The other night, while my wife was logging onto her high school reunion website, I was doing a little reminiscing myself. I popped in the DVD of Game 6 of the 1987 Stanley Cup finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers.
To this day, I still gasp in horror when Ron Hextall turns over the puck with 10 seconds left in the game; caught five feet outside his net on a failed clearing pass up the middle. It's almost as though this will be the time Hextall doesn't recover in time to make one last spectacular save.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that is the 20th anniversary of that classic series and Scott Mellanby is the lone remaining active player.
But last night, seeing 42-year-old Peter Zezel on televison as he watched the game from the stands, I realized just how much time had gone by.
Twenty years ago, Zezel was a young athlete at the height of his popularity. Apart from his hockey ability, he was the idol of many a teenage girl in Philadelphia (including some of my wife's friends and classmates, although Laura herself didn't know a wrist shot from a wrist watch until we met, and nowadays, humors me by trying to learn about the game).
Today, Zezel is just happy to be alive and take every day as it comes, after dealing with a rare blood disorder that nearly killed him and, for eight years, handling the emotional scars left on his family after the death of his three-year-old niece Jillian from neuroblastoma.
Zezel has made a successful career for himself as a youth hockey and soccer instructor and camp director in the Toronto suburbs. But more than that, it was just nice to see that he was at the arena and looking to be in good spirits.
****
Back in November, Peter Forsberg just smiled sheepishly and shook his head when the subject came up about the infamous Modo-Malmo final game in the 1994 Swedish playoffs.
On live TV, a furious Foppa was cornered by an interviewer seconds after Modo lost the series. Asked about the referee's performance, Forsberg yelled, "Han är så jävla kass så jag kunde dra på han en smäll! Det är sant det!" ("He's so bleeping useless that I want to punch him out. That's the truth.")
Twelve years after the incident, a Swedish reporter (Konstantin Foussianis) and I discussed whether we thought Forsberg would ever fly off the handle so publicly again. We agreed it was extremely unlikely.
Wouldn't you know it-- 24 hours later, Forsberg flips out at a referee after a series of questionable calls and gets tossed from a one goal game late in regulation. Afterwards he left the arena rather than talking to the media, because if he HAD spoken, he'd have pretty much said the same thing he did after the Malmo game.
The thing about Forsberg, you see, is that he's incapable of giving a dishonest answer. Evasive and measured, yes. Dishonest, no. Everyone who has dealt with him in any context learns that.
Watching Forsberg since he returned to the lineup for Nashville, he still seems to be fighting the puck, and getting taken off far more easily than he can when he's right.
I have serious doubts that he's playing at close to full health-- whether it's indirectly related to the foot or not, who knows? No one is forthcoming about injuries this time of year and the whole cloak and dagger game is a bit silly. You can tell all you need to know by someone's performance on the ice.
Earlier this season, Forsberg said, "There comes a point when you can't talk about [injuries] anymore and you're either going to play or not play."
Well, he's playing and he's not talking about it, but clearly this isn't close to what he's capable of doing when he's reasonably healthy.
Incidentally, Modo Hockey has made it to the Swedish finals, taking on Linkoping HC. LHC leads 2-0 after two periods of game one as I type this.
****
My newest installment of Across the Pond looks at the Finnish finals and updates the playoffs around Europe.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=298596
Lastly, for the fight fans out there, the newest installment of Flyers Heroes of the Past looks at the career of Dave Brown, another participant in that 1987 Stanley Cup Finals classic.
Part I is now available online at PhiladelphiaFlyers.com. Part II will run later this week.
http://www.philadelphiaflyers.com/pressbox/alumniFeatures/3072.asp
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»