Scott Gomez was a great player, and throughout his impressive NHL career, he played for the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues, and the Ottawa Senators.
Gomez won the Calder Memorial in his rookie year in the NHL and went on to play in two All-Stars, and he won two Stanley Cups.
He reached the 70-point mark four times in his career and retired in 2016 with 181 goals and 575 assists with 1,079 games played.
When Gomez was brought to the New Jersey Devils for the 1999-2000 NHL season, he came from an impressive WHL performance. Two years earlier, he’d been drafted in the first round by the Devils, but when he first tried to make his first NHL roster, he wasn’t all that confident.
In a piece for The Players Tribune, Gomez shared an amazing story of something that happened in his first week of practice with the Devils back in 1999 and a hilarious incident that took place in the showers after a practice.
”After one of my first practices, I stay out on the ice as long as I could because when you’re the new young guy you kind of have to be the last person off the ice. You do your best to put as much work in as you can while not being seen or heard. Finally, I head to the locker room and no surprise, most guys had left.”
But suddenly, Gomez heard something from outside the showers.
”So I’m in the showers, shampooing or whatever, when all of a sudden I hear this deep, booming voice. ’Aww, no way. No way!’ My heart jumps. I thought I was alone. ’There’s just no way. No f—king way.’
It didn’t take long until Gomez realized Ken Daneyko was out there, talking to himself.
”I have no idea what to do. All I really knew about the guy was that his nickname was ’The King,’ which didn’t make me feel better about the situation. My mind was racing with worst case scenarios: Was Dano supposed to have the room to himself? Maybe he’s always the last guy and nobody’s supposed to be here? I should have asked someone if I could be in here. ’No. F—king. Way.’”
After building up some courage, he peaked his head out the shower and saw Daneyko standing in front of a mirror, flexing his muscles. He asked him if everything was okay.
”He turns to me. He doesn’t laugh or smile. ’No, it’s not okay,’ he says. ’There’s no fucking way a 36-year-old man should be looking this good!’”
Daneyko even confirmed the story and said that he understood Gomez was scared.
”The look on his face was great. There was this big sigh of relief. I didn’t think anything of it, but I guess if you’re a 19-year-old kid coming into the locker room and there’s this old vet ranting and raving in front of a mirror, that would freak you out a little bit,” he said.
The two of them ended up winning two Stanley Cups together, so things turned out okay.
