A Hockey Stick Restoration.

Other than asking for an autograph my first real encounter with a professional hockey player happened back when I was fifteen years old. The exact location would be right inside Maple Leaf Gardens at the visitor’s bench on Friday April 2nd 1976. It was during the pregame warmup where I was at the Gardens to watch the game between the Toronto Toros and the Indianapolis Racers.

The Toronto Toros in my opinion even to this day had probably the best team logo in all of pro sports. If not the best, then top three for sure.

The Toros were one of five Canadian teams that year playing in the old World Hockey Association. However the writing was on the wall, the end was near and within a few weeks the Toros would be wiped off the Toronto sports landscape. On that April night it would be their second last game in their second and final season playing at the Gardens.

The WHA was an upstart 12 team league that began play back in the 1972/73 season. Toronto did not have a franchise during that inaugural season. Harold Ballard who owned the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and the Gardens despised the new league, but he did offer a Toronto based WHA team the right to play at the Gardens. However, the money hungry Ballard’s overly excessive rent demands meant there would be no Toronto based WHA team playing during that first season. Back in the 70's Maple Leaf Gardens was the only large capacity, indoor rink and event venue in the city of Toronto.

It would end up being the Ottawa Nationals who after that first season would relocate to Toronto for the 1973/74 season. Ottawa’s home arena was the Ottawa Civic Centre. The team was a total flop at the box office, averaging only 3,000 fans per game. Before the first season had even finished the City of Ottawa demanded a payment of $100,000 to secure dates for the upcoming season. Unwilling to agree to those terms the Nationals decided to move to Toronto. They played that first season’s one and only playoff series against the New England Whalers at Maple Leaf Gardens where the team was now referred to as the Ontario Nationals.

Once the season ended the team was sold to John F. Bassett and they became the Toronto Toros before the start of the 1974/75 season.

At this time Harold Ballard was now a convicted felon and was serving time in prison for tax evasion. While Harold was in prison his son Bill Ballard was controlling the operations of the Gardens as well as the Leafs. Unlike his father the younger Ballard wanted the Toros to play at the Gardens. Mr. Bassett wanted to move the team into a renovated CNE Coliseum, but Bill a CNE director opposed any plans to upgrade the Coliseum. Consequently the Toros ended up at Varsity Arena, a much smaller venue for the 1973/74 season.

The Toros moved to the Gardens for the 1974/75 season. By this time Harold Ballard was released from prison and had regained control of the Gardens. Ballard was vehemently opposed to the WHA and he never forgave the upstart league for nearly destroying the Leafs' roster in the early 70’s. Ballard had also a few years earlier been involved in a nasty power struggle which he eventually would win with Bassett's father John Basset Sr. for control of the Maple Leafs and the Gardens.

Ballard deliberately made the Toros new lease terms at the Gardens as unattractive and difficult as possible. The Toros lease with the Gardens required them to pay $15,000 per game. Bassett was outraged when the Gardens was very dimly lit for the first game. It was then that Ballard demanded an additional $3,500 for use of the television lighting he had installed for the Hockey Night In Canada broadcasts. Ballard also denied the Toros access to the Leafs locker room, forcing them to build their own at a cost in excess of $50,000.

Despite all their financial obstacles, the Toros were still able to sign two ex-Leaf and Team Canada ’72 players. Former NHL superstar Frank Mahovlich and the 1972 Summit Series hero, Paul Henderson were both signed. Recently defected Czech superstar Vaclav Nedomansky was also signed by the team. Single season sensation Tom Simpson became the first professional hockey player ever to score 50 goals playing in Toronto racking up 52 goals.

The Toros were now averaging 10,000 fans per home game at the Gardens.

For the 1975/76 season and partly due to the outrageous expenses associated with playing at the Gardens, the Toros finished with the league’s second worst record playing under first year head coach and former Leaf player Bob Baun. The team was unable to come to terms with Harold on a new lease and after three seasons the Toronto Toros were on the move.

The Toros took their beautiful angry snorting bull logo and relocated to Alabama where they became known as the Birmingham Bulls for the following season.

Ironically on that April night I would be watching hometown favorite Mark Napier. Mark was a speedy right winger; he was the only beacon of light in what had been a dismal season for the Toros. Mark would go on to win rookie of the year honours that year after a stellar ninety-three point season. Mark was three years older than myself and also attended Finch Avenue East Public School back in the 60’s. His younger brother Greg was tragically killed after being hit by a lumber truck while on his bike right in front of his house behind our school. I will never forget the school had an assembly in the gym for all the students and it was the first time that a kid who went to my school had died.

Unlike their NHL rival the Maple Leafs, tickets to Toro games were easy to get. A great seat right down near ice level could be bought at the box office for less than ten bucks.

You never had to buy Toro tickets from a scalper on the street.

Although the Toros played half decent hockey, they knew that had they stayed in Toronto they would forever play second fiddle to the Maple Leafs. The Leafs would always be Toronto’s #1 hockey team no matter how pathetic they had become in the standings while under Harold’s regime.

The Leafs were sold out every game at the Gardens also known as the Carlton Street Cashbox.

I had already been to a couple Toro games. On any given night there were always many former NHL stars and future Hall of Fame players who had left the NHL to sign big money contracts playing in the WHA. Many hockey insiders have often accused the WHA as the main reason why contracts began to escalate dramatically in the NHL. Million dollar contracts that were never heard of prior to the WHA’s existence were now becoming the norm in both leagues.

After decades of NHL owners taking advantage of the players it was starting to turn the corner. Finally the players were now getting the upper hand on the owners. Owners began raising ticket prices to compensate for the players higher salary demands. Greedy players and greedy owners, the vicious cycle has continued now for over fifty years with no letup in sight.

My friend Dan and I were inside the Gardens on that Friday night sitting in the corner golds watching the pregame skate. Like I always did while sitting in the golds, I would simply wander around the ice level seats. On this night my wandering would find me right at the Racers bench. The full stick rack in the narrow center ice corridor right under the exit sign immediately caught my attention. The Toros stick rack was directly opposite.

I walked over to glance at the Racers team sticks while contemplating which one I would steal if I knew for sure I wouldn’t get caught. Stealing a stick off the stick rack at Maple Leaf Gardens was next to impossible. I would never think of taking one of the hometown Toro players sticks because that simply would not be cool. Besides, with all the Gardens ushers around greeting fans there was no way I would be casually just walking back to my seat with a stick in my hand.

“Hey kid can you grab me my stick, number seventeen?” I heard directed to where I was standing.

"Me" I asked while pointing at myself.

I was the only kid in the vicinity.

There were three Northland sticks with the number #17 stamped at the top of the shafts all below freshly white taped knobs. The name ‘SICINSKI’ which I had never heard of before that night was also stamped on the shaft.

I quickly grabbed one and walked about twenty feet where I hand delivered the stick to a smaller, helmetless player who was standing on the ice at the bench.

“Thanks kid” he said as he handed me another Northland stick like the one I had just given him.

He then skated away.

However, the stick now in my hand was in two pieces broken half way up the shaft. On closer examination the break was not a clean break. Instead the two broken pieces when wedged back together looked like an unbroken stick. The two pieces fit snugly together like fingers in a glove. I went back to my seat to show Dan my newly gifted treasure from Bob Sicinski. Dan told me that with a bit of white glue like we used in woodshop class I could easily glue the stick back together.

The Toros lost the game that night 3-1.

All game I couldn’t wait to get home and glue my stick together. I knew I already had the white glue as my mother always had a small bottle in our apartment. I was just hoping that it wasn’t all dried out. Dan told me that using one of our woodshop vices would be my best bet to bond the two pieces together. I didn’t want to wait until Monday when I was back at school. I wanted to have my stick repaired and ready to use for our weekly Sunday afternoon road hockey game.

Once I got home there was indeed a bottle of white glue still in its liquid form. I liberally applied the glue to the both pieces and placed the stick under my bed post overnight. In the morning the stick was once again a one piece stick and my repair job seemed to be perfect. Other than a glaze where the glue had dried it looked like a brand new stick.

I was so happy with my hockey stick restoration.

My new Northland Custom Pro was a beautiful stick with a big left hand curve. The blade was taped with white tape and had a couple puck marks on both the blade and the shaft. My guess is that Mr. Sicinski had begun the pregame skate that night with a brand new freshly taped twig and within ten minutes I was handing him a replacement. I have no idea how the break on the shaft would have happened like it did since it was the pregame skate and there was no contact whatsoever.

Once I had my newly restored stick in my hand, I quickly realized it was too fine of a stick to be using in a road hockey game. And since the ice rink at Ranee Field had already melted weeks earlier, I decided I would leave the stick in my closet until the following winter.

I don’t remember ever using my stick while playing on the rink up at Ranee Field. I could not resist playing with it during our weekly road hockey games and within a year the well-worn, cracked blade eventually broke and I screwed on a Mylec replacement blade onto the shaft.

Even tough Bob Sicinski for the most part would be a career minor league player he did play six full seasons all in the WHA. He was indeed a professional hockey player.

During our road hockey games while using my Northland Custom Pro stick I was the envy of all my friends. While they were all using sticks bought from a store; I was using a stick given to me by a professional hockey player while he was standing on the ice right inside Maple Leaf Gardens.

How cool was that?