Read The Goal of My Life for Free Online

should go out there and nail the first guy I had a chance to hit.
    “Get out there, son, and show them you are a player. Get out there and nail someone!” Those were his words of advice to me. He was so proud of the fact that his son was going to play an NHL game and that he would get to see it.
    I didn’t get into the game until the second period. When I finally got my first shift, I darted off the bench and onto the ice, determined to make a huge impression, with my dad’s words still ringing in my ears.
    So what did I do? I elbowed Dick Duff in the head eight seconds into my first shift! Off came Duff’s gloves and I was in my first NHL fight. We threw a few punches and I managed to wrestle him to the ice. I could have really drilled him, as I had him in a headlock, but I wasn’t a fighter and neither was he. So the referee stepped in and pulled us apart before either one of us did something stupid.
    Eight seconds into my NHL career and there I was, sitting in the penalty box for seven minutes – two for elbowing and five for fighting. While I was in there, two veteran Leafs players, Eddie Shack and Bobby Baun, skated by, calling me every name in the book and telling me they’d be coming after me the first chance they got. I’m sure my new teammates were wondering just who the heck this Henderson guy was! What a way to make your first impression in the NHL .
    I was saved that night, however, when Toronto took a penalty while I was in the box; the second my penalty ended, coach Sid Abel motioned me back to the bench to get our power-play unit on the ice. I leaped back over the boards onto the safety of that bench with just as much enthusiasm as I did coming onto the ice for my first NHL shift. That was the extent of Paul Henderson’s first contribution to the NHL .
    The next night we were back in Detroit against the Leafs, and my father wasn’t there – thank goodness! – for my first game in the Olympia. That was another historic building and another thrill, to play a home game in that great old barn. This time, I managed to get on the ice in the first period, although well into it. This time, my “victim” was Frank Mahovlich. Abel told me my job was to check Mahovlich and not let him get away from me, which wasnot an easy assignment. I lasted all of maybe ten seconds as Mahovlich got past me quickly on the outside, so I whacked him with a two-hander and down he went. He bounced right back up and came after me enraged, but before I could get into my second NHL fight, the linesman stepped in and saved me – to my relief, as I had no desire to fight a very angry Frank Mahovlich. The referee gave me a two-minute penalty for slashing.
    Boy, now the Leafs were really ready to kill me! But as soon as the penalty expired, an offside was called and once again Abel called me back to the bench.
    “For God’s sake, Henderson, can’t you stay on the ice?” Abel hollered at me. I didn’t see the ice again, so my big weekend NHL debut saw me play maybe twenty seconds and take nine minutes in penalties in two games. How is that for making an impact?
    I wanted to play in the NHL very badly, but after that experience and the following year during my first NHL camp, I realized I had a lot of things to work on before I would be ready for full-time duty. There was a huge difference between junior A and the NHL , but at least I had gotten a taste of what it was like.
    During my first NHL training camp with the Detroit Red Wings in September 1963, it was clear to me I still didn’t have enough experience to play in the NHL . It was only in my last two seasons of junior A that I had really gotten the chance to play a lot. To make the leap to the NHL was really more than I could handle at that time. Detroit had a lot of young and upcoming players at that camp – guys like Pit Martin, Larry Jeffrey, Lowell MacDonald, and Bob Wall. Even though I had a good camp and was probably thefastest skater there, I was sent down to