I'm sort of a little bit different in that my Father was Australian ......but he loved and was passionate about the sport as I am too with regards to Aussie Rules.
I also came to Aus in 1988 and never really looked back from there in terms of my family life here in OZ. However I have so many fond memories of the small town ice rink and those early morning practices with my Dad coaching me on from the often foggy rink side stands. It was great because we always went out for the traditional post practice and pre school attendance at either Tim Horton's or Smitty's Panckace House.
Yes many a fond memory and Hot Cups of vending machine ' Chicken Soup's ' .....
and long before Campbell's had even cornered the market on their Cup-a-Soups launch.
In so far as Wayne Gretzky , him and I are around the same age and I believe I had mentioned this story on HC couple of years back about the time I played Street Hockey with him when he was billeting at our neighbors house at a AAA Junior Ice Hockey Tournament. He could have actually been staying with us if he had have been my same age.....
So he was in a slightly different age category to me , but when we went down to watch him play ( because there was a lot of early fanfare of this Kid even at that time ) he would virtually pick up the puck from behind his own net and weave in and out of everyone else on the ice to score a goal.
So these were opponent youth teenagers in his own age class. Unbelievably gifted player ......but there have been many Franchise type players just like him over the years, and many of them being produced from Quebec ... with Marcel Dionne , Guy Lafleur , Mario Lemieux , Mike Bossy to name just a few of the French ones. There were other non-french ones too like Sydney Crosby , Alex Ovechkin , and Steve Yzerman .....but no doubt he ( Gretzky ) was exceptional though.
On the ' D ' side of things there were many as well with some having already been mentioned - but one cannot go past the rushing slick style of brutal hockey of the ilk of Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe who many of the next generation Defensemen like Ray Bourque , Brad Park , Larry Robinson , Serge Savard , Guy Lapointe , Denis Potvin or Paul Coffey ......even Montreal's own Chris Chelios modeled their style of play after some off the Orr's and Howe's
So Gretzky set the tempo of change in how the hockey styles changed and the dynamic ' Cycle ' plays went on to be the dominant forward press style of hockey as well.
Without a doubt it is one of the things I miss the most from the Country in which I was born. And i guess these are the ' sweetest ' things you end up taking through to the end. At least God willing I hope so. And who knows as Alastair Clarkson has said before that even with 18 clubs in the AFL , Premierships and obtaining the ' Silverware ' are a rarity and not a given. So imagine when there are 31 teams. This truly could be my last one to enjoy with Montreal ......although I have a feeling they have what is takes to go back to back here. We'll see I guess.......but I do miss being there for it. So I can thank COVID for that .......
Anyways ' I'll be purchasing many a ' Merch ' product if they win to add to my onw collections of Jersey's , Caps , pucks , and Pennants .....
Incidentally , this is the main reason I decided to barrack for the Geelong Cats right from the outset - and that is because Ice Hockey in Canada is very much based around the local ' small town ' club mindset where everyone supports the local grown and developed clubs. The cross town rivalry's of High School hockey was great too.
Anyway , its a great discussion because as can be seen with the dates , numbers and names , the ' Stars ' do seem aligned in favor of Destiny .....and i always thought NAL was Sayona's destiny .....even when others did not......
(20min delay)