I spent eight years in the NHL but hardly played – my post-retirement career change makes hockey feel a lifetime ago
BRIAN Finley has felt like his pro hockey career was like another lifetime having ditched the NHL for a new job.
The former Nashville Predators goalkeeper, 42, swapped tackling players for tackling crime.
He works as a detective constable in his native Toronto after his hockey career didn't go as planned.
Speaking in a recent interview with the Toronto Star, Finley said: "Stuff I’ve seen — I had never seen a dead body. I had never dealt with high-level criminals.
“As a regular person, you just don’t see it. You don’t interact with it. You know it’s out there, but it’s in the Toronto Star.
"But to actually experience it and see it, it’s very interesting.
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"You deal with so many people. Stuff you would never see, you see it.”
Finley had scouts excited back in the 1990s with his 6-foot-4 frame, speed, and flexibility.
He was a dominant goalkeeper in the Ontario Hockey League which ultimately led to his NHL chance.
The Nashville Predators drafted him sixth overall in 1999 and handed him a $1.25million signing bonus.
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But by the time he retired in 2007 - Finley had only made four cameo appearances.
He was hampered by injuries, including a severe groin tear that needed surgery.
And the former goalkeeper struggled with the mental aspect of the game and the weight of expectation.
He revealed: “If you would have asked me at the time I was drafted, I would have thought I’d at least be a serviceable backup. It just didn’t work out.
“After I was drafted, mentally, I lost my mojo. I just always felt a tremendous amount of grief and anxiety.
"You know: ‘I’m drafted here. I have to perform for them. They’re paying me now.’
“You see it in sports all the time. A golfer loses his swing. Or Ricky Romero. He’s a great Blue Jays pitcher one year, and the next he can’t pitch in the minors.
"I would have times when I was really hot and really good. But then I had games where I was awful.”
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Finley did have the honor of representing Canada in the World Junior Hockey Tournament in 1999 and 2000.
Now he fights just to keep his hometown safe in a dramatic career change.