PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Börje Salming is one of Swedish hockey’s greatest ever.
He became a blue-yellow pioneer in the NHL and paved the way for so many compatriots.
Now it is revealed exactly how the icon welcomed all Swedes to North America.
After two SM golds with Brynäs, it was time for Börje Salming to leave Swedish soil in 1973 and take the step across the Atlantic to try his luck in North America. He came to Canada and the classic big team Toronto Maple Leafs, where Salming became one of the very first Swedes to make a mark in the NHL.
Salming’s career
It would be a full 17 seasons in Toronto where the Swede became a true icon and to this day is the club’s leading point scorer on the back side. In total, it was an impressive 787 points in 1,148 games in the world’s best hockey league and a last closing NHL season in the Detroit Red Wings.
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Salming would change the way North Americans looked at hockey players from Europe and became a tone-setting pioneer for all other Swedes who would follow to the NHL. To this day, people talk extremely warmly about Börje Salming’s great impact in both Canada and the USA.
READ MORE: Börje Salming’s last wish in life – older brother Stig Salming reveals the icon’s plea: “It was his demand”
Börje’s nice gesture
On November 24, the Swedish hockey icon died of complications from the nerve disease ALS, he was 71 years old and has been mourned and celebrated throughout the hockey world. Former Swedish hockey players have honored the great Börje and also been reminded of how much he meant to their own careers.
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Several have also revealed that Salming had a nice gesture to welcome all Swedes to the NHL, which he often brought out on the ice to show his great respect and hospitality. A small gesture that still means so much to new Swedes, regardless of how good you were, in a foreign country.
– I remember the first time I met Börje with St. Louis. It was in Toronto. In the warm-up he went up to me and patted me on the shin guards and wished me luck. I will never forget that, he says Jörgen Pettersson, who played 435 NHL games for the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals, for Hockey Sweden.
– When I was in the Washington Capitals’ first year and played against Toronto in their arena, he came up, patted me on the shin pads during the warm-up and welcomed me to the NHL. He was tough to deal with but always with decent means, says Rolf “The Rat” Edbergwho played 184 NHL games for the Washington Capitals.
READ MORE: Powerful moment from Börje Salming’s career – which most Swedes missed completely: “The jubilation that followed”
After the successful time in North America, Salming moved home to Sweden in 1990 to end his career with three seasons in AIK. Even then, the celebrated NHL icon showed his great respect for his teammates.
– The best memory I have of Börje was his humility and big heart as a person. When he came to AIK, he had learned every player’s name. It says everything about his greatness, says the former teammate Thomas “Osten” Östlund to the hockey site.
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