Making a Legend

Sittler taking the face off at the Legends of Hockey Game



John and I attended a fundraiser for a family friend a few weeks ago and one of the items that I bought via the silent auction were two tickets to the Hockey Hall of Fame Legends of Hockey game.  I have to admit that I didn't realize what I was purchasing; it was simply a chance to donate money to a young man who suffered an unfortunate diving accident and ended up as a paraplegic.  My main intent was to bid on only small items in the silent auction and though there were Leaf tickets that were garnering some hefty bids, I was attracted to the Legend tickets, because they were small (I've recently gone through the process of downsizing my mother from her home, into a retirement residence and am very aware of "stuff") and because no one else was bidding on them.  At the end of the night I had bought numerous items for the kids but the tickets were the only thing for John and me.  Thus on Sunday November 7th, John and I headed off downtown on one of our 'dates' to watch the game.

What a great game we saw!  Angela James and Cammi Granato, the first two women ever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame (about time women's hockey was recognized!), were playing in the game, along with some other highly recognizable names in women's hockey, such as Lori Dupuis, Shelly Looney and Sue Merz.  It was fantastic to see them skate alongside Daryl Sittler, Glen Anderson, Paul Coffey, Dino Ciccarelli and Bryan Trottier.  It must have been a really satisfying experience for these incredible women to play alongside some of the game's big names; a real justification of all their hard work and sacrifice.

If you've ever been to one of these Old Timer exhibitions, you know that the game is more about entertainment, than real hard core hockey.  There's absolutely no body contact and no slap shots either (sounds a lot like my Friday night league, except these guys have skills).  Think if hockey was professional wrestling and you have an idea what the game was like.  This is not to say that there weren't a lot of hockey skills demonstrated, those were still there in abundance.  These players can pass incredibly well.  Their eye hand co-ordination is remarkable, as demonstrated by Anderson knocking a waist high shot out of the air and into the net.  You just had to watch Coffey skate effortlessly backwards in smooth and graceful strides - the muscle memory of these players is still definitely there.  Maybe a few of them, like Sittler, were carrying a few too many pounds to accelerate effectively, but then again, I have that problem too.


As the game progressed, I was struck by the fact that the women fit in perfectly well on the ice.  The had the skill and knowledge of the game to work well with the Legends.  Sure they were smaller, plus they all wore helmets with face shields, whereas the most of the men didn't even wear a helmet or wore one quite loosely, but the women were more than capable of putting on a good show.  You would only the notice the difference in quick flashes when the men would loose the puck and either instinctively or consciously turn up their level of play to get the puck back - usually at will they could take the puck off the women, which when you think about it, really isn't unusual since most of them spent their careers doing such a thing at a very high level of play, whereas the woman didn't have the same level of competition or longevity of a hockey career.

At the end of the day it was a win-win situation for all involved. I got to give my money towards a worthy cause, a young paraplegic man is getting another shot at life, women were recognized in the realm of hockey, a lot of people were entertained, John and I got to eat a delicious hot dog, watch a game we love and spend the afternoon enjoying each other's company.  Life is good.