Hopefully, you're in a holiday mood by now. There are, after all, only three weeks until St. Nick, Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer arrive.

 

To help you get into the spirit, we present you with a feel-good 519 story. Do you remember Brad Shaw? Almost four decades after he played a major role in helping the Kitchener Greenshirts advance to the 1980-81 Air Canada Cup national midget championship final against Lac St-Louis in Halifax, the 55-year-old still is going strong in his hockey odyssey.

 

He departed the twin cities late in the summer of 1981 to play for the Ottawa 67's. In between then and his current gig as an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Shaw performed in 1,362 regular season and playoff games in the OHL (241), AHL (267), IHL (390), NHL (400), Italy (46) and for the Canadian national team in the World junior (14) and 1988 Izvestia Tournament in Moscow (4).

 

After NHL stints in Hartford, Ottawa and Washington, his final game as a player, on May 17, 1999, with the St. Louis Blues in the second round against the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Dallas Stars, Shaw swiftly turned to coaching. He was hired as an assistant coach with the 1999-00 Tampa Bay Lightning and since has been behind the bench for 1,718 regular season and playoff games in the AHL, IHL and NHL, including the past 15 consecutive seasons in the NHL.

 

That makes it almost 40 years and more than 3,000 games at a high-level for Shaw as a player and coach as well as his family, wife Mary, daughters Taylore and Caroline and son Brady, who plays for the Fort Wayne Comets of the ECHL. Of course, Mary authored the popular sports children’s book series — Brady, Brady.

 

"I take a lot of pride in those playing and coaching numbers," he said. "I was a good junior and a good minor pro, but I would say I was an average NHL player. To bounce around for 15 years, playing in all of those varied situations has really helped me as a coach.

 

"I can empathize with the star player and the guy who is in and out of the lineup. I have been fortunate to work with a lot of great people in this business and I have also been fortunate to keep finding the next team that thinks I can help them behind the bench. It has been an incredible journey, and I'm hoping that the end isn't anywhere in sight."

 

Along the way, there was the Memorial Cup championship with the 67's 35 years ago, an IHL Turner Cup championship with the 1996-97 Detroit Vipers, an Italian League crown with Varese in 1989 and a close call with a trip to the West final with the 2015-16 St. Louis Blues as an assistant coach.

 

One of the highlights was with he 67's because not only did he win a national title, Shaw celebrated the coveted championship in front of family and friends in his hometown at the Aud.

 

"To go to my hometown and compete for the ultimate goal in major junior was a dream come true," Shaw said. "Killer [Ottawa coach Brian Kilrea] was nice enough to allow me to stay with my parents throughout the week, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

 

"We met Kitchener in the final, which made it feel like a road game, but our record throughout the playoffs was stellar on the road, so we went into the game with a ton of confidence even though we lost to Kitchener in the preliminary round.

 

"The goal off the glass that ended the first period with us ahead by two allowed us to feel like it was gonna be our day. To hoist the Memorial Cup in my hometown with so many friends and family watching continues to be one of the highlights of my hockey career."

 

Shaw won the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL's defenceman of the year that season. He had been drafted in the fifth round (86th overall) by the Detroit Red Wings in 1982. But the Red Wings traded his rights to the Hartford Whalers two weeks after Shaw's glorious Memorial Cup championship.

 

He developed in the minors and won the Eddie Shore as the AHL's best defencemen in 1986-87, and when he was ready for the show with the Whalers, he was named to the NHL's all-rookie team in 1989-90.

 

In his early days in Hartford, Shaw played alongside plenty who remain in the game today like TSN broadcaster Ray Ferraro, agent Mike Luit, expansion Seattle general manager Ron Francis, head and assistant coaches in the NHL like Dave Tippett, Joel Quenneville, Kevin Dineen and Dean Evason as well as recent coaches and scouts like John Anderson, Doug Jarvis, Ulf Samuelsson, Greg Malone and Sylvain Cote.

 

"I can't explain why so many guys that played for the Whalers continue in the game," Shaw said. "I do remember how smart a lot of the players were there. Guys like Tippett, Evason etc. were all good players that created a lot of their advantages on the ice, by out-smarting the opposition, or reading the play so well that they could anticipate quicker than most."

 

Shaw knew coaching was a possibility as soon as his playing days concluded.

 

"When I spent almost four years at the end of my career with the Detroit Vipers of the old IHL," Shaw said. "I was a player-assistant coach there with Rick Dudley and Steve Ludzik. I was fortunate to finish the 1998-99 season playing a handful of games between Washington and St Louis.

 

"Once it dawned on me that summer that the playing days were over, I made a few calls to teams in August. One was to Rick Dudley who had become the new GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning. My recent history with him maybe helped him feel confident enough to bring me on as a full time coach. To start in the NHL was a huge asset to see how things were done at the highest level. I knew I wanted to stay in the game if possible, and that first year in Tampa allowed me to see how much I enjoyed the coaching side of things."

 

Shaw later became a head coach in the AHL with Cincinnati, the IHL with Detroit and the NHL with the New York Islanders after taking over for the fired Steve Stirling and going 18-18-4 in 2005-06. But despite Shaw's solid finish, the Islanders' ownership decided to hire Ted Nolan to an unsuccessful two-year stint. Shaw moved onto a successful decade-long stay in St. Louis.

 

He has played for and coached under many influential hockey gurus like Rick Bowness and E.J. McGuire with the Ottawa Senators and Ken Hitchcock and Andy Murray in St. Louis. But was there one who stood out?

 

"I would say Brian Kilrea has had the biggest influence," Shaw said. "He coached me for three years in junior, when guys are not only trying to get better on the ice but also growing into young men.

 

"He is a great coach and an even better man. A coach I have always tried to emulate, in how he built relationships and got to know his players as people, so he could push and prod to get the best out of them. He was my first call when I got the Tampa job, and we have lunch every summer to catch up and bounce ideas off one another.

 

"I should mention Rick Bowness as well since he was guiding the team with the Senators when we finished 10-70-4 our first year. That was an amazingly tough year to go through as a player, and now that I'm on the other side as coach, I often think how hard that must have been as a coach. Bones lost his mind a few times, and rightfully so, cause we were not a good team. But he kept things pointed in the right direction and laid some of the foundations for future success."