Height: 6-1
Weight: 195
Shoot: -
Born: 6 Feb 1957, Edmonton AB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1977-78 | Edmonton | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
Edmonton Journal, March 2, 1978
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Untitled • by Terry Jones • The Edmonton Journal • March 10, 1978
It was a long, hard, frustrating day. The kind of day that convinces an old hockey player that he doesn't want to sign for another season. The day started Wednesday, with a 6 a.m. wake-up call. Edmonton Oilers decided they'd pass a mid-afternoon direct flight from Houston to Cincinnati and take a more involved route in order to be able to practice here. It didn't work out that way. Despite the early start, the club didn't arrive here until 13 hours later. They spent most of the day fogged in at the Atlanta airport. To Jim Cross and Craig Topolnisky, a very forgettable day on the road, was what memories are made of. To two young men who wouldn't have given you a Minnesota Fighting Saints souvenir puck in lieu of a plug nickle for their chances of ever playing in a professional hockey major league, being up with Edmonton Oilers in this mightmarish time of crisis is strictly dream city. While the veterans moaned and groaned, the two kids mentioned that it beat riding a bus. And buses were supposed to be the only transportation they'd ride for the rest of their careers. Dreams, they say, are made in heaven and end in Johnstown, Pa. But some dreams end in Spokane, Wash. And others in St. Albert, Alberta. Jim Cross joined the Oilers in Houston. Wednesday was his first day actually travelling with the team. "I'd given up any chance," he said, as he sat waiting for the fog to lift in Atlanta. "Brian Shaw convinced me to go to Flint, Mich., in the International League at the start of the year. I played three exhibition games but I wasn't getting anywhere. My heart wasn't in it. I came home and it wasn't until just before Christmas that I decided to play for Doug Messier in St. Albert." If it wasn't for Al Hamilton, Joe Micheletti and Dave Langevin being injured, Jim Cross wouldn't be here. Matter of fact, if it wasn't for the official opening of the new St. Albert Arena he wouldn't be here either. "Glen Sather was invited to the opening and I guess I impressed him a little bit." Asked if he thought he'd be in Cincinnati today, if Sather hadn't gone to that one game, he said "I don't think so." Things don't get much dreamier. Cross is playing for nothing. At least, for the moment. "I don't know what the deal is," he said, "And I don't really care." The Oilers have worked it out with Saints coach Messier to allow Cross to play with the team and still protect his amateur status, Word is he'll get $150 a game but won't be paid until after the season. And that's if he decides to accept the money and forfeit the chance to rejoin Saints during the playoffs. "All the details were worked out with Doug Messier. All I know is that I can play and still not worry about my amateur status. I'm not here for the money anyhow," commented Cross. Sather finds himself in a quandary, however. St. Albert has lost two straight in the playoffs and they want Cross back. "St. Albert has been so good about it. I don't want to make them mad but I don't want to give Cross back either. I really don't know what I'm going to do." ... Or as Cross puts it: "Even if this turns out to be it, it would be worthwhile. Just to be able to see what it was like. To see if I was good enough. Or how far away I was." The long hours in airports, and sometimes longer hours in arenas, just aren't long enough for Craig Topolnisky and Jim Cross. They don't want to go to sleep in case they wake up and find out the dream is over. |
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