of the family. As a child, Simon had idolized the former NHL player, who was then the coach at Sault Ste. Marie. The teams worked out a trade to get Simon to Sault Ste. Marie, closer to his home, closer to healing.
"He was a long way from his family," Kilrea said. "He idolized his family. He was always talking about his grandfather and things back in Wawa. He suffered some growing pains being away. He was pretty lonesome."
Simon was bottoming out when he arrived in Sault Ste. Marie. He wasn't practicing hard, so Nolan decided to put him on a team suspension. He spoke to Simon's father, John, a recovering alcoholic, and they devised a program for Simon to reach sobriety. Nolan started the process after practice one day, with no one else around.
"I still remember that meeting," said Nolan, a substance abuse counselor. "Chris and I had a good heart-to-heart talk about where his life was headed. If he continued doing what he was doing he might as well hop on a bus to Wawa and keep doing that, or he could make a change. We made a 24-hour-a- day commitment to him and we helped get him in shape and he really turned it around. He was willing to change."
Nolan kept an eye on Simon around the clock – from the time he arrived at the YMCA in the morning until he checked in by phone at night. Players took Simon to the movies rather than parties.
In Nolan, Simon found not only a mentor, but a friend. Most coaches couldn't reconcile Simon's aggression on the ice with his quiet pacifism off it. Sometimes he felt like he was wanted solely for his brawn and not the shooting and stickhandling skills he'd developed. Nolan, the NHL's 1997 coach of the year with Buffalo, understood Simon as a person, not just as a player. He shared a similar background and value system. Both were immersed in small towns and extended families. Nolan dedicated himself to the player.
"When I got in trouble over there I had a curfew the whole second half of the season," Simon said. "There wasn't one night when I called for curfew that Ted wasn't home waiting for me to call. It was like a partnership. Even though I was the one being punished, he was being punished also because he was there every night waiting."
Nolan and Simon had long talks. Simon, who is 50 percent Ojibwa Indian, would spend free time fishing with Nolan's son, Brandon. Gradually, Simon underwent a spiritual awakening, spending more time with his grandparents and embracing his heritage. Nolan told him stories that had been passed from generation to generation. All of it washed over his eager pupil.
"Chris got lost in the big city and lost who he was as a person," Nolan said. "And I'm a strong believer in being proud of who you are, and his native heritage is something he didn't know too much about.
"We talked about powwows and spirituality and native culture and all of a sudden his grandfather is involved and his dad's involved, and all of a sudden his hair is growing longer and longer and he's grasping his spirituality and he's well connected with his being. Getting back home and in nature really grounded him. He was back to his roots."
Getting back home helped Simon turn his game around, which took him away from home again. He played three seasons for Quebec and spent the 1994-95 season in Colorado, which traded him to the Capitals in November 1996.
But Simon never again strayed far from the things he loved. When he wasn't playing hockey he was in the woods, fishing and trapping with his grandfather, Alfie. They would canoe five or six hours to a provincial park with no roads – no motorized vehicles were allowed – and set up camp for up to a week, bringing only a few sundries and vegetables. They kept only enough game to eat (Simon's favorite is fish stew). Simon would tell his mother, Linda, that he would be home by midnight on a certain day – and if he wasn't back, something would be wrong. Sometimes he'd make the deadline by just a minute or two, and she'd be waiting, near panic.
"We didn't want to go through the five-hour trip back, so we'd stay as long as we could," Simon said. "Growing up like that, I would never change it for anything."
Simon's grandfather taught him survival skills, and he became an expert fisherman. When he took his girlfriend, Valerie, who grew up near Washington, to Wawa for the first time she caught 30 fish with no prior experience.
"He's so relaxed up there," said defenseman Ken Klee, who also took a fishing trip to Wawa. "He's the man there. He did everything from setting up the charter and cabin to cutting down trees, making a bonfire, cooking all the food. He had it all going. I could easily see him being a guide after he's done playing hockey."
Simon has much to look forward to. He's in the best shape of his life, mentally and physically. He's playing the best hockey of his life. And through Nolan's work with young people throughout Canada, he has become an example for others.
"I'm so proud of Chris, even if you take what he's done this season out of it," Nolan said. "Chris as a person has really changed his life since he was 19. Just to see him now really come into his own as a player and a person is really exciting. Chris made the commitment himself. I'm very proud of him."
