Peter Zezel Passes Away at 44 Years of Age

My favourite memory of Peter Zezel was him taking the time out to teach me faceoff tactics at a hockey camp. He was a really nice guy, and it’s sad to see his health deteriorate on him so quickly. God Bless.

The cartwheel that I mentioned in the Fanshot is one of my early hockey memories. I remember being such a fan of Zezel that at 7 years old it took my dad about a 100 tries to explain to me why we got rid of him for somebody with a shitty perm mullet.

Very sad. I’ll probably do a longer post sometime tonight, but in addition to the memories you’ve mentioned I remember his pre-game ritual in front of Felix. All the Leafs would take turns giving Felix a whack on the pads, then a glove tap to Zezel as he stood in front of the crease. The defencemen would go last, then Zezel would wind up and slash Felix in the pads and skate off.

I remember trying to get our ball hockey team to replicate that.

Unfortunately, I don’t have memories of Zezel… my memories of Dougie and Wendel are feint as I rarely watched the Leafs back then.
But Condolences to his family.

Definitely sad to hear. An old favourite from a great time for the Leafs. Best wishes to his family during this troubling time.

Many condolences to his family and friends.

This is incredibly sad news. I’ll never forget Berg, Zezel and Osborne. Still one of my favourite checking lines.

Awful news. Zezel was easily one of my favourite players when he played for the Leafs, he seemed like such a good guy,

Shit like this always seems to happen to the best people :(

i clearly remember that OT goal vs Vancouver and specifically Zezel. i cut class to hound for autographs at the back of the gardens the afternoon after that big win and i found Zezel’s broken stick shaft in the dumpster. it had his name stenciled on it and that cool material tape on the butt end i never could find in all the sports stores. not regular hockey tape, some kinda clothy tape… i was so convinced that it was the same stick that scored that game winner the night before and i proudly showed it around (as any die hard 13 yr old leaf fan would) and still have it to this day.

This stinks. Best wishes to the Zezelses.

Peter Zezel was the first “regular joe” hockey player I cheered for. We’ve said it a thousand times already, but his faceoff prowess was legendary. He did lots of the little things that every team needs done to be successful.

Thank you Peter Zezel, for making me a hockey fan. God speed.

only Leafs playoff game I have ever been to. RIP Peter Zezel. King of the Soccer Style Faceoff.

Definitely thinking about him and his family this afternoon. Very sad.

I grew up with Peter. His sister used to babysit my sister and I. He was about seven years older than me, but he always reached out to all the kids on our street, whether it was big road hockey games, free tickets to the Marlies, or #25 Flyers jerseys during his first year in the NHL.

I’m really stunned and saddened by this news. His sister and parents still live on that same street, I can’t imagine what a difficult time this must be for them. Such terrible news…

I was just beginning to follow hockey in the late 80s (I was born in 85, give me a break). I remember when I first started watching Blues games Zezel was rocking the Note. While I loved Hull and Oates and Cujo and all of those guys, I distinctly remember liking Zezel for the dumbest of reasons — the two Z’s in his last name. Like I said, his first tour with the Blues was when I was 4, but I remember thinking he was cool because I had yet to meet anyone with Z in their name. I would perk up when the announcers called his name because I thought he had a cool name. When he came back I was 10 and no longer was amazed by the Z’s, but I remember enjoying the way he played. He was one of those grinder types that just works hard. Sad to see him in such bad shape. He was never an All-Star, but a glue guy.

I was a huge fan of Zezel back in the day and this is terribly sad news. I enjoyed his fire for the game the most and ability to work well as a smart grinder of a player.

I’m not sure if I’ve told this before but:

My friend and I once met Peter Zezel at a Leafs alumni game. While shooting the breeze with him after the game, my friend introduced himself and said that he’d never forget Zezel, because he was always the first player he’d trade away from the Leafs in his NHL 95 season.

Zezel, startled, asked why he was always the subject of a trade, to which my friend calmly replied: “Dude, you were rated like 55!”.

Peter couldn’t help himself but to crack a huge smile, and we all had a good laugh.

TSN has updated their article to indicate Peteer Zezel’s passing.

Very sad news. He’s not that much older than I am so it really makes me think about my mortality. RIP to Peter Zezel and condolences to his family and friends.

His family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Peter Zezel’s name to the James Birrell Fund at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The cheques should be made payable to “The James Fund” and can be mailed to:

The James Fund
625 Whitaker Street #4
Peterborough, ON
K9H 7L5
Canada

:(

Tipping one tonight in his honor. Blues skies Peter.

RIP.

I don’t have any Zezel memories – my hockey-watching at that point has mostly faded from memory. But I remember his name from hockey cards. From everything I’ve seen/read (granted it’s been lately), he’ll be well-missed by fans. Condolonces to his family and friends.

RIP to my one of my first faves.

I remember Peter Zezel being mentioned as a favourite player of a particular fake blonde Sunshine Girl in the Toronto Sun. That was probably the first time I realized there were more players that people loved other than Clark, Gilmour, etc. The love affair Toronto has with the hard-working, digging in the corners, lunch pail type players was just further added by guys like Peter Zezel. They were players easily admired because they possessed all the qualities someone wanted to emulate. Zezel’s love and respect for hockey and the city was genuine. It’s only fitting that hockey fans alike loved him in return as a small token of our appreciation. My condolences to Zezel’s family and friends. Thanks for the memories and your continued pursuit to be the better man.

Thanks for the memories, Peter. My condolences to his family & friends!

This is really sad news. Hard to accept. Only 44.

Zezel was an awesome 3rd line checker. His line with Bill Berg and Mark Osbourne were a huge factor in the series’ wins against Detroit and St. Louis in ’93.

The following year, he scored one of the most memorable playoff overtime goals in Game 1 of the Final Four against Vancouver.

From what I’ve read about him, he sure seemed like a good man, too. Best wishes to Peter Zezel’s family and friends.

Such a young man (the same age as me) with such a giving heart. He seemed to love teaching kids and even in his death is helping them with memorials to the childrens hospital.
  
I had my Blues season tickets for about 3 yrs when we got Zezel for Mike Bullard. Man was I excited. A great face off man for Bullard the oaf.

Toronto has lost a good one.

:( :( :(

You will be missed

The only season I ever played centre in my less-than-illustrious career, I was 20 and taking faceoffs for the first time ever. I used to tie up the other guy’s stick and kick the puck. It worked, too: thanks, Zezel.

He was a good checker, but I remember him as a scorer, too. First line in St. Louis, at least for one season, and 6-6-12 in 10 playoff games. Good at both ends.

Hi everyone,

I was born in 1976 and started going to Flyers games at a young age. I still remember guys like Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, and Darryl Sittler when they were still playing for us. But the teams I really grew up with were the Flyers of the mid-80s. Peter Zezel was an extremely important part of that team. He won faceoffs like nobody’s business, and he saw the ice very well. He made out-of-this-world centering passes and had excellent coordination – as we saw with his 3rd-period goal in the video above. As talented a scorer as Tim Kerr was, I don’t think he could have done it without Peter.

When Peter was traded to St. Louis, all of the single women of Philadelphia were heartbroken. Every year at the Flyers Wives Carnival (for leukemia research), you could always auction to win a date with Peter Zezel, and I’m sure it brought in a lot of money. (And Blues fans – Bullard actually played well for us, believe it or not. I met him at a Flyers Carnival and he was a really nice guy. I asked him to sign my hockey card and he broke out into a huge grin like it was the nicest question anyone had ever asked him. Still though, he was no Peter Zezel.)

I used to actively root for the Leafs when they played in the Norris Division. (This became difficult to do after all of the Flyers-Leafs playoff battles in the late 90s-early 2000s, but I still have my Doug Gilmour jersey.) I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both the Flyers and Leafs played well when Zezel played for them. I was glad that he actually got to play for two teams that I liked.

Thanks for writing such a nice piece on Peter. He deserves it. May he rest in peace.

This story about Zezel’s niece is a tough read even ten years later, but speaks to his character and how his career ended:

http://www.theprovince.com/story_print.html?id=1632672&sponsor=

It will be tulips.

They will be the most bittersweet for Peter Zezel.

When he puts his nose to one, as he often will, the essence of the child he loved so much will return as surely as he will one day join his niece Jilliann, the three-year-old who died peacefully in her mother’s arms at home Sunday afternoon.