Share This With Your Hockey Brethern

[flyguy1697 0]

Guy,

Got this email today, thought I should share it. With every negative thing that the media writes about NHL players, why can't they put this in the papers.

Subject: This is what makes Hockey players different

Here is a great story!! Enjoy!!

In the middle of a grueling six game road trip where a very young hockey team is away from home, the third game of the trip ends late on a cold Canadian Saturday night. This is the only break on the trip and the three days between games allow them the only break to get back home in their own beds for a couple of days before going back on the road. A scheduled commercial flight waits for them at Toronto's International Airport for the short flight home; they could be home by midnight. This plane departs on schedule, but without a single member of the hockey team. Back in the locker room a vote is taken after the game was complete, and a unanimous decision is made by this young team to skip this flight and stay one more day. They make arrangements to check back in the hotel and on a frozen Sunday morning charter two buses that have no heat and begin a journey two hours straight north into a sparsely inhabited Canada ,but where hockey is its passion. They arrive at their destination to the surprise of the team's general manager who is there attending his fathers wake.

After a few emotional hours, this team boards the buses and head back for a two-hour trip back to Toronto . On the way they ask the drivers to stop in a tiny Canadian town because they are hungry. To the shock of the patrons and workers at this small hockey town McDonald's, a professional team walks out of two rickety buses and into the restaurant, which just happens to have pictures of two members of this team on its wall. The patrons know every single one of these players by sight being fanatic fans of hockey in these parts. One can only imagine their amazement of the locals seeing and entire professional hockey team sit down and have a meal in their tiny little town in the middle of a hockey season. After a while they board the buses and catch their same flight 24 hours later, giving one day to their general manager. Have I made this story up? Is this an excerpt from some fictional book? No. This a true story of the Chicago Blackhawks last Saturday (12/13/08) night and they decided to attend Dale Tallon's father's funeral. It's amazing that such a good story can be found nowhere on the internet, and not even mentioned in the Chicago papers. Had one of the Blackhawks got into a fight and punched some drunken loser in a Toronto bar it would be plastered all over papers and the television. This being said, its hard to imagine any professional football, basketball or baseball team doing this, but the members of the Blackhawks claim any "hockey" team would have done this. This is one reason I continue to be a big hockey fan, and another reason I am excited about this Chicago team. I thought I would share as this story appears to have gone unnoticed. GO BLACKHAWKS!!!!

[interpathway 9]

Great read, thanks for posting it up.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Peter king had this story and the blackhawks listed as his "good guys of the week" in his monday morning quarterback football column on sports illustrated too

Edit: Here is is

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...4/Week15/3.html

you can get the full story there, but here is what makes hockey players (minus Avery) great

In all, about 50 members of the Blackhawk traveling party made it to the W.J. Cavill Funeral Home in Gravenhurst, and when they walked quietly through the side door of the place, Dale Tallon couldn't believe his eyes. He tried to say something.

"I couldn't talk,'' he said. "I just started bawling.''

The players and staff all filed past the open casket and paid their respects to the family, including Tallon's 80-year-old mom, whose mood brightened tremendously. She knew the players from watching the games on satellite TV. Now here they were, her heroes! She had a little crush on the big star, Patrick Kane, whom her son had drafted first overall last year. "Patrick Kane!'' she said, and hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Tallon,'' Sharp said.

"Ooooh,'' she said. "I enjoy watching you play.''

Hockey players, 99% of them = classy, and humble

[mrusse01 0]

Classy story. Chicago has a hell of a young team there, and I think a future Hall of Famer in Toews, to be that young and be captain on a team that does something like this really shows you his character.

[brettlynch11 0]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

They cause the funerals, with their guns and such and whatnot, not attend them

[brettlynch11 0]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

They cause the funerals, with their guns and such and whatnot, not attend them

Very good point.

[Nexxus6 0]

The Blackhawks showed a lot of class by doing that.

[eddyo57 0]

blackhawks have a lot of class and should be commended for such a thing. it goes to show that hockey players never find themselves to be above anyone else. they don't have the egos of the athletes in other sports.

[Hidious 0]

Very well-written story and admirable act from the Hawks!

[Law Goalie 147]

you can get the full story there, but here is what makes hockey players (minus Avery) great

...

Hockey players, 99% of them = classy, and humble

The astonishing part is that he honestly (if selfishly and ignorantly) believes that this kind of publicity is BAD for the game.

To a certain extent, he's right: if the Blackhawks had shot up a bar and led police on a hundred-mile-an-hour chase through the crowded streets firing wildly from the windows of their bus while pounding underage kidnapped sluts and stolen malt liquor -- instant headlines, instant recognition, probable short-term increase in attendance & ratings. This story, as a story, reads well but takes more effort to sell, and doesn't net much measurable attention.

But what actually happened here - whether or not it's publicised - will make this game and that team in particular far, far stronger. It may not sell papers or push bulletins, but word gets around.

[KryptOng 9]

Great story to read, especially around this time of the year. Those Black Hawks are a bunch of class acts!

Merry Christmas to all!

[Hipster 5]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

That was my first thought too. In my opinion, It shows that professional hockey players don't think of themselves as so far removed from the regular world.

In a million years I can't imagine that a whole NBA ballclub would show up for their own relatives funerals, let alone their bosses relatives.

[Chadd 916]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

That was my first thought too. In my opinion, It shows that professional hockey players don't think of themselves as so far removed from the regular world.

In a million years I can't imagine that a whole NBA ballclub would show up for their own relatives funerals, let alone their bosses relatives.

NBA players tend to support their families financially a lot more often than NHL players do. In fact, many of them end up bankrupted because they spend so much money on their families.

[cxo 0]

As a cable news junkie, this did get a mention on Countdown with Keith Olbermann in the World's Best Persons segment. Word really does get around.

[Elwood 0]

...and this is why Hockey is in my blood for life.

[Neal 41]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

That was my first thought too. In my opinion, It shows that professional hockey players don't think of themselves as so far removed from the regular world.

In a million years I can't imagine that a whole NBA ballclub would show up for their own relatives funerals, let alone their bosses relatives.

NBA players tend to support their families financially a lot more often than NHL players do. In fact, many of them end up bankrupted because they spend so much money on their families.

“I told you I needed to feed my family. They offered me 3 years at $21 million. That’s not going to cut it. And I’m not going to sit here and continue to give my children food while this front office takes money out of my pocket. If Taylor wants to see my family fed, he better cough up some money. Otherwise, you’re going to see these kids in one of those Sally Struthers commercials soon.”

Latrell Sprewell

[cxo 0]

Martin Lapointe made a similar comment when he went to Boston, because they were the only team who would offer him over $5 mil. a season. Something along the same lines as "I have a wife and kids to feed here." So, not all NHL'ers are of the same breed unfortunately.

[OTHockey96 0]

Thats class.....makes me really want to see more of the Blackhawks.

[Chadd 916]

I'd like to see an NFL team do that.

That was my first thought too. In my opinion, It shows that professional hockey players don't think of themselves as so far removed from the regular world.

In a million years I can't imagine that a whole NBA ballclub would show up for their own relatives funerals, let alone their bosses relatives.

NBA players tend to support their families financially a lot more often than NHL players do. In fact, many of them end up bankrupted because they spend so much money on their families.

"I told you I needed to feed my family. They offered me 3 years at $21 million. That's not going to cut it. And I'm not going to sit here and continue to give my children food while this front office takes money out of my pocket. If Taylor wants to see my family fed, he better cough up some money. Otherwise, you're going to see these kids in one of those Sally Struthers commercials soon."

Latrell Sprewell

I never said there weren't a number of arrogant assholes there as well.

Martin Lapointe made a similar comment when he went to Boston, because they were the only team who would offer him over $5 mil. a season. Something along the same lines as "I have a wife and kids to feed here." So, not all NHL'ers are of the same breed unfortunately.

You can't fault a guy for taking a bigger payday, regardless of who you root for. The guy is taking care of his family and helping set them up for teh rest of their lives. He didn't demand a big paycheck, he took the biggest offer he was given. Big difference between him and spree.

[cxo 0]

Fair enough, though that would have been a much better reason to give than the one he provided.