Skip to main content

There has always been a long view and a short view of John Madden, who came out of one of the most notorious neighbourhoods in Toronto to become the New Jersey Devils' ace penalty killer and pest.

The short view is that Madden escaped the rough streets of Parma Court, a housing project in north Toronto, by choosing hockey over drugs. The long view, says Madden, is that that choice was easy, and there was a lot of good in that neighbourhood.

"I wouldn't change a thing. I really wouldn't," Madden said, looking back from the edge of a Stanley Cup championship. "You could hand me all the money in the world today, and say go back and relive your life, but I look back now and I had a blast.

"My friends were my family. The summers were great, every day was fun. We look back on it now, and say that was the best time of our lives."

This isn't to say the short view is wrong. There were still lots of bad times. When he was a little boy, Madden's father John and mother Elizabeth went their separate ways. Elizabeth worked two jobs to keep the rent paid and food on the table.

That left a lot of time for Madden to spend on the street with his buddies, with the usual temptations in such a setting. But he didn't see the attraction in drugs.

"Absolutely. Some of the choices I made were easy choices," Madden said. "They weren't like gosh, I've got to do this or that.

"People left me alone. They looked at me like I was the hockey player in the neighbourhood. They let me do my thing, go about my business. It was cool like that. Nobody ever harassed me."

"They" were a motley collection of drug dealers, petty criminals and other street people. Not everyone around Madden escaped the street's danger. He lost someone he knew to the streets two years ago. The brother of a friend was killed when a drug deal went sour.

"I lost one two years ago when there was a murder down there. There have been other things that happened," Madden said, making it clear they were things he does not care to discuss.

His home life was not out of a script from Leave It To Beaver, but neither was it Oliver Twist.

"My mom and dad were divorced when I was seven or eight," Madden said. "Obviously the first two years after the divorce weren't so good, but my dad came around every other weekend."

When he was a little older, Madden came to the attention of the Don Mills Flyers, a team in what is now called the Greater Toronto Hockey League. With financial help from the Flyers, Madden was able to play at the elite level, and, when he was 16, his hockey career started in earnest when he moved to Barrie to play Tier II junior.

Over the years, Madden and John Sr. patched up their relationship. When the son moved to Barrie, so did the father.

"As I got older, we got closer," Madden said. "Ever since then, everything's fine. We got over that. It took years, but it's nothing other divorced parents haven't had to deal with."

Madden landed a scholarship with the University of Michigan, where he played for National Hockey League great Red Berenson on a team full of players who made it to the NHL. Steve Shields, Brendan Morrison, Bill Muckalt and Chris Tamer were some of the future NHLers.

Madden was considered a decent college player, but he was neither big enough nor skilled enough offensively to consider playing in the NHL. He was never drafted. The Devils only discovered him and signed him as a free agent because GM Lou Lamoriello came to Michigan so often to scout Morrison that he was also won over by Madden's penalty-killing skills.

There are two different views about Madden's college days as well. One version published earlier in the playoffs held that Berenson told Madden he should forget about an NHL career and get his degree. Madden says that's only partly right.

"I had 12 credits left for my degree [in sports communications]" he said. "[Berenson]encouraged me to finish college. I said I wanted to play in the NHL. He said you can go to the NHL any time, but you should get your degree.

"He was just looking out for me, like he would for any other player."

Madden decided to pursue hockey instead of the degree, which was the first difficult career choice of his life. He finally made it to the NHL this season at the age of 25, after two seasons in the minor leagues showing Lamoriello he could both score and kill penalties.

The penalty killing is what keeps him in the NHL. While the Devils have let in only two power-play goals in the 10 opportunities that they have given the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup final, neither goal came while Madden was on the ice. In fact, the opposition has not scored in the past 21 times Madden has been on the ice as a penalty-killer.

He said he was unaware of that statistic, saying that he doesn't keep track of any numbers. Nevertheless, Madden has a supreme sense of confidence about himself.

Teammate Scott Stevens called him "a cocky little kid," and Madden does not disagree.

"That's just what I am," he said with his smile, which the uncharitable might call a smirk.

Whatever you call it, confidence or cockiness, it was forged in those early years in Parma Court.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it," Madden said. "The way I play, work hard on and off the ice, that's the way I am, the way I was brought up. I was always told to work hard and your day will come."

He will never forget that, nor will he forget his friends from the street, several of whom have become successful outside of hockey. Some of them were here last night, hoping to enjoy a Stanley Cup championship with their old buddy.

"I grew up with them, they helped make me what I am," Madden said. "So obviously I carry a piece of that and I owe a lot to them."

Interact with The Globe