A role player who bounced between the minor leagues and the NHL in the 1980s, Mike Moller is a junior hockey legend in Canada.
Born in Calgary, Moller was chosen 41st overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 1980 after two outstanding seasons in the WHL with the Lethbridge Broncos. A WHL all star, Moller became a hockey legend in Canada when he scored 14 points in seven games to help Canada win its first gold medal at the World Junior Championships. That 1982 team was the first Canadian team in the famed "Program of Excellence."
That 1982 team, which featured both Mike and his brother Randy, will forever be remembered as the Canadian team that sang their own anthem after capturing gold. The hosts in Rochester, Minnesota inexplicably did not have a copy of the Canadian national anthem to play at the gold medal ceremony.
"The bottom line is they should have played it because we had won the gold medal," said Mike Moller.
But the proud Canadians came up with their own solution.
"It wasn't planned, but finally a few guys at the end of the line said, 'Sing it ourselves, boys,'" Moller said. "So we stood there shoulder to shoulder and belted out what was probably the worst rendition of our national anthem."
The song may have been out of key, but it never sounded better. And ever since Canadian teams belt out "O Canada" loud and proud when winning an international hockey tournament.
Read the full Mike Moller biography
No comments:
Post a Comment