On Saturday I had the chance to meet one of my hockey heroes in Stan “Steamer” Smyl, and it was an experience I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.
While I only moved to St. Paul in August, the name Stan Smyl has been an important one to me since I was nothing but a four-year-old boy with a dream.
I’ve met a few hockey legends in my role as a sports reporter, such as Marcel Dionne and Gordie Howe, and while those certainly incredible experiences, Saturday was my first chance to interview a legend that I had the luxury of watching play live on television as a child.
When I made it to the Clancy Richard Arena it quickly became evident that Smyl’s legacy still lives on in St. Paul today, through the lives and accomplishments of many local players, fans, and in myself.
For instance, former Bonnyville Pontiac and East Coast Hockey League veteran Shawn Germain took part in Saturday’s Xtreme Hockey Night in St. Paul, and pointed to Smyl as a man who inspired him to do whatever it took to achieve his dream of playing professional hockey.
“He was a huge influence on my career. I knew all about him when I was growing up, and the thing about Stan is he accomplished everything he did on hard work, and as a local kid that’s basically what I tried to do to, try and earn everything that I got,” Germain said after the game.
Quite often we hear stories about someone reaching the big leagues and pointing directly to a player who inspired them to keep pushing for their goals, the one who made them love the game, but we rarely hear about the way those players can impact the lives of people outside the glass.
I never cracked a professional sports roster, and I stopped playing anything you could call competitive hockey before the age of 10, but like many Canadians I had a dream to make it to the NHL, just not on the ice.
I first saw the name Stan Smyl when I was growing up in British Columbia as an eager young Canucks fan, and he planted the seed of that dream within me, the notion that I could ride the wave of the electrifying feeling that hockey gives me into a career, into a livelihood. For that, the Canucks will always be my team.
It was the players like Stan Smyl, who competed against men twice his size and came out as a legend, that showed me the true power and value of hard work and determination at a very young age, and showed me what it takes to turn a dream into a reality.
My spot on the Journal roster has allowed me to achieve those goals I set decades ago, and as many of you know I did reach the NHL level back in February when Kyle Brodziak and the Minnesota Wild came to Edmonton, and again when Mark Letestu and the Columbus Blue Jackets came to town in March.
While I reached that level, it wasn’t until I shook Smyl’s hand just before our interview on Saturday evening that it really hit me. I’m living that dream, the one that Stan Smyl helped instill within me over 20 years ago, and I was looking the proof right in the eyes.
I’m still that four-year-old boy in a Canucks jersey glued to the television and hanging the commentators on every word, I just got taller.
Thank you Stan Smyl, for igniting the undying passion for hockey within me, may it never be extinguished.
