Maven's Memories: Mick Vukota's Unforgettable Night

As an Islander, Marinko (Mick) Vukota is affectionately remembered as: 1. A team player; 2. A fearless ice cop; 3. A good guy with the fans.
What he was not is a sniper. Not even close. Maybe a few miles West of being a Mike Bossy, but that didn't matter to the Islanders scouting staff.
Birddogs who watched Vukota in junior hockey with the Winnipeg Warriors, Kelowna Wings and Spokane Chiefs were impressed with his rugged play. And when he went undrafted, General Manager Bill Torrey signed him.

"Scoring goals was not what Bill Torrey wanted me for and I knew that," the hulking Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native admitted. "But I knew I had to pay my dues in the minors before making it to The Show."
Torrey inked the 6-1, 225 pounder on March 2, 1987, sent him to the American Hockey League to be sure he had done the right thing. Then Bill waited for the apple of his eye to ripen.
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That Vukota did and was promoted to the big club near the end of the 1987-88 season. He played 17 games and impressed more with his enthusiasm than his goal stick. But that didn't really matter.
Mick was hired primarily as the club's ice cop and demon forechecker. He was nicknamed "Mick The Quick" because his fists moved faster than a high-speed locomotive's pistons. In short, he impressed but not necessarily as a sniper.
"I was up for a 'cup of coffee' and managed to get myself one goal and an invite to make the big team the next season," Mick recalled, "and that was good enough for me."
Not surprisingly Vukota's PPG (penalty-per-game) mark was much better than his offense. He totaled 82 PIM, averaging almost five minutes per tilt and it wasn't for being an expert at dancing the cha-cha-cha.
It's not that Mick didn't want to score goals -- he really, really did -- but playing an intimidating game was why he was here and that's precisely why he became a fan favorite.

One such Islanders rooter was a young Long Island resident, Zachary Weinstock. Years later -- partly inspired by Mick -- Zack co-authored (with me) the book, "Rivalry," all about the Rangers-Isles intense battles over the years.
Weinstock was typical of young fans who simultaneously looked on Vukota as a role model and protector of the stars.
"I cherished him because he was tough," Weinstock remembers, "and his presence gave the Islanders an edge. It mattered if your enforcer was good at enforcing and Mick was good at that; a great gift to our team."
During the 1988-89 season Vukota upped his game total to 48 while his penalty-minutes soared to a grandiose 234 minutes. He doubled his goal output to two and added a pair of assists.
"Mick came into his own a year later (1989-90)," author Weinstock recalled. "As a young fan, I always looked forward to seeing Mick against the Rangers."
In one collision with Blueshirts center Carey Wilson, Vukota remained standing while Wilson wound up sidelined for two months.
Another of Mick The Quick's targets was big Blueshirts toughie Kris King. Vukota deposed that King in short order.
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"Vukota had become the prototypical 1980s tough guy," The Hockey News author Ronnie Shuker noted. "He was better known for sitting in the sin bin for five minutes at a time."
That is, until the night of October 20, 1989 at Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. It was a contest during which Mick enjoyed five minutes of fame -- on the ice not in the penalty box.
Vukota: "We were on the team bus heading to the arena and I was thinking about how I could contribute to the team in a way other than just physical play. I hadn't been getting the ice time I'd hope for.
"Plus, we were playing the Capitals and that was the only other NHL team I had tried out for and eventually Washington had cut me."
As the Islanders team bus rolled toward the Caps rink, deep in the District of Columbia's suburbs, Vukota's mood captured the attention of teammate superstar center Pat LaFontaine.
"I don't know if I was pouting," Mick asserted, "but it was obvious that something was bothering me and Patty pulled me aside and asked me to sit with him.
"Patty said, 'Make sure you understand that your role is just as important as my role on this team. I have to do my job and you're doing your job. It's as important as mine.'"

In a real sense, the LaFontaine pep talk proved a catharsis for Mick The Quick. Shuker of The Hockey News was one who remembered the turnabout well.
"Vukota disembarked from the bus at Capital Centre feeling inspired," Shuker recalled. "His worry had subsided -- washed away in the wake of LaFontaine's impromptu motivational speech.
"But Vukota had no idea of just how impactful that pep talk from the team's scoring leader would be until he hit the ice."
Not that Vukota went nuts altering his pre-game routine. He examined his regular stick, slapped on tape in its usual pattern and took his pre-game skate just as he always did.
Every so often, he'd look over across the two blue lines to the enemy end and recall that the Capitals was the team that sent him home from camp not that long ago. Then it was back to the visitors' bench and the opening face-off.
With a little more than half of the first period elapsed, the unusual took place. At exactly 10:08 Mick had kicked the puck to his stick and with a snap shot he scored the first goal of the game.
Less than five minutes later Mick's avid forechecking produced a turnover in front of the Capitals net. Vukota wasted no time sweeping the rebound into the net.
Mick: "After that goal we lined up for the face-off and, to be honest with you, I was expecting Washington to send somebody out to fight. We were up 2-0 on the road, and it was me, of all people, causing the mayhem."
No one challenged the Islanders big guy so he played on his momentum. Just past the 15-minute mark he used his stick as a harpoon, poking the puck where it belonged, over the red goal line.
The score now was -- unbelievably -- Vukota 3, Capitals 0 on a natural hat trick. It was a once in a lifetime event for Mick The Quick. So much so that he earned a chapter in the book, The Greatest Game I Ever Played.
"My teammates were so happy for me," Vukota concluded. "That's what I remember most from that night. A lot of nights, you're out there banging away, trying to help the team by fighting and doing whatever is needed.
"But to chip in offensively and have the guys appreciate it really made that night memorable more than anything."

Postscript:
Speaking of "more than anything," I have to add that I will never forget how Vukota entered my family's life at a critical time.
This was late July 1993 when my younger son, Simon, 15, and an avid Islanders fan, was a patient in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital awaiting a heart transplant.
Mick and teammate Derek King came to visit and cheer up the lad. They brought along a portable hockey game and stayed for an hour, talking hockey and cheering my kid. They soon left but the visit never was forgotten.
Eventually, the "goal" was scored. A few weeks later Simon received his new heart and on March 3, 2020 -- married and the father of three hockey-playing children in Israel -- he celebrated his 42d birthday.
What did the Vukota-King visit mean to Simon? Looking backward, he puts it this way:
"It was very moving and very sweet. Sitting in bed with Mick and Derek right beside me was like being with my best friends. They were real people. You'd never know they were guys who played before 16,000 people. It was unforgettable."