Article content

The best hockey teams function with players who are committed and not conflicted, when everyone understands his role and embraces it confidently. The best lives are probably lived with that kind of clarity, too.

Rollie Melanson has been all-in as a goalie coach and player in the National Hockey League. He never doubted where he was or what he was doing.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Heart tugs Melanson home; Canucks losing Rollie the goalie coach Back to video

After 35 years in professional hockey, the last six seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, Melanson still knows where he needs to be next. And it is not here. It’s in Shediac, N.B., the lobster fishing town where he grew up, to spend time with his 84-year-old mother, Albertine. And in Montreal, where he’ll figure out with his fiancée, Lyne, what kind of life they’ll live and where.

At age 55, among the best in his highly-specialized profession, Melanson will be leaving the Canucks and could be leaving professional hockey, too.

“When I played my last year in Montreal, dad was sick,” Melanson said Saturday, referring to the fall of 1991. “He had cancer, lung cancer. And I knew when I shook his hand in September (to leave for training camp), the next time I saw him, he wouldn’t be alive. I would liked to have spent those last six months with dad. But I didn’t have that option. The game is cruel that way.