Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Shoots and Scores (52 page)

Canada's Marc-Andre Fleury was the victim of bad luck in the 2004 World Junior gold medal game versus the USA. The young goalie came out to clear a loose puck but chipped it off the shoulder of teammate Braydon Coburn, and it rebounded into the net to give the USA a 4–3 lead and ultimately the victory. Still, Pittsburgh's number one overall pick from the 2003 NHL Draft should have a bright future.

ARMEN WHO?

It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when you look at the goaltending stats of Armen Lalayan. The number one netminder for Armenia, that's who. The 29-year-old struggled at the Division III tournament of the 2005 IIHF World Championship, playing every minute as Armenia lost 33–1 to South Africa, 23–1 to Ireland, 38–3 to Luxembourg, and 48–0 to Mexico. That left him with a 35.50 GAA and a .549 save percentage. Of course, he didn't get much defensive support.

At the winter Olympics, the Canadian and U.S. women's hockey teams always dominate. One reason may be this little girl.

A
DIFFERENT WORLD

Kids' sports in the mid-1950s looked a lot different than they do today. Where nowadays you might see hundreds of girls turn out for a track and field meet or a youth soccer league, back then, their options were much more limited. Girls played on softball teams and a few played golf—but that was about it. But in Canada, where hockey is the national pastime, women's hockey teams had existed since the first half of the century. Teams like the Preston (Ontario) Rivulettes, the Canadian women's champions from 1930 to '40, were local sensations. Still, any hint of competition between young girls and boys was quickly dismissed because boys were thought to be too rough.

LI'L AB

Abigail Hoffman's brothers played hockey near their Toronto home when they were growing up in the '50s. She was as devoted to the game as her brothers, and was known as a skilled and determined player. When she was eight, she decided to register for a boys' team as “Ab Hoffman.” With her short tomboy haircut, no one suspected she was a girl. The league signed her up.

Most of the kids on her new team, the Tee Pees, put on their hockey gear at home, only pulling on skates and gloves at the arena. So, with no locker room to contend with, there was no danger that someone might find out she was a girl. With plenty of practice and competitive games, “Ab” soon became one of the best defensive players in the league: a quick, agile skater who had no fear of chasing the puck into the action. At the end of the season, she was named to the league all-star team.

PAPER TRAIL

But in her second season, when her team was entered in the important Timmy Tyke Tournament, one tournament rule stated that each player had to bring a birth certificate to prove their age.
When the organizers noticed that hers said “Abigail,” her secret was out. And when word spread that a girl was playing boys' hockey, Abigail Hoffman became an instant celebrity. Her story began showing up in newspaper articles and TV and radio shows, and she handled the firestorm of publicity with surprising poise for a nine-year-old. She was invited to attend NHL games in Toronto and Montreal, and she continued to play for the Tee Pees, where she was well liked by her fellow players. One of her teammates insisted that none of them had had any idea of Abby's secret. But they wanted her to stay, he said, because she was “really good.”

UP AND RUNNING

At the end of her second season, Abby joined a girls' team, but said that it wasn't much of a challenge. She tried and succeeded in other sports before devoting her athletic energy to track and field. She worked her way up through the tough ranks of middle-distance running and competed in two Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the women's 800 meters event at the 1972 Games in Munich.

LASTING IMPACT

A few years after she retired as an athlete, Hoffman was named director of Sport Canada, a government-backed agency that supervises amateur sports, including the allocation of government funding for Canada's Olympic athletes. And in 1982 she helped organize Canada's first women's hockey championship, now known as the Abby Hoffman Cup.

About her days as a hockey player in a boys' league, she once said, “I was nothing except a girl who loved to play hockey and had done it with her brothers every chance there was from the time she got skates. When my ‘secret' was revealed, my teammates just shrugged as if it didn't matter. What difference did it make?” It may not have made a difference to her teammates, but to the millions of North American girls who heard or read about her story, it made a
big
difference. In 1998 women's hockey officially became an Olympic event—and the U.S. and Canadian teams squared off for the gold medal. The U.S. won, 3–1, fueling a sports rivalry that continues to this day.

How Conn Smythe parlayed a bet on a slow horse named Rare Jewel into the purchase of the great King Clancy.

N
orman “The Dude” Foden liked to brag that he had played a very important role in the construction of both the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and Maple Leaf Gardens, the famous Toronto building that was the Leafs' home. Foden was a jockey, a small man who rode at various Canadian racetracks from his teenage years until he was 55. In September 1930, he was the rider on Rare Jewel, owned by Conn Smythe, who also owned the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL and—in the middle of the Great Depression—was forming plans to build the Gardens.

BET ON THE HORSE, NOT WITH THE JOCKEY

Rare Jewel, a filly that had never won a race, became an integral part in one of hockey's favorite tales. Smythe bet heavily on Rare Jewel against the advice of his jockey Foden and when the horse won at odds of 107-to-1, Smythe used the money he collected as a portion of the $35,000 he paid the Ottawa Senators for defenceman King Clancy, who became a big part of the Leafs in their drive for popularity and arena-building funds.

GRAVEL, HORSES AND HOCKEY

The yarn of how Smythe reached the point of the Clancy deal is a wonderful bit of folklore about a man's angry reaction to what he felt was dreadful treatment by the New York Rangers. Born in Toronto, Smythe was captain of the University of Toronto hockey team, served in the Canadian Army in World War I, finished his degree, built a sand and gravel company, and started his thorough-bred racing stable. He coached the U of T hockey team and was an investor in the Toronto Marlboros, operated by Frank Selke, who rated among the game's best executives in his more than 40 years in hockey. “Smythe was a master at watching young players
and spotting the spirit and talent that would allow them to excel at the professional levels,” said Selke, himself a rare judge of talent who had frequent battles with Smythe. “He wasn't good at considering the opinions of others.”

10,000 BUCKS AND A LOT OF DRIVE

When the NHL expanded into the United States in the mid-1920s with six American teams, Smythe was hired to build the first roster of the Rangers, headed by Colonel John Hammond. While the other new teams were buying established stars from the defunct Pacific Coast league, Smythe sought players from outside of the hockey mainstream, earning much skepticism from the large New York sporting press. At a total cost of $32,000, Smythe's own scouting found defencemen Ching Johnson and Taffy Abel in Minnesota, the awesome forward line of Bill and Bun Cook with Frank Boucher in western Canada, and goalie Lorne Chabot in northern Ontario.

When Smythe refused to buy top scorer Babe Dye from the Toronto St. Patricks—Smythe knew Dye was disliked by his teammates—the Manhattan media heaped such scorn on him that Hammond fired Smythe from the post, hiring Lester Patrick to run the franchise. A threat of legal action earned Smythe a $10,000 severance package from the Rangers and he returned to Toronto vowing revenge against the New York team.

OFF TO THE RACES

Smythe loved to tell the story of how he took $2,500 of his severance pay, doubled it on a college football bet, then did the same by betting $5,000 on “his” Rangers to beat the St. Pats. A Philadelphia group had bid $200,000 for the St. Patricks franchise but, armed with his $10,000 as down payment, Smythe tried to buy the Toronto team. The St. Pats majority owner, mining magnate Jack Bickell wanted a more substantial offer. Smythe's persistent and patriotic pitch—keep the team in Canada—raised enough money for Bickell to be convinced to leave money in the team but only if Smythe ran the operation. The name was changed to the Maple Leafs, the colors to blue and white, and one of the great franchises in pro sports was off to the races, precisely where Smythe made the money for a key purchase.

IRISHMAN FOR SALE

Selke became Smythe's assistant in most areas of the operation and they combined to build a strong team. Selke had recruited some exceptional young players for his Marlboro juniors—Red Horner, Busher Jackson, Charlie Conacher and Alex Levinski. Smythe handpicked Joe Primeau, Ace Bailey, Hap Day, plus goalie Chabot in a trade with the Rangers. But the Leafs owner knew his club needed a top defenceman, especially a player to add spirit and zip to the club, on and off the ice. Smythe knew that Clancy could be that player. The Ottawa Senators, where Clancy had been a star for nine seasons and twice a Stanley Cup champion, had severe financial problems and spread the word that their nifty little (5-foot-7, 145 pound) Irishman was for sale.

AMAZING THE HORSE COULD RUN STRAIGHT

When the Senators turned down Smythe's offer of $25,000—all the Leafs directors would allow him to pay—the Leafs owner took another big chance. Smythe had paid $250 for Rare Jewel and when he entered the perennial loser in the Coronation Stakes, his trainer said it was a waste of money. Although Foden told Smythe that he felt the horse might have a “slim chance,” he also told his wife to bet on another horse. Smythe placed $50 across the board on Rare Jewel and when Smythe's racetrack pals needled him about it, he bet another $30 on her to win. Years later, Smythe confessed to pouring a pint of brandy into the horse before the race as a stimulant. It worked because Foden rode a smart race, Rare Jewel won, and Smythe collected close to $11,000 on his bets.

LITTLE MAN HUGE FAVORITE

He added $10,000 of his earnings to the $25,000 the directors were willing to pay, threw in two players, Art Smith and Eric Pettinger, and Clancy became a Leaf. The rollicking defenceman became a huge favorite in Toronto and gave the Leafs seven big seasons plus several decades as an executive and coach after a stint as a referee. Rare Jewel, the horse that helped make a great franchise work, died a few weeks after her big win.

The transition to civilian life can be difficult for retired hockey stars.

I
F YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT…

The on-the-job parallels of teamwork, emotional intensity and physical toil—heck, even the wearing of uniforms—may contribute to drawing ex-NHLers into firefighting. Gary Bromley (G, Buffalo/Vancouver, 1973–1980) joined the Vancouver Fire Department after a year in the minors, while Jack Egers (RW, NY Rangers/St Louis/Washington, 1969–1976) became not just a captain in the Kitchener-Waterloo Fire Department but president of the Kitchener Professional Firefighters' Association. The parallels multiply with the Barrett brothers, John (D, Detroit/Washington/Minnesota, 1980–1987) and Fred (D, Minnesota/Los Angeles, 1970–1984), who skated away from their respective blue lines to join fire departments in the neighbouring Ontario towns of Nepean and Gloucester.

BACK IN THE PENALTY BOX

Putting out fires more figuratively, Dennis O'Brien (D, Minnesota/Colorado/Cleveland/Boston, 1970–1980) was a corrections officer at Brookside Youth Centre in Port Hope, Ontario. And as principal of Tecumseh Public School in Mississauga, Dave Dryden (G, NY Rangers/Chicago/Buffalo/Edmonton, 1961–1979) must have sometimes felt like a youth-corrections officer himself.

AN ENGINE DRIVER I WILL BE

Believe it or not, there was once a time when the average hockey player's salary wasn't enough to support him during the offseason, forcing him to take a summer job. Once Bill Juzda (D, NY Rangers/Toronto, 1940–1952) left the NHL for good, he managed to parlay his seasonal work with the Canadian Pacific Railroad into a 37-year career as engineer on the Winnipeg-to-Brandon route. One of his opponents in the hard-fought semifinals of 1940, Frank
Brimsek (G, Boston/Chicago, 1938–1950), continued to work for Juzda's competition after leaving the rink, serving many years as engineer on the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific branch of the Canadian National Railway.

TWO SKATES GOOD, FOUR HOOVES BETTER

Gilles Villemure (G, NY Rangers/Chicago, 1963–1977) spent his first eight years off the ice competing on the New York harness-racing circuit, while Noel Picard (D, Montreal/St Louis/Atlanta, 1964–1973) trained teams of Clydesdale horses to promote the wares of Anheiser-Busch Breweries. One variation on the horse-trainer theme: Walt Tkaczuk (C, NY Rangers, 1967–1981) owner and manager of River Valley Golf & Country Club in St. Marys, Ontario, has captured media interest from as far away as Japan by pioneering the use of llamas as caddies.

SOME SERIOUS ROAD TRIPS

Speaking of the Orient, Cliff Koroll (RW, Chicago, 1969–1980) travels routinely to the Far East, South America and the Middle East—as Manager of Customer Service and Logistics for U.S.-based Cargill, Inc., he's responsible for the supply of shortening and oil to hundreds of far-flung McDonald's restaurants. Randy Manery (D, Detroit/Atlanta/Los Angeles, 1970–1980), on the other hand, racks up his own frequent-flyer points as he teaches leadership skills to third world Christian leaders at workshops in Maui and Singapore. Think that sounds exotic? The late Rick Martin (LW, Buffalo/Los Angeles, 1971–1982) oversaw the drilling of gold deposits in the Ivory Coast for the Eden Rock mining company, while Tim Ecclestone (RW, St Louis/Detroit/Toronto/Atlanta, 1967–1978) undertook the salvage of Spanish gold from galleons off the coast of Belize.