Former Maple Leaf Gary Leeman looks back on the shot that changed his life
Article content
So when Gary Leeman came around after an Al MacInnis slap shot struck just behind his ear, looking up at worried Maple Leaf teammates, on-ice officials and doctors, his first semi-conscious flash was to fear the worst.
Article content
'I'd hit the ice, believing 'This is it, I'm gonna die,' ' Leeman recounted that night of Oct. 16, 1988. 'Those around me said I was making horrifying noises. I was down awhile, struggling to get my bearings. It got pretty traumatic. I knew right then the puck likely cracked my skull.'
Article content
Article content
He was correct in diagnosing the injury, but fortunately wrong about its finality or it being career-ending. Leeman went on to score 51 goals the next year and eventually win a Stanley Cup with Montreal. But the next six and a half years turned the young winger from East End Toronto into a different person. A young man's joy of playing his chosen sport for good money and hometown adulation was re-routed to a difficult dual path of body recovery and mental regression.
Article content
Today, a similarly stricken player would take a precautionary hiatus, maybe injured reserve or LTIR. Leeman was asked if he wanted to play the very next game, blindly adhering to hockey's oldest code of playing through pain, keeping your job and damn the consequences. The price would be enormous in his active days and in retirement would lead him to fight on behalf of other National Hockey Leaguers vexed by head injuries.
Article content
'Getting hit by that puck changed my life,' the 61-year-old told Postmedia over the lunch table.
Article content
Let's first rewind to when almost every NHLer feared being in the firing line of MacInnis, long before there was a hardest shot competition at the all-star game. With a release perfected against the side of his family barn in Cape Breton, N.S., his was clocked at 100-plus miles per hour. He'd infamously split goalie Mike Liut's mask on one blast and kept maintenance men in every rink on high alert to replace shattered Plexiglass.
Article content
MacInnis once broke a piece of the back board in St. Louis, too.
Article content
Article content
Article content
'The Flames could really move the puck and I was out covering the left point, trying to stay in front of his shot,' Leeman related. 'But MacInnis moved closer to centre and my head turned toward our net. I heard his release, but the shot was deflected (by teammate Al Iafrate). I felt a clunk on the left side of my head, with intense pain and instant ringing in my ear. Like someone had snuck up behind with a baseball bat and whacked you.
Article content
'As I lay there, it didn't help me knowing MacInnis had shot it. Your only thought at the time was survival. I do recall saying to myself, if you (pass out), you're not going to wake up.' It was that serious.'
Article content
Toronto's trainer, Guy Kinnear, quickly attended Leeman, but under frugal owner Harold Ballard, the Leafs didn't employ a year-round athletic therapist. And this was definitely not a shot block Leeman could simply skate off.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Edmonton Journal
14 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
McDavid's real value is $50 million year, NHL insider speculates
This in from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, his speculation that in a much freer market situation the Edmonton Oilers would be happy to pay Connor McDavid $50 million per year. Article content Talking about the overall trend in player negotiations this off-season, Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast: 'I think a lot of players expect that the two highest salaries after this wave of signings are going to be McDavid and (the Wild's Kirill) Kaprizov. And look, I don't think anyone's going to have issue. If the Oilers could pay McDavid $50 million, he would deserve $50 million.' Article content Article content Friedman continued: 'And Kaprizov is a great player in a great spot to hit it big. So once those players sign, I think you'll see some of those other potential top UFAs next year say, okay, now the top, top, top of the market has been set. It's easier for me to find the sweet spot or the comfortable place with the team to go after those two guys are done.' Article content Article content 1. I've often wondered what McDavid might be paid if there were no salary cap and he was an unrestricted free agent. The most he can get in a salary capped NHL is 20 per cent of Edmonton's salary cap allotment, which would mean $19.1 million on a new deal. Article content Of course, McDavid is worth that much and far more. Article content But of course, if McDavid signed for as much as $19.1 million per year under the current salary cap system it would mean less cap space to sign other top players and less chance of winning a Stanley Cup. Article content Article content The cap system presents a brutal conundrum to the very top players in this manner. Article content 2. But back to Friedman's speculation. I wondered about a way to test his idea, and came up with this quick back-of-the envelope survey, to look at what the three other top players in the top North American leagues in basketball, football and baseball made in 2025, then compare that to the revenue brought in by their team. Article content When we do that we see that of all these great players McDavid — due to the hard cap model of the NHL's collective agreement — earned by far the least percentage of his team's 2024 revenues. He made $12.5 million, which is 3.2 per cent of Edmonton's $388 million estimated revenue in 2023-24, as reported by Forbes magazine (the source of all the dollar figures here). Article content But what if McDavid took home the same percentage as Dallas Cowboy star Dak Prescott, the highest paid pro football player in America? Prescott makes $127 million, which is 10.6 per cent of the $1.2 billion in revenues made by the Cowboys.
CTV News
17 hours ago
- CTV News
Mboko's enjoying her breakthrough under NBO spotlight
Fans hold up a placard as they cheer for Victoria Mboko of Canada during her game against Coco Gauff of the United States during round of 16 tennis action at the National Bank Open in Montreal, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi MONTREAL — What a difference a week can make. Last Sunday, as Victoria Mboko was getting set to make her National Bank Open debut against Australia's Kimberly Birrell, many spectators at IGA Stadium's Centre Court in Montreal could be forgiven for not knowing too much about the 18-year-old from Toronto. Now, you'd be hard-pressed to find any tennis fan in Montreal, let alone the entire country, who isn't talking about Mboko. The last remaining Canadian in either the men's or women's draws of the NBO tournament, all eyes will be focused on Mboko Monday night as she contests her first-ever quarterfinal at a WTA 1000 level tournament against Spain's Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro. The match comes on the heels of a dominant win over world No. 2 and the tournament's top seed Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday night in a match that lasted just 62 minutes. 'Obviously, she's doing great,' said Guillaume Marx, Tennis Canada's vice-president of high performance on Sunday. 'I think she stands up to the moment. She was impressed, I believe, by the crowd yesterday because it was packed. You rarely play in a stadium that is fully packed with people cheering behind you. 'I believe she was impressed and she delivered. For her confidence, it's just huge.' 'I think a big win like that, it changes expectations a little bit and it can definitely add some pressure,' said Madison Keys following her three-set win against Karolina Muchova on Sunday afternoon. 'I think people start maybe expecting a little bit more of you, but at the same time, you're also still young and there's lots of tennis ahead of you. There's going to be lots of ups and lots of downs.' Mboko, who was born in Charlotte, N.C., but moved to Canada at a young age, spent almost the entirety of 2024 training at the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium. However, Mboko reached out to Tennis Canada last November about the possibility of training full-time in her adopted country. Marx points to that decision as one of the catalysts behind her success this season. 'I think when you take big decisions in life, it's powerful,' he said. 'Once she told us she thought she wanted to try something different and that she wanted us to be there for her, we built a team around her so that it would work.' Having started the year ranked outside the top 300, Mboko has skyrocketed her way all the way up to 85th in the world, and counting. The teenage sensation is 50-9 on the season across all competitions, including a stretch of 22 consecutive match wins — all in straight sets — at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Challenger tour level. Mboko also impressed at the Grand Slam level this year, qualifying for both the French Open and Wimbledon, where she reached the third and second rounds, respectively. 'For me, it's a breakthrough,' said Marx. 'For sure, her world is changing. One month ago, she was practising here and was saying how she wanted to see how everything looked. She had never been here during the tournament. She was really excited to play. 'She is on a really amazing run. I think she will understand after the tournament that her world is kind of changing. She will have to cope with that, keep going and just keep improving.' 'It's been really great to kind of watch her,' added Keys. 'I think she's a fantastic tennis player and I don't think any of us were too surprised that she's kind of had the rise that she's had.' The youngest Canadian quarter-finalist at the tournament since Helen Kelesi in 1987, Mboko will continue to count on a lot of support from the Canadian faithful against Bouzas Maneiro, the world's No. 51-ranked player. Marx cautions, though, that Monday's match may prove to be a trap for Mboko. 'She's playing an opponent who has nothing to lose,' said Marx. 'I think she has to have confidence in her tennis. Regardless, win or lose, this match won't change her career. She will continue to progress.' There is quite a bit on the line for Mboko, however. Should Mboko win her next match, she would receive a Special Exemption directly into the main draw of the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, which begins Thursday. Failing that, Mboko would have to compete in the tournament's two-round qualifying draw, which starts Tuesday. Marx is unsure if Mboko would compete in Cincinnati in the event of a loss on Monday, given the travel and tight turnaround time between those matches. Mboko is already assured a spot in the main draw of the U.S. Open, which begins later this month, the first time she will receive direct entry into a Grand Slam tournament in her career. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2025. Jordan Stoopler, The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
18 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Swiatek upset at NBO; Keys, Osaka, Tauson advance to quarterfinals
Iga Swiatek's National Bank Open has come to an end in the fourth round. The world's third-ranked player and reigning Wimbledon champion fell in straight sets 7-6 (1), 6-3 to Denmark's Clara Tauson on a cool and windy Sunday night at Montreal's IGA Stadium. Swiatek, who had lost just eight combined games through her opening two matches of the tournament, was eliminated one night after top seed Coco Gauff's premature exit to Canadian Victoria Mboko, also in the fourth round. After her upset win over Gauff, Mboko is the headliner in Montreal NBO It was Tauson's first win in four career meetings with Swiatek. The Poland tennis star most notably beat her in the fourth round at Wimbledon last month on her way to the championship. Tauson, the world No. 19 and 16th seed in Montreal, has yet to drop a set in the tournament. She converted on three of her five break point opportunities, while saving seven of the nine break points she faced. She advances to the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 tournament for just the second time in her career. The Dane made it to the finals of this year's Dubai Tennis Championships, losing to Mirra Andreeva in straight sets. Swiatek was broken early in the first set, but managed to get the break back to force a first-set tiebreak. Tauson took advantage of a powering serve and repeated unforced errors from Swiatek to dominate the tiebreak 7-1. A visibly frustrated Swiatek stopped to speak with her coach on her way off to the locker room following that first set. Her frustration was not quelled upon her return for the second set. Swiatek was broken in the fourth game of the set to fall behind 3-1. The six-time Grand Slam champion would break back in the seventh game, but immediately coughed the break up the following game on a double fault. Tauson held serve at 5-3 to secure the win and her spot in the quarterfinals. Tauson will next play American Madison Keys on Tuesday. The sixth-seed rebounded from a one-set deficit to beat Czechia's Karolina Muchova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 earlier Sunday. 'Clara's a fantastic ball striker,' said Keys. 'She's got a big serve. She's got a lot of power on both sides. 'She covers the court quite well on top of everything, so I feel like she's one of those matches where you kind of have to temper a little bit and not go for things too quickly.' Keys, a runner-up at the 2016 tournament in Montreal, matched Ana Ivanovic for the longest gap between quarterfinal appearances at the event in the Open Era. Keys had not made it past the second round in Canada since losing to Simona Halep in that final nine years ago. The win also gave Keys her 75th career win against a player ranked inside the top 20 of the WTA rankings. After squandering a breakpoint opportunity of her own in just the second game of the match, Keys was broken at love the following game to fall behind 2-1. While breaks of serve were exchanged in the sixth and seventh games, that early break proved to be just enough for Muchova to take the opening set 6-4. Keys bounced back in the second set. The 2025 Australian Open champion took advantage of an untimely double fault by Muchova, her first of the match, to break the Czech's service and pull ahead 3-1. Keys ultimately forced a decider, sealing the second set with a 172 km/h ace. Despite opening the third and final set with a break of serve, there was plenty of adversity for Keys. After being broken back in the fourth game, Keys was forced to fend off a pair of match points in the 10th game. This galvanized Keys, who broke the following game on her way to the win. Japan's Naomi Osaka cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory in just 49 minutes over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova to also advance to the quarterfinals. 'I'm definitely really happy,' said Osaka. 'Today was obviously faster than I thought it would be, but I'm really happy with how the game plan went. I'm excited to play my next match.' Osaka hit five aces, committed no double faults and was a perfect five-for-five on her break point opportunities. She is the first Japanese player in the Open Era to reach multiple quarterfinals at the tournament, also in 2019. The former world No. 1 and four-time Grand Slam champion has been steadily working her way backup the rankings after missing the entire 2023 season while on maternity leave. Osaka, currently ranked 49th in the world, is expected to jump at least 15 more spots with the win. 'I talked to my dad and he said just being healthy and happy is a form of success,' said Osaka. 'I agree with that, but I want more. 'Of course, I would want to win Slams, I would want to be in top 10, but I think I need to pace myself and go for the mini goals. Eventually, they'll turn into the big goals.' Osaka will face the winner of Sunday night's matchup between 2025 Wimbledon finalist and fifth seed Amanda Anisimova and Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, the tournament's 10th seed. The National Bank Open continues until Thursday.
