Skating with picks harder than former NHL player thought

Former Calgary Flames’ hockey player Theoren Fleury has moved on from figure skating to music.

Fleury, a 42-year-old Métis, was one of the competitors on the second season of the hit Canadian television show Battle of the Blades. He skated with Jamie Sale, a former world champion and the 2002 Olympic gold medallist.

Battle of the Blades pairs up former National Hockey League players with professional female figure skaters. Eight teams participated in this year’s series.

Fleury and Sale made it to the sixth week of the show before being eliminated, leaving four teams vying for the title.

“It was a great experience, something I never thought I’d do,” said Fleury, who hails from Oxbow, Sask. His professional hockey career spanned from 1988 to 2003 and he appeared in 1,161 NHL games.

Figure skating is definitely not in his future, said Fleury.
“I won’t be going to Sochi (Russia) in 2014 (for the Winter Olympics),” he joked.

However, singing and songwriting is a different story. Fleury wrote and sang a song called As The Story Goes. He and Sale skated to the piece during the series.

“We’re working on an album right now,” Fleury said.

He’s written seven or eight songs since this past February but finding time to devote to this project has been difficult.

“It’s been hard for me to get into the studio,” he said. “I’ve been touring quite a bit promoting the book.”

Playing With Fire is Fleury’s top-selling memoir in which he candidly talks about being sexually abused as a teenager by his junior hockey coach. Those experiences led him to a life of alcoholism and drug addiction.

 Because of his hectic schedule, it might be a couple of years before Fleury releases his first CD.

“Hopefully it’s sooner,” he said. “We’ll see.”

Fleury doubts he’d compete if there is a third season of Battle of the Blades. He said it wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated.

“They make it look like it’s quite easy but it’s not,” he said of figureskaters. “I had to learn how to skate all over again. I gained a lot more respect for what they do and how hard they train.”

 Fleury added he also picked up his share of bumps and bruises throughout the tapings of the show.

“I did fall a lot at the beginning,” he said. “Those toe picks are crazy. I messed up my elbows and my knees quite a bit.”

Fleury doesn’t discount the possibility of being involved with the series in other capacities.

 “Maybe I’ll come back as a judge,” he said. “You never know.”

For their appearances, Fleury and Sale received $25,000 for a charity of their choice,. Fleury’s money went to The Men’s Project, an Ontario-based charity which provides counselling and educational resource for male victims of sexual abuse.

 “Of all the agencies out there, I believe they’re doing ground-breaking work,” Fleury said.

Photo caption: Former Calgary Flames’ hockey player Theoren Fleury teamed up with Olympic gold medallist Jamie Sale in the most recent Battle of the Blades.

Photo: courtesy of CBC and Insight Productions