Borje Salming was my HERO | Canucks 2-3 Leafs | Leafs Jumbotron Director Reacts to Salming Ceremony 

I have a very meaningful & special story about this man Borje Salming. I actually met Borje Salming here in the west end of Toronto at High Park 43 years ago in 1979, I was 5 & with my Uncle who took me to skate on the pond I lived near Grenadier Pond which is huge & would freeze over in the deadly winters we used to have compared to today. Anyone from Toronto & has been there knows what I mean. I was there just my 3rd time on skates, to the right of where I was I saw 2 men with sticks, a net & messing around with a puck, The puck made it's way over to me from a missed shot, as I grabbed it one of the men skated over to me. I knew Borje Salming from his picture & name from listening to Leaf Hockey games since the age of 3 quietly playing in my bedroom & fell asleep to on a transistor radio on CJCL1430AM, (Anyone old enough to remember knows what I'm talking about) & on Saturday nights on TV, the man skated over to me to come get his puck, that man was Borje Salming. I knew who he was right away & in his trademark raspy voice said "Hey thanks for grabbing our puck" I remember asking him his name to make sure lol, he said Borje, I said Salming? He nodded yes with a smile. I said I knew it lol. I said WOW in a 5yr old kind of way in my head. He said you know me? I said yes. Borje asked me if I was Hockey fan? I said yes & he asked who is your favorite team? I said the Maple Leafs of course, I also told him that he was my favorite player on the Leafs, he smiled again & said thank you so much. I told him I wanted to be in the NHL when I got bigger & be just like him skating end to end & scoring & he smiled again, I remember telling him skating was so hard, he laughed & said that he thought the same thing when he was small. He told me well if you want to get better, just keep getting onto any ice I could find to get better at skating & keep trying my very best & I would get better the more I did it. I said OK Mr Salming. I gave Borje the puck back, he asked his friend to grab something from his bag, his friend brought him a marker & Borje asked me my first name & then autographed the very same Maple Leaf puck I picked up & gave back to him, he autographed it to me personally & he also added "Keep Skating" Borje Salming #21. He shook my hand told me to keep skating kiddo with a smile. I followed Mr Salmings advice as I went back to Grenadier Pond everyday for the rest of that winter & every winter for the next 5 years as well as other rinks. I must have looked at that Hockey puck everyday for years after meeting him. 2 years after meeting Borje Salming I played in my first hockey league as a Defenceman, the 2nd year I played I won "MIP" (Most Improved Player) of course as a defenceman just like my HERO Borje Salming. Even though I never made it to the NHL I played in leagues until I was 20yrs old, then kept playing until I was 40 in Men's leagues until a work injury made me have to give up my first true love...Hockey. I now get to show my 3 Beautiful Daughters my 40 trophies, 20 medals, 10 plaques & a couple of newspaper articles written about me. Since I started playing Hockey I ALWAYS wore #21. That moment I met Borje Salming is seared into my memory FOREVER. That man who was a Star Defenceman in the NHL Borje Salming took that special time to spend with me, Borje Salming never had to do that for me at all. I'm forever so grateful of that & never will forget that. I'm so SAD & NO I am not too much of a man, or ashamed to say yes when I heard the news it felt like a the hardest gut punch that felt harder than any actual one I've ever received in real life & I had tears falling out of my eyes & down my face, all while images of that very special day in 1979 played over & over in my head. For this to happen to my childhood HERO literally shatters my heart & soul. This man Borje Salming nicknamed "The King" in Sweden is the man who made me truly believe I could play this beautiful game Hockey, a game that I love so very much in my heart & ever fibre of my being, and FOREVER will.😢🏒