There have probably been many words used to describe Howie Meeker over the past several decades, but I guarantee you quiet, passive or understated certainly weren't among them.

Animated, passionate, outspoken and honest. If I had to chose one word to describe the NHL and broadcast legend, I would say he's a real firecracker. Meeker still has as much fire inside him at 82 years of age as anyone 50 years his junior.

Over a beverage at a local lounge Sunday, Meeker chats about his family, his former career and the current Toronto Maple Leafs. He shares his ideas on how Canadian hockey can and should improve, and even predicts this year's Stanley Cup winner the Buffalo Sabres.

But first, his reason for being in Whitehorse a place Meeker swears he and wife Leah, who accompanied him on this trip, will return to.

After taking part in a ceremonial faceoff with Northwestel President and C.E.O. Paul Flaherty at the Canada Games Centre Saturday morning (see press release below) and signing autographs, Meeker was whisked away to the Special Olympics Yukon (SOY) bowling championships.

From there, he was the guest of honour at this year's SOY festival dinner auction, where he said a few words to the sponsors, guests and athletes. It's a cause which is close to Meeker's heart.

'I've been involved with Special Olympics for over 60 years, in Ontario, Newfoundland and Vancouver Island. It's a great purpose.'

In 1946/47, Meeker ran a hunting and fishing camp in Northern Ontario. Harry Red Foster, a member of the board of directors at Maple Leaf Gardens, was also head of Foster Advertising Agency. And Foster, with the help of a multimillionaire family from New York, the Rockefellers, formed the Special Olympics Association of Canada.

Meeker had asked Foster to help him out with some brochures for his hunting business, and in return, Foster asked Meeker to help with his newly-formed Special Olympics association.

'He said, You don't owe me anything if you become a member of my board of directors,'' Meeker recalls. 'I've been helping out wherever I could ever since.'

For the past 20 years, Meeker, who now resides in Parksville, British Columbia, has been running an annual golf tournament in Campbell River. The tournament raises between $35,000 and $45,000 a year for Special Olympics.

He was an obvious choice for SOY Executive Director Serge Michaud, when it came to this year's dinner auction. Asked about his speech at the event Saturday night, Meeker pokes fun at Michaud, who is sitting close by.

'Serge said, You've got three minutes.' Three minutes. What am I supposed to say in three minutes?' Meeker laughs. 'I spent about half an hour making some notes, and when I showed Leah, she said I still needed to cut about half of it.'

All kidding aside, the former NHLer says the most important thing for him is to reassure those sponsors and volunteers in the crowd that they're spending their efforts, both physically and dollar-wise, in the right direction. They're getting good management of their dollars in the programs they're spending on, he says, pointing out they can see the results on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.

'I'm here because the money is spent in the community, not nationally, and the efforts are made in the community. Recipients are in the community. And you can't say enough about how appreciative these people are.

'They enjoy to the limit everything we do to help them. It's a pleasure to be able to spend time with them and to give money to their programs.'

Success, says Meeker, is in finding something you enjoy doing and just doing it. If you like to do it, you'll get better, he states. Meeker would know a thing or two about success.

As a winger with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1946 to 1954, Meeker won four Stanley Cups, as well as the Calder Memorial Trophy for outstanding rookie. He briefly coached the Leafs in 1956 and also served a stint as General Manager in 1957.

In the 1970s and 80s, Meeker emerged as an analyst on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. He also worked on Vancouver Canucks telecasts on BCTV and joined TSN in 1987, where he stayed until his retirement in 1998.

It was that year Meeker received the Foster Hewitt Award for Excellence in Hockey Broadcasting.

'Coming from East to West never used to bother me,' says Meeker, when asked about his decision to call it quits. 'Then all of the sudden, it did. I was sitting in Los Angeles one night, going, What am I doing here?' I knew it was time to go.'

Now enjoying a quite life at home in Parksville, where he and Leah spend a lot of their time gardening 'she's the master gardener and I'm the gopher' Meeker admitted he does miss some aspects of the broadcasting business.

'I miss the people I worked with. You become family, when you travel together all over Canada and the United States. It was great fun. There was no pressure. You didn't have to win, you didn't have to lose.'

Amidst the gardening and charity functions, Meeker still finds time to take in hockey games. He's watched from the sidelines as the Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs the past two seasons, and was quick to offer his thoughts on the direction the team has taken.

'When they got rid of Pat Quinn, they got rid of a very capable person. He just couldn't do two jobs, but the option should have been, Pat, we want you here. We want you as GM. They didn't do that. They brought in this new GM and he fired Pat Quinn without an option.'

Still, like any good hockey fan, Meeker hasn't given up hope on his team. Winning four championships with any team will create a soft spot.

'I'm still a Leafs fan. Everything I had in life, is mainly because of the 10 years I spent in that organization.'

Meeker also spent 10 years broadcasting Canucks games, and now that he's living in their home province, admits he spends time cheering for Vancouver as well. But it's talking about the Canucks that gets the colourful personality voicing his opinions about Canadian hockey.

The top three forwards and top two defencemen on the Canucks are European, he points out. He believes that's a good indication of how things have changed in the NHL and in the international world of hockey. Meeker believes Canada has fallen a step behind.

With minor hockey registration numbers well above any other country in the world, we should be producing more professional talent than we are, he argues, particularly when it comes to the second-line players.

'Every generation, Canada produces a super star. Crosby is a hell of a hockey player. But he was born with it. No one ever taught it.

'A Canadian hockey player makes it to the NHL in spite of the system, not because of the system. Our second and third lines have a severe handicap. We have a problem in Canada.'

When it's pointed out Canada has won the past three world junior hockey championships, Meeker says that was because of hard work, heart and goaltending.

It's a style that's become known as traditional Canadian hockey, but Meeker doesn't feel the players are learning enough skill at the minor hockey level to compete with the European countries, and he says that starts to show when they get older.

He points to the 2006 Olympics as an example, where Canada failed to score even a goal in more than one game.

'The formative years in minor hockey, they have to teach skills to everybody, not just how to play the game. They should be able to play the game at their speed creatively.'

One of the main problems, continues Meeker, is kids are playing with sticks that are too long. He says when he went to watch a Timbits hockey game, he noticed most of the kids were playing with sticks anywhere from one to three inches too long.

Under the new officiating rules, players aren't supposed to use their stick as a defensive tool, he points out, so what's the purpose of having one that's an extra inch or so long? It just makes it easier to lose the puck, he says.

'I helped win four Stanley Cups and we all played with sticks below the chin.'

While he provides examples and spouts out numbers in proof of his passionate take on the state of Canadian hockey, Meeker doesn't envision Canada's style of game changing anytime in the near future.

'I've been trying for 40 years to do something about minor hockey,' he says, just as we're joined by Leah at the table.

While they get ready to head out for dinner, Meeker closes the interview in similar fashion to the way he started it, with that fire still burning in his eyes.

'Honey, we've got a tough customer here,' he grins as I'm introduced to his wife. 'She thinks Canadian hockey is good.'