When Mekkar and his team arrived at Maple
Leaf Gardens
in Toronto , Ontario , Canada
they were initially directed down a pathway to the visitor’s dressing room. He
noticed along this corridor were pictures of past star players of the homeside.
There were also quite a few plaques and lists showing the different
accomplishments and awards involving various Maple Leaf players throughout the
years.
The skeptical youngster that he is saw this as a type of
tactic to try to throw the Selects squad off of their game. Furthermore, it was
just basically to get inside their heads prior to gametime. Mekkar concluded
that this was just another intimidation endeavor but carried out in a
psychological way. He was not affected by it because he could see through the
tactic, but figured that some of the other Selects’ might be.
Anyway, Mekkar was excited to play against one of his
heroes, Borje “The King” Salming. Despite realizing that due to both of their
positions as defensemen and the natural flow of the match, they would come into
direct contact with each other very little, if at all. Plus, Mekkar’s on ice
minutes were sharply reduced due to injury.
Many of the Selects’ members observed the rabid parts of the
crowd as they came onto the ice for the normal pre-game warmup ritual. It was a
larger crowd than almost anywhere back home, but still overall less rowdy.
Mekkar didn’t hear songs directed toward individual players like his home rink
nor see large flags and banners waving in the stands. Here was tame in
comparison but the sheer mass of people in the arena energized the home team
with their pockets of exuberance.
Mekkar had trained himself long ago to accept any cheering
or positive reinforcement and incorporate it as his own, no matter whom it was directed
at, the source or location. This would always increase the confidence in
Mekkar. Lasse and Alf deemed it as more like cockiness which Mekkar was not
undersupplied. This mindset was beneficial for Mekkar’s on ice performances
during the actual games. He said this attitude made him more successful.
The Leafs sported a starting lineup that could rival that
very best clubs in the world. However, their troubles stemmed from bad
management and in the lack of quality depth on the roster departments. Who Toronto sent over the
boards to start the match was impressive. Lanny McDonald up front with Darryl
Sittler centering the first line and Left Wing Dave “Tiger” Williams protecting
everyone’s back. On the back line were Salming and Ian Turnbull with Mike
Palmateer in goal. [Wikipedia] Formidable indeed thought Mekkar and his
teammates. When the top Toronto
unit was on the ice they totally controlled the pay and dictated the pace,
which the Selects were unable to counteract.
As the Selects’ coaching staff behind the bench accepted
this and desired their team to push the tempo when the other Leaf lines were on
the ice to balance it all out. The game did not accurately reflect the
dominance in the box score in a 4-2 Maple Leaf win. Mekkar felt fortunate to
avoid a blowout. The Selects only took one minor penalty and negated that
opportunity by keeping Toronto
from converting their powerplay. Guess who took the penalty? Yes, it was
Mekkar! The netminding for the visitors on this night was excellent and helped
to keep the match from being a runaway for the hosts. As a result, the Far North Native stated, “A hot goalie can
make up for the rest of the team’s mistakes.” Nevertheless, the cynical Mekkar
thought that the Leafs were sort of toying with his travelling team.
The best part of the night for Mekkar was the post game
brief chat with Salming, who is one of his hockey role models. He did try to
pick to pick the classy Borje’s mind a bit. However, there was just so much
information and experience there. Salming’s vast resource knowledge was
overwhelming to the young arctic teen and it was hard to grasp, even a small
bit of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment