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That’s what hockey players did.

Certainly, his coach’s patience was wearing thin. The team had gotten off to a great start. Weekes had been playing well. And Marc Crawford, brought to Vancouver at great expense to turn this team around, didn’t want to see a terrific beginning jeopardized because his goalie refusedto play with a little discomfort.

But Weekes insisted there was something wrong with his knee. And that he knew his body better than anyone else. When he felt 100 per cent, he’d play again.

Not until then.

On the morning of Nov. 3, not long after the Canucks had finished practising at Burnaby 8-Rinks, Burnstein showed Crawford the results of the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) done on Weekes’ injured knee. The sophisticated x-ray technique showed no damage at all.

The results confirmed all of Crawford’s suspicions.

The coach and his goalie found themselves in a players’ lounge off the team’s 8-Rinks dressing room. Soon Crawford was giving it to Weekes in a profanity-laced tirade that questioned the player’s character and commitment to his teammates. Soon, every player on the team could hear the one-sided battle.

It was gruesome.

”You’ll do what I tell you to do,” Crawford screamed.

”From now on, you don’t think,” the coached yelled.

Weekes was stunned. He didn’t know what to say except to reiterate that he knew his body better than anyone and he wasn’t near 100 per cent.

Eventually, the tirade concluded. Weekes wandered off into a nearby trainers’ room where some of his teammates were being treated. A few minutes later, Crawford entered the room.