Professional sports teams are always on the lookout for star athletes to build a franchise around. Vancouver Canucks are no different, but over the years they’ve been unable to find that player through the draft, or through trades, an athlete whose exploits gain him national exposure and someone the local customers will pay to come and watch. Quite by accident, in the first two months of the season, 20-year old Tony Tanti has become that star. Up until this season, Tanti’s NHL experience included 42 games – 39 with Vancouver after he was acquired from Chicago in a trade for Curt Fraser. Tanti was the Blackhawks first round pick in 1981, out of Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey Association. In Oshawa, he broke Wayne Gretzky’s rookie record for goals, and in a three-year major junior career, he scored 177 times. Clearly, the goal-scoring touch was there.

But never in the wildest imagination of Canucks fans did they expect Tony Tanti to score 20 goals in his first 21 games, or regularly read his name in the NHL scoring list near Gretzky’s. He has been nicknamed “Mr. T” and is frequently sought out for interviews and feature stories both here in Vancouver, and on the road. All the publicity hasn’t phased Tanti one bit. He has shown remarkable poise for one so inexperienced, taking each and every interview in his stride, even this latest one with CJOR Sports Director, Garry Raible.

Raible: I suppose it’s hard to keep any kind of track of the number of times you’ve been asked for an interview so far this season.
Tanti: (Laughing) Yeah, I think so. I’m doing a fair share of it. You’re happy to get them, though. I know when you don’t get them, you wish you did.

Raible: Are you still finding it hard to comprehend that all of this is happening to you in what essentially is your first full year with a pro club?
Tanti: In a way, I guess. When you go out there and play your own game, and play with confidence, and everybody’s got confidence in you, it makes your job so much easier. And it’s so much easier playing with a couple of guys like Patrik (Sundstrom) and Tiger (Williams).

Raible: You’ve used the word “confidence” a lot when talking about how well you’re doing this season. Was it training camp, or preseason, or the first week of the regular schedule that was a tip-off of this confidence?
Tanti: I think I’ve always had it. It’s just that last year, I kept hitting the post, or the goalie would make a good save. After a while it’s bound to get to you. You get to thinking the goalie just wants to stop you and let everything else in. After a time, you start aiming your shots, at empty corners instead of just shooting. This summer, I just decided I was getting a fresh start. I knew what the league was like, and I just took it from there.

Raible: A goal-scorer who isn’t scoring is no good to himself, even more than he’s no good to his team. I would think you really get down on yourself when there is a specialty you can do, and you’re not doing it.
Tanti: You get down, but you can’t show that to anybody. You have to keep trying to do your best, and work in practice at the things you’re doing wrong. It doesn’t do you any good to just stop and say “I’ve slumped; everything’s come to an end.” Hopefully through the hard work, it would start going again.

Raible: It doesn’t sound as if you have any problem motivating yourself.
Tanti: Not at all. I like the games. I wish we played every day. You play this game for people who pay to see you play. So you give them your best.

Raible: Have you ever caught yourself wondering if the bubble is going to burst?
Tanti: No. I never really think that much about it. You just have to keep going. I’m just one of 20 guys and I want to be treated like that. That’s the way I am treated, and if I wasn’t treated like that, I wouldn’t feel part of the team. Twenty guys contributing, like they did when they went to the Stanley Cup final a couple of years ago.

Raible: You mean, there aren’t any special considerations from your teammates, because of the way you’re going?
Tanti: No, not at all. I don’t need it and I don’t want it.

Raible: Tony, even Wayne Gretzky must get a preferred seat on the plane, even if he doesn’t ask for it.
Tanti: (Laughing) Hey, I get the middle seat on the plane.

Raible: One thing that’s been most prominent when you talk about this great start of yours is the role Patrik Sundstrom has played. You keep bringing up how well you two communicate, I think people might find that hard to understand because of his background, and because he’s so shy, while you seem to be a pretty outgoing type.
Tanti: Patrik and I get along real well, there’s no doubt about that. And he’s not as shy as everybody thinks. He got a lot of media attention back in Sweden and I don’t think he liked it very much. He’s happy to stay low-profile. I think he might have gotten a bit sick of all the publicity he was getting over there. This is a break for him. And he prefers it this way.

Raible: So he’ll keep feeding you, and make sure you get all the accolades.
Tanti: Yeah, I guess so. He’s usually one of the first guys out of the dressing room. He goes his own way in that respect. That’s the life style he prefers. For him, it’s good.

Raible: What are some of the things Sundstrom provides for you, as the center, to help you play the way you’ve been playing?
Tanti: I find he’s a lot like the centers I played with in junior, Mitch Lamoreaux, who’s with Pittsburgh, and Dave Andreychuk, who’s with Buffalo. They can beat guys one-on-one and that allows the winger more time to pick a hole in the defense and slip through it to make a play. Look at the islanders. How many times do you see a guy like Trottier make a nifty play to set up Bossy. I guess that’s the main thing Patrik does for me. Gives me time.

Raible: Well, you’ve certainly been gaining the respect of your peers around the league. Can you sense that on the ice?
Tanti: I don’t know. I’m getting a lot more close coverage. They’re shadowing Patrik a lot more too, holding onto him. We just have to go in there, muck it up a little bit, and make our own breaks.

Raible: When did you notice that you were getting more clutch-and-grab played against you, and even some of them trying to slow you down with tactics outside the rules?
Tanti: It was probably after about 10 games. But I still think the good thing about our team is that if they stop us, you know, we’ve got Thomas’s (Gradin) line. And if they stop Thomas’s line, a lot of times, Gary’s (Lupul) line will go in there and do the job. It’s tough to check our whole team if they want to put their defensive people on us.

Raible: Tony, have you started to feel the responsibility of being the most publicized guy on the team at this early stage; the extra responsibility and pressure?
Tanti: I don’t think there’s that much pressure. You really do put it on yourself. You have pressure situations in a game but you just have to go out there and do the best you can. I guess I feel more responsibility on the ice. Last year, Thomas’s line was the big line and if we did get something going, it was a bonus. I’m getting more ice time, especially in those pressure situations, and I think that helps me.

Raible: You don’t feel that pressure sometimes that everybody in the building is waiting for you, Tony Tanti, to get the big goal?
Tanti: Not really. You can’t score every game. That’s impossible. You just have to go out and play the best you can every shift. Whatever happens, happens.

Raible: How is the Tony Tanti family accepting all of these accolades for their son?
Tanti: (Laughing) Gee, I don’t know. I haven’t phoned home in a couple of weeks! I guess they’ve got to be pretty happy. I know they get a lot of calls, congratulating them, which is nice. I’m sure my parents are proud.

Raible: They must have a pretty good scrapbook going, with all the Hockey News and magazine and newspaper articles that have been done so far.
Tanti: Yeah, I’m sure they’re keeping them. And they’ll probably buy 10 copies or so.

Raible: You seem to be handling things remarkably well, Tony. Especially in this city where the fans are looking for heroes.
Tanti: Well, Vancouver’s been in pro hockey for 14 years. And the game is big in
Canada. The fans out here are so used to following the Canadiens and the Leafs on TV. A guy like Tiger (Williams) comes because of the time he spent in Toronto. I appreciate all the attention I’m getting. I’m glad the fans like the way I’m playing. I just want to be known as a dedicated player who likes to win.

Raible: Do you find it difficult to get away, and forget the game, with all this attention?
Tanti: It is difficult. But it’s a lot more difficult when you’re losing. When you’re winning, it’s a lot more fun and relaxed. I think it’s like that in just about everything.