Every now and then the hockey world provides you with an amazing flashback.
Just this week in the NHL Playoffs, which are now down to a handful of teams, I couldn’t help but connect the dots and travel back in time, more than 10 years, to the bunker in Brampton
The time travel was prompted by an NHL suspension to Rostislav Klesla, now of Phoenix, and a penalty taken by Washington’s Joel Ward in the East semifinal.
On November 12, 2001, the Owen Sound Attack, in their first season with that moniker, were facing the Battalion in an early season divisional matchup.
Among the key players on Brampton was CHL import Rostislav Klesla.
For Owen Sound, the best all around player was Joel Ward.
Ward was a great athlete, and a perfect example of the kind of player you want in your organization.
His biggest ” flaw “, if you can call it that, was his sportsmanlike demeanour. Coach Brian O’Leary truly believed that if Ward was more aggressive, he could advance to the highest level in hockey.
O’Leary explained, pleaded, prodded and stayed persistent in his demand for Ward to upgrade his aggression, and sure enough, Ward went out and smoked Klesla with a hit from behind earning a 5 game suspension.,,,not exactly what Coach O’Leary was looking for.
In the last week in the NHL playoffs, Klesla was suspended for a nasty boarding incident and Ward was fingered for a crucial double minor late in a game that led to a miracle New York Ranger comeback.
I doubt Rostislav Klesla and Joel Ward remember that game at Brampton more than a decade ago, but seeing the two NHL incidents last week, revived a memory sequence from November of 2001.
I’m Fred Wallace