The Goal of My Life by Paul Henderson Read Free Book Online Page A

delivering crushing hits to anybody who tried to get in his way. Baun’s overtime winner in game six deflected off his stick, however, and it cost him his best chance to win a Stanley Cup. He played for twenty seasons, with Chicago, Detroit, and New York, and he never won a Cup.
    Despite the frustrations, it was an exciting period in my life, there is no disputing that. I was playing in the NHL and making some good money. In the playoffs that first year, I drove into the Olympia parking lot in a 1954 Dodge that cost me all of $200! I’ll never forget someone yelling at me, “Hey, Henderson! Why don’t you just get a horse and buggy?” So of course, I had to get a new car. I bought a 1964 Pontiac Parisienne two-door hardtop, a beautiful car back then, for $3,267. I still have the receipt from that car as a keepsake!
    In my second year, 1964–65, I was playing on the fourth line, behind the great Gordie Howe as well as Bruce MacGregor and Floyd Smith. I was still not getting a lot of ice time, but at least I was starting to be accepted as a member of the team because it was clear I was there to stay. I got into all seventy games, picking up eight goals and thirteen assists for twenty-one points and killing penalties, and I’d learned to contribute defensively when called upon.
    In addition to the wingers who were ahead of me on the depth chart, we had terrific players and seven future Hall of Famers, like Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Norm Ullman, Gordie Howe, Bill Gadsby, Terry Sawchuk, and Marcel Pronovost. There were a lot of great players on that team, but none greater than Howe, of course. There was nobodytougher to play against than Gordie, who could really dish out the punishment, as everybody in hockey knows. I played with him and against him and saw what a fierce competitor he could be.
    Lindsay was another all-time great, to be sure. He had been retired for four years after leaving the Chicago Blackhawks when he rejoined us that season. He was forty years old by then and was 170 pounds at the most, but he was still as hard-nosed as ever, picking up 173 minutes in penalties and playing the same rugged style he did in helping Detroit win four Stanley Cups in the 1950s.
    Ullman and Delvecchio were top-notch stars, of course, and our acrobatic goalie Roger Crozier was rookie of the year and first-team all-star. Crozier was terrific that first season and became known for his spectacular saves while having some good years in Detroit. We finished first that year with eighty-seven points, but we were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Bobby Hull and Chicago in seven tough games.
    The 1965–66 season was a breakthrough year for me, really. After an injury to Ron Murphy, I was moved to left wing for the first time and would wind up playing that position for the next fifteen seasons. Playing on a line with Ullman, I scored twenty-two goals and added twenty-four assists for what was a pretty darn good season in the NHL back then, as there were only nineteen players who scored twenty or more goals in the NHL that season. Ullman, who made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame, was such a pro – what a treat it was to play on a line with him. I started with him that season and stayed with him on a line for basically the rest of my NHL career.
    There was no first-place repeat that season, however. We slipped into fourth place with seventy-four points as Montreal claimed first. But we had a great playoff and almost came up with what would have been a huge Stanley Cup upset.
    It started in the first round when we knocked out Chicago in six games, the same team that had upset us the year before. Then in the Cup finals against Montreal, we won the first two games at the Montreal Forum and had them on the ropes heading back to Detroit.
    We blew that series, however, losing the next four games. Make no mistake about it: Montreal had a great hockey team, but we didn’t help our cause by our behaviour in that series. Instead of