I’ve only been truly star-struck once.
Covering the 2011 ALDS between the Yankees and Tigers, waiting for Joe Girardi at his pregame press conference in the bowels of Yankee Stadium, I looked over and saw a tall, elderly man sitting one aisle over, beautifully dressed in a three-piece suit, legs crossed with a fedora resting on his knee. He took out a piece of cardboard from his jacket pocket, the type of cardboard that comes with dry-cleaned shirts, and he jotted down a note. That was the tell.
Is that Gay Talese?
After Girardi spoke, I mustered up the courage to go say hello, but a public relations staffer swooped in. On the field, the esteemed non-fiction writer was consumed in conversation with people older and more experienced than me. Talese will turn 85 years old on Tuesday. I likely missed my only chance to shake his hand.
I bring this up because this past Friday at NHL All-Star weekend produced another rare moment of awe. The league announced the Top 100 players in its history, and almost all of the living members of the list were on the stage at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr were swallowed by camera crews and throngs of media. Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Bossy, all great New York hockey icons. And all of them said the same thing in different ways.
“It’s thrilling, it’s humbling and it’s an honor,” Bossy said.
Yes, this was a marketing gimmick, but what a good gimmick it was.
The fans looking upon the stage couldn’t stop taking pictures. All weekend, they waited along sidewalks and outside the arena and filled up their jerseys with signatures that would have taken a lifetime to accrue. They stood in the lobby at the main hotel, bought themselves a couple $10 beers and rubbed elbows with men in blazers with a silver “Top 100” patch on the left breast. I saw two fathers pushing their young kids, maybe 10 years old, to chase after Orr, walking through the lobby with just a handful of security people around him. I saw Lemieux stop to take a selfie. I watched Brett Hull regale a fan with an obscenity-laced tirade about bad airline service in the early-morning hours.
Back on that stage, I listened to Islanders great (and short-lived Ranger) Pat LaFontaine tell a story that put his career, and the weekend, back into a real-life perspective — just one story out of a countless number that made up something very special.
“I was just talking to Patrick Kane,” LaFontaine started. “I was born in St. Louis, in 1965, skated in an outdoor rink in Kirkland, Missouri. My dad was transferred, had 100 bucks in his pocket, found a job in St. Louis. Had my mom come down with me and my brother, who was 6 months old. Landed a job with Chrysler, put himself through night school in eight years, and became plant manager for seven of Chrysler’s 12 plants. Used to report to Lee Iacocca, and was transferred to Detroit. Then my dad told me, ‘I had a job in Delaware, when you were 14, that I almost took.’
“And I thought about that,” he continued. “Most likely I wouldn’t be standing here today. So being an American kid born in St. Louis, learned hockey in Detroit, and to be standing here — would have never thought it in your wildest dreams.”
The All-Star game itself, the on-ice product with current players? It is what it is. Remember, these events are made for children to see all their heroes in one place. How about us adults step aside and stop complaining, stop stressing over how to make it more entertaining?
Believe me, I wish I shook Gay Talese’s hand and introduced myself. But I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.
Miscreant Marchand
Want to know why the NHL still has problems with bad hits and unnecessary concussions? Just look at the history of Bruins winger Brad Marchand, and tell me why any of the discipline levied for his consistently dangerous and dirty play would be a deterrent.
Less than two weeks ago, he slew-footed Niklas Kronwall, and after a hearing with the ironically named Department of Player Safety (DOPS), the repeat offender got a measly $10,000 fine. Marchand then represented the league at the All-Star Game — can’t even make this stuff up — and in his first game back on Tuesday, he did the exact same thing to Anton Stralman. Know what he got for that? Absolutely nothing.
At this point, to be a Marchand apologist is to be in support of putting players’ long-term health in jeopardy — and there is no bigger apologist than the DOPS.
The Iceman cometh?
Maybe I’m missing something, but in this age of technological marvels, are we still struggling to freeze water? The ice surfaces in the NHL continue to get substantially worse.
We’ve seen the constant battle over the surface at Barclays Center, a factor in the Islanders’ discomfort at their new Brooklyn arena and possible relocation. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault blamed the awful surface at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit for one of the worst games the league has seen all year. Veteran Canucks goalie Ryan Miller last month called the ice at Chicago’s United Center “the worst ice I’ve ever seen in my career. It was terrible and they’ve got to do something about it.”
We know the league has an “ice guru” in Dan Craig, but maybe it’s time they get more than one person working on this? I mean, it’s frozen water.
Stay tuned …
… to the St. Louis Blues. Just one win short of tying iconic Islanders coach Al Arbour for third-most in league history, Ken Hitchcock was fired. Hitchcock had said this would be his last season in a surefire Hall of Fame career, and with a terrific successor sitting there in assistant coach Mike Yeo, maybe a firing makes sense. But now? Was it Hitchcock’s fault the team has a collective .888 save percentage, worst in the league by miles? They need to figure it out in St. Louis, quickly.
Parting shot
From all the All-Star festivities, know what got the most interest online? When Chris Pronger pressed Justin Bieber up against the glass in the Saturday afternoon celebrity game. A quick reminder that anything involving Bieber is prime clickbait.