Roseau, Minnesota is long regarded in Minnesota hockey history as one of the birthplaces of hockey in Minnesota. And why shouldn't it be. Only miles from the Canadian border. And long, cold winters with plenty of ice. Roseau, a town of 2,756 people, is a hockey player factory. This small town has two sheets of indoor ice, one of which is open to the public, free of charge 24-7, 365 days a year. As evidence of the kind of hockey player factory this town is and has become, just look at what is said about Roseau in Wikipedia:
Roseau has a strong high school hockey tradition and has competed in and won the Minnesota state hockey tournament more than any other team in the state (most recently in 2007). The town is also home to a manufacturing and plastic molding injection facility of snowmobile and ATV manufacturer Polaris and the home of retired NHL and Olympic hockey players Neal Broten, Aaron Broten, Paul Broten, Earl Anderson, Dale Smedsmo, Blane Comstock, Rube Bjorkman, Don Ross, and Bryan "Butsy" Erickson. Roseau is also the home of current NHL'er Dustin Byfuglien, a Chicago Blackhawk who helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 2010.
For those of you unfamiliar with high school hockey in Minnesota, I would go so far as to say that it is more popular than pro hockey in the State the Wild have termed "The State of Hockey". Even Mike Modano pointed to the popularity of high school hockey among Minnesotan's as a reason for low attendance at North Stars games and part of the reason the Stars ventured south to Dallas. And among the high school powers that have come and gone in Minnesota, the Roseau Rams are among the most feared and respected of teams. I have witnessed the Rams venture to St. Paul, Minnesota time and time again to compete among this state's biggest and best of high school hockey programs. The Rams have even broken my heart once when in 1999, the Rams beat my alma mater Hastings Raiders in the Minnesota State High School Championship.
And while the Rams have a storied high school hockey program, it is not a member of the Rams rich history who is the first among those who called Roseau the home of their youth to bring home the storied Stanley Cup. Instead, it is a young man who had well documented problems in school and did not qualify academically to participate on the high school varsity team. No doubt he was good enough. He was just not academically eligible. And so his mother and step-father, when they received the call, took him out of Minnesota to Chicago to play AAA hockey for the Chicago Mission and then to Canada to play junior hockey in the WHL. He was originally drafted by Chicago as a defenseman, but because of his large size, they eventually moved him to right wing. He spent some time in the AHL as part of Chicago's minor league team, the Rockford IceHogs. Then, after winning the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks this past offseason, on June 24, 2010, the cash strapped Stanley Cup Champions traded "Big Buff" to the Atlanta Thrashers. No doubt a bitter pill for many Blackhawk fans to swallow, this is yet just another move for Dustin in a hockey career that has taken anything but the traditional path. However, his path is a story to other kids like him for whom the traditional path is not the path they will be given to travel. Yet, regardless of the hurdles in his path, Byfuglien has wound his way up the steep mountain and today sits atop of not only the City of Roseau, but also the entire NHL. And so, for just a brief moment, I wish to applaud the success that he has acheived and am reminded of a poem by Robert Frost I had heard before and was uttered by a commencement speaker when I graduated from college over 15 years ago:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
And then today, perhaps my inspiration for writing this tribute blog, another equally as beautiful article appeared on Twitter and I offer to you my readers. A piece from the perspective of the Stanley Cup on today's trip with Dustin to Roseau, the home of his youth and the place where the two roads diverged for him and he took the one less traveled. Wonder if looking back Dustin would agree that taking the road less traveled has made all the difference for him? I bet he would. So, without further adieu, I give you the Stanley Cup:
NHL: I, Stanley Cup, finally making Roseau visit, Reporter imagines trip from Cup’s perspective
By: Brad Schlossman / Forum Communications Co., INFORUM
I’m 117 years old and have a bodyguard.
It’s not that I’m weak. I’ve come back just fine from dings and dents. I even survived a wild night with the 1994 New York Rangers, although I needed surgery that time.
The bodyguard is there to keep my schedule and make sure that nobody disrespects me. I didn’t always have him around. He came along as my popularity increased.
Things were much different back in 1893 when Lord Stanley of Preston adopted me from a London silversmith.
I was only eight inches tall back then. Like everyone else, I first grew taller, then wider. Now I’m fully grown at 3 feet and about 35 pounds.
It doesn’t sound like much, but I can outdo rock stars, actors and actresses.
Don’t believe me? Just ask John Cusack.
He was part of Chris Chelios’ star-studded entourage a few years ago. They rented a limo and cruised the town. The limo didn’t have a bathroom, so when they saw some kids playing outside, they made a deal with their parents: The family could hang out and take pictures with me if the entourage could use their bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, as the group was leaving, a lady finally recognized Cusack. Nobody had a clue that a bunch of celebrities had been in the house.
“The Stanley Cup draws everyone’s attention,” Cusack would later say.
I’ve been to the White House, the Kremlin and Canada’s Parliament.
In the last 10 days I’ve been to the top of the Trencin Castle in Slovakia – a building that dates back to the Ninth Century – and the Eiffel Tower in France. They closed the Eiffel Tower just for me.
Spent Friday at Niagara Falls and today I travel to Roseau, Minn., for the first time.
It’s not as glamorous as most destinations I visit, but for a historic, hockey icon like myself, it doesn’t get any better than this.
When you’ve been around hockey as long as I have, you can’t help but know the small town near the Canadian border that continually beats up on the big-city teams. I know about its seven state championships, seven Olympians and three U.S. Hockey Hall of Famers.
In fact, I met Neal Broten in 1995. We spent the day at his horse ranch in River Falls, Wis.
Fifteen years later, I met Dustin Byfuglien.
I wasn’t sure what to expect after watching what he did to Chris Pronger in the finals. But he was nice. I was greeted with a big smile before he raised me above his head for the first time. I even sat next to him on the plane ride back to Chicago on that June evening.
Since then, I’ve been all over the world, posing for photographs and listening to people give my biography. But today will be a little different. Today, I will be the one taking in my surroundings and learning some hockey history from a town loaded with it.
There’s a parade down Main Avenue scheduled for 2 p.m. Then, it’s off to Memorial Arena. This is the place where Rube Bjorkman learned how to play. Same with the Brotens, Butsy Erickson, Earl Anderson, Mike Baumgartner and, yes, Dustin Byfuglien.
I’ll get my photo snapped at the historic arena with some of hockey’s biggest fans. Then, it’s off to a private party with the Byfuglien family.
This is one trip that’s long overdue. Looking forward to meeting you, Roseau.
Congratulations to Dustin Byfuglien, 2010 Stanley Cup Champion and proud hometown hero of all those who call Roseau, Minnesota home!
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»