Paul Stewart: The Miracle Before the Miracle

Love the blogs and the stories

A very good read as usual.

Another great blog!


(The link to your "selling the call" blog doesn't work - didn't get a chance to read it)

Another great blog!


(The link to your "selling the call" blog doesn't work - didn't get a chance to read it)
- dansmail26

Thank you! Link is http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=57069

Sorry Paul, but as tough as you may have been...

Wally Weir and Gilles Bilodeau? Remember them?


Serge Bernier and Pierre Plante may have been at the end of their careers but were still tough as nails! And no one can forget the dirty but still tough Louis Sleigher.

So, for you to say the Quebec-born players were not tough is disingenuous to say the least...

He didn't say French, he said Nordiques. Anyway, another fantastic blog. I read them all and enjoy them. Too bad that we couldn't roll back the NHL to the 80's and before again. There should be a sign at the Air Canada Centre, that should say: Hockey Players wanted, not fashionista's.

He didn't say French, he said Nordiques. Anyway, another fantastic blog. I read them all and enjoy them. Too bad that we couldn't roll back the NHL to the 80's and before again. There should be a sign at the Air Canada Centre, that should say: Hockey Players wanted, not fashionista's.
- PrinceLH

Nope...here's what he wrote...

I remember one time when I was a member of the Quebec Nordiques, we were going customs at the airport. The customs agent didn't believe I was a player on the team.

"Impossible," he said dismissively. "All the Nordiques are French Canadians."

"Not the tough ones," I said. "They had to find a Boston guy for that."

Hence my response above...

I too enjoy his blogs, but that does not mean I have to agree with everything he writes. Since what he said was not even close to being true.

I just wanted to set the record straight for some of the readers who probably were born way after those years in the NHL...

Nope...here's what he wrote...

Hence my response above...

I too enjoy his blogs, but that does not mean I have to agree with everything he writes. Since what he said was not even close to being true.

I just wanted to set the record straight for some of the readers who probably were born way after those years in the NHL...
- AvT

Considering that it was I who was insulted and slighted, as if the only players who might be actual Nordiques could only be French Canadian, my tongue-in-cheek response was exactly appropriate for the bigoted comment the representative of Canadian Customs -- who also happened to be both French-speaking and incorrect -- made.

Incidentally, my relationship with my teammates was not only great, it is treasured by me to this day.

Like many, you are trying to rise to defend something that I defended well before you ever thought about what it takes and took to be both an NHLer and an American playing in Quebec.

Je me souviens.

Stewy

Considering that it was I who was insulted and slighted, as if the only players who might be actual Nordiques could only be French Canadian, my tongue-in-cheek response was exactly appropriate for the bigoted comment the representative of Canadian Customs -- who also happened to be both French-speaking and incorrect -- made.

Incidentally, my relationship with my teammates was not only great, it is treasured by me to this day.

Like many, you are trying to rise to defend something that I defended well before you ever thought about what it takes and took to be both an NHLer and an American playing in Quebec.

Je me souviens.

Stewy
- Paul Stewart

Paul,

I don't understand why you think insulting your own teammates (of whom you claim you cherish to this day) in order to get even with a Customs Agent that is a complete stranger to you was justified. It just seems strange to me...

One more thing...You played all of 21 games in the NHL all for the Nordiques. You played more minor league games, all in the United States, where all of the teams you played for had a majority of Canadian players.

So, tell me, did you find it tough to play for American teams full of Canadians as an American? Did you feel insulted then as well?

Paul,

I don't understand why you think insulting your own teammates (of whom you claim you cherish to this day) in order to get even with a Customs Agent that is a complete stranger to you was justified. It just seems strange to me...

One more thing...You played all of 21 games in the NHL all for the Nordiques. You played more minor league games, all in the United States, where all of the teams you played for had a majority of Canadian players.

So, tell me, did you find it tough to play for American teams full of Canadians as an American? Did you feel insulted then as well?
- AvT

You don't get it, and probably never will, so this is the last I will say of it. The discrimination back then for an American in the game was every bit as bad for us as for the French in English-speaking Canada.

As far as 21 games, if you don't touch the ice for a shift, you don't get a game in the record even if you dressed back in the Eagleson NHL pension days. There were many games I dressed for with Quebec where I sat on the bench and did not get a shift. Still, I was a member of the team for much of that season.


Stewy

Nope...here's what he wrote...



Hence my response above...

I too enjoy his blogs, but that does not mean I have to agree with everything he writes. Since what he said was not even close to being true.

I just wanted to set the record straight for some of the readers who probably were born way after those years in the NHL...
- AvT

it was obviously a tongue in cheek response. you really dont get that?