Duke's Embarrassing Breakaway

Gaetan Duchesne, known as Duke to his teammates, was a really solid defensive forward in the 1980s and first half of the 1990s - an era not exactly known for defensive play. Duchense idolized Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis, two of the all time defensive greats.

Duchesne played over a thousand NHL games, most notably with the Washington Capitals and the Minnesota North Stars. While he was a very reliable checker and penalty killer, he was never known as much of a goal scorer.

Case in point: When asked what his most embarrassing moment in the NHL was, Duke brought up a failed scoring attempt.

"A few years ago I was on the ice in the last minute and the other team pulled their goalie. I got a breakaway and there wasn’t another player within 50 feet of me. When I got to about five feet from the net. I tried to push the puck into the goal, and the blade of my stick broke. The puck hit the post and went wide. The bench thought it was funny, but I didn’t."

In actuality Duchesne was a decent scorer, chipping in a predictable 15 goals and 35 points most years.  It's always fun to score, but Duchesne truly valued the defensive challenge.

Last year in the playoffs with the Islanders (1986), I shadowed Mike Bossy. He got nothing and I wound up scoring four goals," he said when reflecting on more favorable memory.

Read the full Gaetan Duchesne biography here.