The NHL All-Star Game(s) is/are different now. Not worse. Not better. Just different. (Pluralization being required tells you something.)
This weekend at San Jose marks the 64th incarnation of the affair. It's more spectacle than serious: A high-octane three-on-three tournament that mimics NHL overtime, and a skills competition that's equal parts Globetrotters and radar gun. The Penguins will be well-represented by Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang.
But there was a time when the NHL All-Star Game was competitive. Checks were finished. No kidding. The players wanted to win. The MVP got a car. Given the much smaller salaries in those days, a free car meant a lot.
Pittsburgh's First NHL All-Star MVP
By
Mark Madden / Pittsburgh Penguins
Mario Lemieux won three All-Star Game MVPs in six years, distributing the cars among family members. He had two goals and an assist as a rookie in 1985 at Calgary; three goals, three assists and the OT winner in 1988 at St. Louis; and four goals in 1990 when the game was played at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena.
Penguins center Syl Apps scored twice to win the wheels in 1975 at the Montreal Forum.
But the Penguins' original All-Star Game MVP was left winger Greg Polis.
Polis scored two goals for the West Division in a 5-4 loss to the East at New York's Madison Square Garden on Jan. 30, 1973.
Polis rushed to New York just after the birth of his first child, a son named Jason. "I'm kind of numb," he said after. "I don't think I slept more than an hour of the last 36."
But adrenaline took over when Polis was on the ice. He skated on a line with teammate Lowell MacDonald and Philadelphia legend Bobby Clarke.
Polis' first goal came when he netted the rebound of a shot by Clarke. Polis almost made a great night perfect when he just missed threading a goalmouth pass to MacDonald for what would have been a good chance at a tying goal as the game approached its end.
It was a crazy night: Boston's Bobby Orr, hockey's best defenseman ever, skated for the East - and was on the ice for all four of the West's goals, including both of Polis'.
But it was perhaps the most enduring moment of Polis' NHL career. It was his third straight (and last) NHL All-Star appearance.
"I looked at my baby for the first time 20 minutes after he was born," Polis said. "He wasn't washed yet and I said to myself, 'What a miracle.' I thought I'd try to play well for my child in the All-Star Game so that someday I could tell him about it. I thought if I was able to score a goal, I could save the puck for him for when he grows up."
Polis got two pucks for his son, and a car for himself: A Dodge Charger, to be exact.
A first-round pick (seventh overall) in 1970, Polis played for the Penguins from 1970-74. A 6-foot, 195-pounder of considerable strength, Polis had 68 goals in 256 games with Pittsburgh and 142 goals in 615 total NHL games. He had the Penguins' first-ever 30-goal season in 1971-72.
Polis was my favorite Penguin when I was a kid. That All-Star Game wasn't televised in Pittsburgh. Highlights can't be found on YouTube. (That web site's only evidence that Polis played in the NHL is him fighting the New York Rangers' Carol Vadnais when Polis was with Washington at his career's end.)
That All-Star Game wasn't broadcast on Pittsburgh radio, either. Imagine a frantic 12-year-old navigating the AM radio dial to find it. If memory serves, I listened via the New York Rangers' flagship, WNBC.
Polis passed away this past March 18 after a brief battle with cancer. He also played for St. Louis, the Rangers and Washington. But he always considered himself a Penguin.
Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).
