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Subject: What Could Have Been: Re-Writing History
Posted by: Ira
- [46345416] Sat, Dec 27, 2003, 18:54
By Terry Frei
Special to ESPN.com
Dany Heatley has begun skating for the first time since late September, and then on the day after Christmas answers questions in a session with members of the media.
For the foreseeable future, his angst will be visible in public, the inner turmoil impossible to miss.
Whenever Heatley returns to game action, perhaps later this season, there will be no avoiding it: He will be the guy who was driving that night in September, and not just the precocious up-and-coming star who scored four goals in the NHL All-Star game last February and is an integral part of the Atlanta Thrashers' young core.
If only the holiday season included a true tale of changed fortunes and fates, and of different decisions made. This is a story, it is only fiction, but can't the holiday spirit include dreaming of rewriting reality?
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September 29, 2003: Dany Heatley and Dan Snyder are in Heatley's Ferrari, shortly after a reception for Thrashers' season-ticket holders at Philips Arena in Atlanta.
Heatley is tempted to show Snyder, his buddy, the car's awesome capabilities. And he does, to a point. He speeds -- too fast -- through the neighborhood near his Buckhead home.
But then Heatley has a mental flash so sudden that it makes the car's stop speed seem a crawl. What the hell is he doing? Risking Snyder's well-being? Risking his own? Endangering others on the road?
He slows down.
Later, after he has dropped off Snyder and gone to bed, he wonders what would have happened without that flash of realization.
He also wonders where it came from.
It sure seemed to come out of nowhere.
Like magic.
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October 16, 2003: Heatley has two goals and an assist in the Thrashers' 3-3 tie with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Snyder has an assist and is beginning to feel as if he has cemented a spot on the Thrashers' roster.
After the game in the hallway, he runs into 24-year-old Rangers center Roman Lyashenko. They had been on the ice together for a few shifts, and now they shake hands and agree this beats the heck out of playing in the American Hockey League, where they were opponents in 2002-03 -- Snyder when he spent half the season with the Chicago Wolves, Lyashenko as a member of the Hartford Wolf Pack.
They wish each other luck.
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October 27, 2003: As the Thrashers continue their remarkable and attention-getting start with a 4-2 victory over the Maple Leafs in Toronto, Snyder is proud to be playing in front of many family members who come to the Air Canada Centre from nearby Elmira, Ontario.
Heatley and Snyder are almost as excited to meet former Maple Leafs defenseman Tim Horton after the morning skate. Horton, 73, is making the promotional circuit, commemorating the upcoming 40th anniversary of Tim Horton's, the opening of the donut chain's 2,500th store, and the release of his latest book, "TimBits.'' He visits the Thrashers' dressing room, and Ontario-raised coach Bob Hartley, who comes from a tiny town, Hawkesbury, that nonetheless has two Tim Horton's, introduces him to the boys.
In his brief chat with Horton, Heatley brings up their mutual love of sportscars, and Horton says he remembers one night late in his career, when he was driving his Pantera from Toronto back to Buffalo after a loss, he almost lost control and promised himself to be more careful -- especially in that car.
Heatley nods in recognition.
He has been there.
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October 30, 2003: Shortly before the Thrashers' 2-2 tie at St. Paul, Heatley sits down for a taped television interview for the Wild broadcast with long-time Minnesota announcer Bill Masterton, 65.
Masterton's involvement in Minnesota hockey, of course, dates back to his days as an original member of the North Stars, and like many players on those early teams, he remained a Twin Cities resident after the end of his playing days, and was a successful businessman. His broadcasting work, he tells Heatley before the tape starts rolling, has been a fun sideline, especially after the NHL's return to Minnesota, but he expects to give it up after this season.
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November 13, 2003: The Thrashers fall to 10-4-2-1 with a 4-2 loss at Carolina, but that doesn't diminish their status as one of the NHL's marquee stories in the first quarter of the season. Veteran Carolina defenseman Steve Chiasson, 36, has an assist and is a plus-2, and his teammates tease him about being named the third star of the game because they know a low-key defensive defenseman usually needs to have one of his shots bounce in off two opponents and go in the net for him to get consideration as one of the game's stars.
Heatley later tells Snyder that Chiasson still can play, and Snyder says what does Heatley expect because like Snyder, Chiasson played major junior in the OHL.
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November 15, 2003: After the Thrashers arrive at the Wachovia Center in the morning, coach Hartley, Heatley and Snyder are among those who step into the visiting bench to watch the final stages of the Flyers' skate.
As Hartley watches and nods to some of the Flyers he knows, including fellow Hawkesbury native and his former junior star, Dan McGillis, he also notices that Snyder is looking up at the retired numbers and championship banners in the rafters.
Hartley, the former goaltender, says he always had a lot of admiration for the two goalies whose numbers are up there -- No. 1 Bernie Parent and No. 31 Pelle Lindbergh. Snyder asks his coach which one he thinks was best. Hartley says they were both great because Parent was in on the ground floor of the Flyers' winning tradition, and Lindbergh because he helped continue it with the sterling career that ran through 1995.
Snyder laughs because he remembers how Don Cherry so often said on "Coach's Corner" that Lindbergh's biggest obstacle to NHL success was that fellow Swede Hardy Astrom, the darling of Colorado Rockies' management, was so inept playing for Cherry and gave Swedish goalies a bad name two years before Lindbergh broke into the league.
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December 31, 2003: Heatley comes out of the Thrashers' 2-1 loss at Detroit aching, with a handful of new bruises, after taking punishment all night, most notably from the Red Wings' 36-year-old defenseman, Vladimir Konstantinov. Wordlessly in the dressing room, Snyder hands Heatley two bags filled with ice and Heatley muses that Konstantinov still is one of the toughest guys to play against in the NHL.
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February 8, 2004: At All-Star weekend in the Twin Cities, Heatley is much in demand because of the Thrashers' sudden ascension to the join the NHL's elite, and because of his status as the reigning game MVP. He even is introduced to several leaders of the NHL Alumni Association attending the weekend's events, including Keith Magnuson and Rob Ramage; and also to Herb Brooks, who smiles and tells Heatley he isn't a bad guy for a former Badger.
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Here's hoping we don't have to make up any more happy scenarios.
The reality:
Roman Lyashenko's July 6, 2003, death in Turkey was ruled a suicide.
Tim Horton was killed in a crash of his sports car on Feb. 21, 1974. He was driving back to Buffalo after the Sabres' game in Toronto.
Steve Chiasson suffered fatal injuries on May 3, 1999, when he lost control of his truck after attending a season-ending team party, and after several teammates believed they had convinced him to take a taxi home.
Pelle Lindbergh lost control of his sports car and died of injuries suffered in the crash, on Nov. 10, 1985.
Herb Brooks was killed when he lost control of his van in the Twin Cities area on Aug. 12, 2003.
Vladimir Konstantinov suffered career-ending and life-changing injuries in a limousine crash on July 13, 1997.
Bill Masterton died of head injuries on Jan. 15, 1968. He was injured in a fall to the ice in a game against California two days earlier. The Masterton Trophy honors the NHL player judged to personify perserverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.
Terry Frei is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He is the author of "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming," available nationwide, and 2004's "Third Down and a War to Go."
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| 1 | The Left Wings
ID: 6142019
Sat, Dec 27, 2003, 20:24
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Although I agree completely with the moral behind all this, I just have this one thing to say after 3 months of constant media coverage:
Get over it already.
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| 2 | Ira
ID: 46345416
Sat, Dec 27, 2003, 20:46
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I kind of agree on that, but this is the first story I've seen involving players like Chaisson, Konstantinov and Lyashenko
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