Oh to live in a world where you don’t know who Taylor Swift is…
Just to be clear, I’m not saying that personally (back off Swifties). I’m assuming that’s what former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Denis Savard was probably thinking after he made this colossal mistake back in the day, and possibly kept one of his players from dating the former country music (now pop) star.
Savard was sitting in on a broadcast for a game between the Anaheim Ducks and the Blackhawks, and one of the announcers had apparently been aware of the infamous Taylor Swift story, so he asked if he would be willing to share it.
As soon as it was brought up, the former head coach started laughing just thinking about the story that caused 9-time NHL All-star Patrick Kane to miss out on his shot at dating Taylor Swift.
Savard happily went right into it, saying:
“I didn’t have too many rules, alright? I had a young team, so I wanted them to enjoy themselves. But after a game, I always said to the trainers ‘make sure all the players are on the bus, I want to be the last one on the bus, and once I get on the bus, away we go.’
We had won that game in Nashville that night, and we gave up one goal. Actually, the goal we gave in was a defenseman that came around Kane and scored. I didn’t want to leave him off the hook on that one. I gotta make sure that I keep reminding him ‘hey, that wasn’t right. Your goalie could’ve got a shut-out.'”
Savard was behaving like any other coach would in that situation, and when he saw Kane after the game, he knew he had to set the tone with his rising superstar:
“I leave the locker room, as I walk maybe 50 yards, I see Kaner talking to two young ladies. I stop and I go ‘Really? Let’s go, now. Excuse me ladies, there’s rules with the hockey team, he needs to be on the bus now. Kane, go, now.’ I said ‘Now, let’s go,’ because he wanted to keep talking to them.
So there he goes and he goes on the bus. The next day, I get a knock on my door…(Kane) knocks on the door and goes ‘Savy, you know, last night, that was Taylor Swift.’
I go ‘Okay, I don’t care.'”
Savard then goes on to reveal that he only found out who Taylor Swift was when he called his wife and she revealed to him that she was an up-and-coming superstar.
Savy coached the team back around 2008 so this was well before both her, and Patrick Kane for that matter, became the superstars that they are today.
So, there’s a good chance that Savard kept the world from having a Swift-Star Athlete relationship WAY back in the day. On the flip side, there’s an even better chance that he kept Patrick Kane from having a break-up album written about him.
You can listen to Savard’s hilarious anecdote below:
