Free The Goal of My Life by Paul Henderson Page B

one, let me tell you, we were all saying, “Where’s Bobby Orr? We could really use him now!”
    It might have been a very different series with him in the lineup – we’ll never know. But we do know what a shame it was that Orr couldn’t have taken part in such a historic event. You had to feel for him – and feel for us for not being able to use him against the Russians.
    I was pleased that my teammate and linemate with the Maple Leafs Ron Ellis was also there. We knew how to play together, and when they put us on a line with Bobby Clarke, we seemed to hit it off together as a unit. We were kept as a line right from the very start.
    We came to training camp dead serious, and the three of us were ready to play. We worked our tails off and realized very early in the camp that, while we were long shots to form one of the top lines, we were going to make the team and contribute. We felt we were the best line at camp in the early going. We were fast, we could all hurt you offensively, and were responsible defensively as well. We might have started as the fifth, sixth, or even seventh line, but we came there with a purpose and we wanted to prove we could play with the best players in the world.
    It was obvious at camp that some of the other guys weren’t as prepared and didn’t take it as seriously as we did. Everybody on Team Canada was a star on his own team, and some of them were being asked to fill roles and do things they weren’t used to doing. And some would be asked to play only sparingly and sit out some games because we had such a large roster. It was management’s feeling that we needed a lot of players because we were playing in the off-season andsome guys wouldn’t be in the greatest shape, so everyone would end up getting a chance to play.
    It didn’t work out that way, as some guys didn’t get to play at all. We all had to adapt and learn to play together in a hurry. The only line that played together on a regular basis in the NHL was the Rod Gilbert–Vic Hadfield–Jean Ratelle unit, so the rest of us had to find at least one new linemate and try to make it work quickly. Ron and I were really lucky – our line clicked early in the camp, while other combinations struggled.
RON ELLIS ON PLAYING WITH HENDERSON AND CLARKE
    We were the only line that stayed together for all eight games in the series. We had such great players at that training camp and on our roster, so for us to have stayed together for the entire series was an amazing thing. But really, looking back on it now, I can see how we were able to do it. First of all, Paul and I were friends and we’d played together for several years by then and were comfortable together. With Team Canada, they picked Bobby Clarke to play on the line with us and he was the kind of player that fit with Paul and me perfectly. In a lot of ways he was just a younger version of Norm Ullman, a great playmaker and tenacious forechecker who would do anything to win. Paul and I didn’t have to change our game one bit against the Russians thanks to pairing us with Bobby Clarke, so it really did work out for the best for us. We were a real line right from the get-go
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    Despite the problems in managing such a large roster, I think if we had to do it all over again we’d have picked thesame guys. Maybe some guys didn’t work quite hard enough to merit playing time, or maybe some guys just couldn’t find the right linemates. Whatever the case, you are always going to have some issues when you have that many stars all together. They picked the right players for this huge assignment, no doubt in my mind.
    In the Red–White game, I scored twice and Clarke scored once in a 5–3 win for our team that really cemented us as one of the top lines as the series drew near. The series would open at the Montreal Forum, and we felt as ready as we could be.
    How wrong we were about that.
    In the dressing room at the Forum before game one, we were like caged animals. We were so