Q&A with Chris Chelios

MONTREAL - Chris Chelios is an ideal party guest.
A three-time Stanley Cup champ, former Habs captain, Hollywood insider, and extreme sport enthusiast, the legendary former blue-liner has more than his share of stories that would leave even the most interesting revelers hanging on his every word.
Read on for a few highlights - or watch the full video below -- from a ride along chat with Cheli as he made his way from the airport to the Bell Centre for last December's Captains' Reunion to mark the team's 110th anniversary.

Who was your first captain?
My first captain was Bob Gainey. And when he retired me and Carbo [Guy Carbonneau] ended up being captains.
What did you learn from Bob?
(laughs) Oh, obviously not enough while I was here. No, he was great. I put him up as one of the all-time [best] captains I ever had with Yzie [Steve Yzerman].
Who was your favorite teammate to prank?
In the early days, they had that shoeshine thing where someone would hide underneath the table and put stuff on your shoes - ketchup, mayonnaise, some type of dressing. I think Chris Nilan did it to everybody.
Mats Naslund didn't like it one time and threw a whole pitcher of tomato juice on his face right after he did it - it was really funny - and Knucks knew he deserved it. There are a lot of funny guys…
I think Steve Duchesne, he might've topped everybody. He could put a piece of spaghetti in his nose and snort it up and bring it out the other end and kind of do this with it. Duche had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Him and Marc Bergevin, actually, were quite funny during their careers.
You live in Malibu; what's your most Hollywood moment you've ever had?
I think it was when we won the Cup, and everybody from Sylvester Stallone to the guy Meathead from [All in the Family], Tom Hanks… It's not like I invited the people, but because of social media, word just spread in Malibu. And it's a small city. Everybody was coming to see the Cup. Even if they didn't know hockey, just the sight of it - there's something about it. To see the amount of movie stars showing up throughout the day and night, for me and my friends and my family, it was pretty amazing.
We had it right on the beach, so it wasn't like it was closed off. Anybody could walk up. And we just set it on a table out on the sand, and people took pictures with it, and admired it. It was fun watching the people's reaction.
After I had that party, Mike, the Stanley Cup guy wanted me to have it every chance I could. So I probably had it, honestly, over the course of that summer, 14 times. He would call me when it wasn't being used in Detroit and it would be easy to fill up a bar or a restaurant like that.

You had a cameo in D2: The Mighty Ducks, didn't you?
I did, and I can't even remember… I think Luc Robitaille, Cam Neely, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar [were also in it], and it was about a three-second line. But I still get cheques - which is crazy - $1.50 cheques every month. I don't know if I have my SAG card, but I get those cheques and it's pretty funny.
Which of your non-hockey sports are you best at?
"I'm better than average at whatever I do. Baseball was my favorite sport growing up, so if I was to pick a sport that I was better at than hockey it would've been baseball. But surfing, I'm just OK, and snowboarding, just OK. I love biking cross-country, and the exercise and being in the mountains. If I was to pick a favorite right now, it'd probably be mountain biking.
How much of that stuff did you do while you were playing?
I started mountain biking with a guy, Don Wildman, and Laird Hamilton, the big-wave surfer, probably my third year in Chicago, fourth year when I was going out to Malibu to train. And I met these two guys, they took me on a ride and tortured me, but I could tell: my legs, it was just firing up some different muscles and making my legs so strong. So I stuck with it, and every time I'd go to the gym in the morning as early as I did, I couldn't wait to get back to their house after they were done lifting and just go out in the mountains for two hours, three hours.
You're probably the most interesting person we've ever interviewed...
I don't know why I ended up playing hockey. Obviously for a reason, that was my thing, but it was not my intention to be a hockey player. I enjoyed doing everything. Growing up I was never saying, "I can't wait to play in the NHL" or "I'm going to make it to the NHL." It wasn't realistic. I was small, there were no Americans playing at the time. I think not having that burden or pressure on me, like some kids do, it helped me and it got me out doing other things.
When it finally did come time and it was a reality that I might just make it, I concentrated on hockey a lot more but even then, once I got out of the rink, it was whatever I wanted to do. And I never let anything stop me.