“When [Dale] Hunter reached 1,000 games, and his whole family came for a presentation, I gave him a plaque I had made up with a Diet Coke can on it.
"He used to drink a lot of Diet Coke in the box, and about seven or eight years ago, [defenseman Kevin] Hatcher was in there one night with him. Hunts asks me for one of his Diet Cokes, and I give it to him. When Hatcher asks me for one later, I tell him I can’t, they’re Dale Hunter’s and I can see Dale later giving him a hard time on the bench.
"So Hunter and I cooked it up, and about a month later, I said to Hatcher, `Did you hear what happened? They saw Dale drinking Diet Coke on TV and asked him to endorse it. He’s getting $5,000 for it.’ Well, Hatcher went crazy, saying why didn’t he get some of that endorsement, too! Dale and I went on with it for the rest of the season until we told him the truth.”
–longtime off-ice Caps official Bill Brooks
