Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
During some recent down time I read a couple of sports oriented books, one of which was ” Beating The Odds in Hockey & in Life “, a biography of Eddie Olczyk with a Ryerson contemporary of mine from the 1980’s, Perry Lefko.
Olczyk talks at length about hockey, horse racing & fighting cancer.
As a hockey player, Olczyk was an offensive force.
Drafted 3rd overall in 1984 ( The Mario Lemieux Draft ) by his hometown Chicago Blackhawks, he would put up 5 consecutive 30 goals seasons in the National Hockey League.
He also was a horse racing fan, an owner, and a notable handicapper, thus when his on ice days had concluded, he was extremely comfortable combining two great passions, hockey and horse racing, as a prominent American broadcaster.
His ability to tell a good story, is also utilized when he documents a battle with a form of colon cancer that he conquered not that long ago.
There’s all kinds of great stories in the book, but very little ” dirt “, outside of maybe slagging Coach Mike Keenan who had Olczyk with the New York Rangers…. ( of course ripping Keenan is almost a pass time for most of the players who played for ” Iron Mike ” in the NHL. )
Truthfully, the passage of the book that I found most revealing pertained to Olczyk’s brief coaching tenure with the Pittsburgh Penguins; a period of just over 100 games beginning in 2003 in which he missed the playoffs in his debut season as a coach with zero experience and then was fired 31 games into his 2nd season behind the Pittsburgh bench.
What jumped off the page from that time period was the fluctuating atmosphere in the Penguins dressing room.
When Mario Lemieux was healthy and available for Olczyk, the behaviour of the Penguin players was professional.
However, when Mario was absent, several Penguin veterans flexed their perceived authority and were extremely hard on the younger players, crossing personal boundaries in Olczyk’s view.
I found that observation interesting based on the Daniel Carcillo stories of his Ontario Hockey League days at Sarnia which essentially took place during the exact same period of time.
I’m Fred Wallace