Obituary: Former Canucks goalie Frank Caprice backed up both Richard Brodeur and Kirk McLean
Frank Caprice's best game in the NHL might well have been his first full one.
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A 21-year-old Caprice made 26 saves and was named the first star that night, helping the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 10, 1983, at the Pacific Coliseum.
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Those Canucks had Richard Brodeur and John Garrett in net, but Caprice had been called up from the AHL's Fredericton Express just before the meeting on home ice with the Oilers because coach Roger Neilson felt the team needed a spark. The Canucks had a single win in their previous seven games (1-4-2), and sat 11-15-3 overall going into the game. The Oilers, who were on their way to their first Stanley Cup title, came into the night 21-5-3.
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The lone NHL experience on Caprice's resume to that point was third period mop-up duty in an 8-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings the previous February.
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Caprice would get into another 18 games with the Canucks that season and wound up with 102 appearances for Vancouver during his six-year run with the team. He's 12th all-time in games played by goalies in franchise history.
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Caprice died last week. He was 63.
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'He was a beloved teammate, a valued member of our organization and he will be greatly missed. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Frank's friends and family,' a Canucks team statement read.
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In his stint with Vancouver, Caprice was a backup to Brodeur (377) and then Kirk McLean (516), who are third and first, respectively, among Canucks goalies in games played.
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The Vancouver Sun's Gary Mason covered the Western Professional Hockey League for several days in the 1998-99 season, offering up a look at life in the minors. He talked to Caprice, who was 36 then and was a goalie and assistant coach with the Corpus Christi IceRays.
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Mason described Caprice this way in a Jan. 4, 1999 story: 'The NHL was everything to Frank Caprice. He remembers skating around the ice before games, and seeing himself in the reflection of the glass. And you know what he liked to do, boss? He'd turned his shoulder so he could see his name on the back of the jersey in the glass. Isn't that wonderful? He was playing in the NHL. He wanted to make sure he wasn't dreaming.'
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In a Dec. 3, 1991 Vancouver Sun story, Caprice told Mike Beamish that then-Canucks coach Tom Watt had stated the summer before the 1987-88 campaign that Caprice would play 30-35 games that coming season, and that he 'felt 10 feet tall,' when Watt said that to him.
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Sure enough, the Canucks ousted Watt as bench boss that off-season and made a trade with the New Jersey Devils to land a 21-year-old McLean.
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Former Canucks captain Stan Smyl told Beamish: 'Frank had all the tools to be a No. 1 goalie but he was never given the opportunity. He was never allowed to develop his confidence. Sometimes he was just thrown into games.'
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The Canucks traded Caprice to the Boston Bruins in June 1989 for a 12th-round pick in the 1989 Draft. He spent that season in the minors and then retired from playing. He went on to become a ticket manager for the Canucks, and told Beamish in that 1991 story, 'I wish every player could take a year off to work at a normal job and realize how lucky they are to be playing in the NHL.'
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