(from Sean2114 on another site)
Two weeks ago, hockey’s buzz was about Sean Avery and his former relationship with actress Elisha Cuthbert, his narcissism, whether the league should suspend him and whether the Dallas Stars should waive him. It was a waste of time on a waste of talent.
The real shame is what we missed.
For every self-consumed loose cannon like Avery, there are a thousand selfless treasures like the Chicago Blackhawks. They confirmed as much three weeks ago after GM Dale Tallon’s father, Stanley Tallon, passed away after a long illness in Gravenhurst, Ont. (pop. 11,000), the day the Blackhawks were in Toronto.
The ’Hawks were coming off a Chicago to Phoenix to Dallas to Toronto road trip and longed for a few days of R&R in the Windy City before jetting off on a three-game western swing over Thanksgiving. They were expected to fly home immediately after the Toronto game while Tallon handled funeral arrangements.
Rather than fly home, they changed on the fly.
They voted to abandon the travel schedule, proved their hearts were stronger than their hockey. They checked back into a hotel, purchased practice ice in the morning, rented two buses and took a two-hour ride north of Toronto to support their boss at the wake.
Ever see a grown GM cry? That’s what Tallon did after they stepped off the buses, greeted him one-by-one, comforted his mother, met with his daughters, spent enough time to show they cared and took the two-hour ride back to the airport. Basically, they sacrificed rare time off with their families to help Tallon and his family.
“I’m getting emotional right now,” Tallon said last week by telephone. “It was a shock, a complete shock.
“It was uplifting for my mother and took her out of her funk. She has the hockey package and watches all the games. Here was my dad behind her in a coffin, and she’s kissing and hugging Pat Kane. To see all these players and show them all the hockey pictures of me and my dad, it was really uplifting for her. I’ll never forget it.”
Said Kane: “I didn’t know where we were going. It was in the middle of nowhere, to be honest. The coaching staff, the players and the front office wanted to pay our respects to Dale. We just wanted to show our faces. It was just one day out of our lives, but I guess it went a long way.”
Apparently, their homespun values also had an impact on the town after two busloads of millionaires pulled into a local McDonald’s and overindulged on Big Macs, Happy Meals that included hockey cards of Kane and Jonathan Toews and laughs. You can imagine the reaction in, say, Wellsville, if the Yankees stopped at Burger King.
For one day, they were more than a team. They were a family.
“It was a definitely sad day to start,” Kane said, “but it’s a pretty good story to get around.”
Unfortunately, the tale was buried with the hockey briefs. As Tallon said, it would have been splashed across the country if one of his players drove his car into a ditch.
Just so you know, Stanley Tallon was a part-time scout for the Canadiens in their heyday. He often invited groups of kids to Junior Canadiens camps and brought them home with carloads of sticks, sweaters and skates. His son tagged along, too, and was eventually selected second overall in the 1970 draft behind . . . Gilbert Perreault.
“One of the best coaches I ever had,” Tallon said of his father. “Just a good hockey man who knew his stuff.”
Stanley was 47 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors gave him six months to live, but he steamrolled cancer and lived to see Dale play 10 NHL seasons and become a general manager. He played hockey until he was 68, shot his age in golf when he was 73 and died when he was 80.
Certainly, that counts for something.
Tell me, again, who is Sean Avery?
Stories like these are why I love the game so much. These guys are true class acts and deserve the best. Hats off to the Blackhawks Organization.
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