"Bluelines" is written by Ranjan Rupal, the play-by-play voice, and Greg Theberge, a former Memorial Cup winner and Washington Capitals defenseman and hockey analyst for The OHL Tonight on CogecoTV.
As a hockey fan, a pinnacle in my life occurred in 1982.
And another pinnacle may be on the way shortly, courtesy of Mike Amadio.
But first, 1982. It was a memorable year for a young Leafs fan but not because of a great season, quite the contrary. Much like the current edition, the Leafs limped to a 20-44-16 record, lodged in the Norris Division’s basement, very much out of the playoff picture. But while the team was headed for last, the 1981-82 season was about to signal a first.
To that point in my life, I had been exposed to very little by way of Leafs success, and a steady stream of spectacular failures began to affect the psychology of a young mind still very much in development. The Philadelphia Flyers had been responsible for much of this sadness: in 1975 sweeping the Leafs aside in the quarter-finals; then in 1976 crushing my spirit with a 7-3 decision in a seventh game at the Spectrum; then in 1977, the same team, the same result, only this time it was Maple Leaf Gardens in a game six.
Desperate for solace, I sought comfort in the sports pages of the Toronto Star, within the table of NHL Scoring Leaders to be precise. There I found Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald, and I was pleased they were standing shoulder to shoulder with the NHL’s best, with the likes of Steve Shutt, Brian Trottier and Marcel Dionne.
It was an era when scoring 50 goals in a season was a very big deal. Phil Esposito did it. Guy Lafleur did it. Bill Barber did it too. 50 goals was a milestone that Milt Dunnell wrote about in the Star and, in doing so, he gave fans reason to pause and reflect on the greatness of the players of the day.
Season after season I watched hopefully as Sittler and McDonald strived for membership in the 50-goal club, but ultimately fell short, Lanny reaching 46 and 47, Darryl topping out at 45. To a young mind, these near misses added to a litany of Leaf disappointments that seemed devastatingly inevitable.
Until Rick Vaive arrived on the scene, that is.
The brash newcomer had been pried from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade. In his first season with the Leafs I marveled at his knack for scoring. By his second season my eyes were glued to number 22 as he flew down the right wing, never losing sight of his prey, a Chico Resch, a Mike Liut, or a Greg Millen, each goalie shrinking before the hard-charging young bull.
“I was fortunate to be in the League when Vaive would fire the puck from the right wing wall at the top of the circle,” recalled TVCogeco hockey analyst Greg Theberge, a rookie defenceman with the Washington Capitals at the time. “Or he would get as close to the net as he could, put his head down and bury it hard, top shelf. He usually used the big, closed, medium curve on his stick and he’d snap it home.”
Vaive was sitting at 45 goals for a Saturday night home date against the Chicago Blackhawks and, once again, feelings of despair stirred inside me as I sat in front of the Zenith. It seemed unimaginable that Vaive would move the needle, after all he was a Leaf, and I was a Leaf fan, and were we not doomed to re-live the failures of the past together?
What happened next forever changed my life. No longer would I walk to school with my head down, plagued with self-doubt, haunted by jeering malcontents sitting in the Greens with paper bags over their heads with eye holes cut out.
The Chicago Tribune was glum with their report the next morning:
Denis Savard shattered Bobby Hull’s single season team point record Monday night, but the 21-year old center and his Black Hawk teammates were in no mood to celebrate. Led by Rick Vaive, who scored four goals to surpass the Toronto single-season record set by Frank Mahovlich in 1960-61, the Maple Leafs humiliated the Hawks 8-5 before 16,360 fans, bringing a six-game trip to a dismal conclusion…Vaive scored his fourth goal of the game and 49th of the season with 61 seconds remaining, hitting an empty net after (Coach) Pulford pulled goaltender Tony Esposito.
Suddenly the impossible seemed probable. I was giddy in anticipation of his next goal, the big 5-0, and even Vaive seemed caught up in the moment.
“Of course I’m happy,” Vaive told the Trib, when asked about setting the new Leafs record, “but it doesn’t make up for how we’ve been playing. All I know is that I’m very excited and I’ll bet my heart is doing 600 beats a minute right now. I probably won’t realize what happened until tomorrow. I was playing my usual game and they were going in.”
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Only six North Bay Centennials have ever reached the 50-goal mark: Bob Laforest scored 58 goals in the 1982-83 season; Nick Kypreos scored 62 goals in the 1985-86 season; Len Soccio scored 53 goals in the 1987-88 season; Trevor Halverson scored 59 goals in the 1990-91 season; Jeff Shevalier scored 59 goals in the 1992-93 season, and added 52 goals in the 1993-94 season; and Vitaly Yachmenev scored 61 goals in the 1993-94 season, and added 53 goals in the 1994-95 season.
After that… crickets….for 21 years. Mike Amadio wasn’t even born when Yachmenev potted his final goal.
Now, with great suspense, Amadio is on the verge of being the first player in Battalion history, both Brampton and North Bay, to score 50 goals in a season. Presently sitting at 42 goals, there is work to be done in the remaining 13 games but, at the moment, he is the most dangerous player in the OHL having earned OHL Player of the Week honours, and has 12 goals in his last five games.
On the way to 50 is the Battalion’s current high-water mark for goals scored in a single season, 47, set by Wojtek Wolski during the 2005-06 season. Wolski’s 11-year old record is in serious jeopardy and may begin to sway in tomorrow’s home game against Hamilton, and could ultimately fall in next Thursday’s home game against Owen Sound.
“First of all, Mike Amadio will be remembered as one of the Battalion’s all-time greats. He can thank Coach Stan Butler for not trading him at the deadline,” replied Theberge, when asked how the veteran centre might approach the task at hand. “I don’t think he would have the minutes he’s getting now, nor the scoring opportunities that he’s getting now, if he had been traded to, say, London, for example.”
“Mike’s approach has to be ‘don’t change your style now’ and not to overthink who his opposition is, or who he’s up against,” said Theberge. “Just play with the mindset of getting two points first, as he mentioned in the interview with Clarke Heipel on CogecoTV. Up until now his style has been shooting the puck with extreme accuracy, especially upstairs where most goalies are vulnerable, because they go down so much to cover the lower part of the net.”
As the season draws to a close Theberge believes that Amadio’s chase for 50 goals will become the focus of increased attention, both from fans and the media.
“What makes this interesting is now that there is heightened the awareness of the 50-goal plateau, his teammates could tug on that rope even harder for him,” said Theberge. “You may find that they’ll be more aware of Mike Amadio’s location on the ice, and try to make unselfish plays.”
But veteran forward Mathew Santos, a key contributor to Amadio’s success, downplays the notion that chasing the 50-goal milestone might become a distraction an important stretch run.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a priority,” said Santos. “We’re just focusing on playing good hockey right now and building chemistry for a long playoff run.”
As captain of the Battalion, and as a veteran of deep playoff runs in each of the last two seasons, Amadio offers a calming dose of hockey sense.
“For me it will be business as usual,” says Amadio, “but if guys start to look for me too much, and force plays, that’s when things can start going sideways. I think we just have to keep playing the way we’re playing as a team and everything will fall into place.”
That place could very well be a place in the Battalion record book, and a permanent place in the hearts and minds of hockey fans in North Bay.