NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Was one of the most unheralded captains of the Toronto Maple Leafs
also one of the greatest players in the history of hockey's most popular
team? In telling his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and
with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment
filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles,
Rick Vaive finally sets the record straight.
In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored
fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82. He did it three
years in a row (only two others have scored 50 since) before being
unceremoniously stripped of his captaincy and traded out of town, and he
did it for a promising team that was nonetheless largely stuck at the
bottom of the standings. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the
rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as
Gilmour, Sundin and Clark?
You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could
blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the
fans, the media...Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just
doesn't go your way. He'd know. Growing up in a household plagued by
alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company
of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned
quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even
after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don
Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey
history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets,
but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.
