TORONTO -- When Jeremy Roenick was 7, the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association practiced at his local rink before one of his games. He was watching with his teammates when Gordie Howe dumped snow on his head, tussled his hair and winked at him.
"For him, it was nothing," he said. "He was just having fun. For me, it was a moment. Gordie Howe dumped snow on my head and not anybody else's. It was me and Gordie Howe for, like, 30 seconds, and it just hit me so hard.
"I'm 54 years old, and I still love telling the story, because I learned that you can change somebody's life. You can give somebody a really cool story or something that they can really feel good about with 30 seconds, not even a minute of your time. You're not even thinking about it, but it does affect somebody else.
"I try to do every day what Gordie Howe did to me when I was there, just make sure somebody has a special day."
Roenick told that story Saturday at the Inductee Fan Forum, an annual event at the Hockey Hall of Fame's Induction Weekend in which fans ask questions directly to the inductees.
And he did it after he gave one of his biggest fans 30 seconds right there on stage in the Great Hall.
While Roenick was playing for the Phoenix Coyotes -- sometime from 1996-2001 or during the 2006-07 season -- he received a message from Pegi Tapaninen of Lahti, Finland. Tapaninen had been following Roenick since he played for the Chicago Blackhawks from 1988-96 and wanted to meet him.
Not only did Roenick invite him to meet him, but he stayed in touch with him and met him at least two more times.
While Tapaninen was battling cancer in 2007, he received an email from Roenick.
"It was just an outstanding feeling," Tapaninen said. "JR is contacting me, asking how I'm doing, how I'm feeling."
Tapaninen said he has a small man cave at home with Roenick memorabilia, including a trophy that Roenick received for his 1,200th NHL point. Roenick gave it to him.