Height: 6-2
Weight: 185
Shoot: R
Born: 19 Jul 1948, Medford MA
| 
|
Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Chicago | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
• Member, United States Olympic Team, 1972.
|
The Canadianization of Dick McGlynn • by Reid Grosky • The Hockey Spectator • December 15, 1972
One of the projects for the Chicago Cougars so far this season has been the Canadianization of Dick McGlynn. McGlynn is the only American on the Cougars, a fact that bothered the 24-year-old rookie defenseman before he reported to the team. Guys like Reggie Fleming and Larry Cahan, he feared would hear his New England accent, would see his 1972 U.S. Olympic badge, and couldn't stop laughing. Then they'd learn he had a college degree and never even played in the minors. Their laughs would turn to resentment. "It didn't happen and I was really surprised," McGlynn says with relief. "The team started out slow and things didn't look too well. They came up with an assortment of nicknames for me (Preppie is the current favorite). But through it all they were pretty friendly and they tried to help me." McGlynn admits that at times he needed plenty of help. For instance. he made a big mistake in his second exhibition game. He forgot to duck. The next thing he remembers, the Cougar trainer was reviving him with smelling salts. "I got knocked cold." McGlynn says sheepishly. "I got the pass off and I started skating up the ice and somebody hit me from the blind side. I think I got a stick across the head. I never saw it coming." End Lesson 1 for McGlynn, the pride and joy of Medford. Mass., and one of the new breed of hockey players spawned by expansion. When many of his present teammates were kids playing organized hockey around cities like Montreal and Toronto, McGlynn was just starting to bat the puck around his back yard. When they were playing the Canadian junior leagues, he was captaining Catholic Memorial High School, bound for Colgate University. When they were breaking into the majors and minors, he was getting drafted into the Army. "I'm behind my pace right now," McGlynn says. "But I'm not that far behind because I had that Olympic and World Cup experience and it was a great help. I learned that style of game and now I have to adapt and learn the pro style." McGlynn insists that pro hockey "is 90 percent experience and 10 percent ability." "I've found that a lot of amateurs skate and shoot and pass just as well as the pros, but they may lack confidence and experience and hesitate just a bit." McGlynn, who as a member of the U. S. National team, played hockey around the world, says that the Europeans "are very, very good. But it's a different style of hockey. People say they're not rough enough. But they play on rinks that are much larger, and it's not to their advantage to be rough. It's to their advantage to have more finesse. It's very effective against a team that tries to use the body on them. I think the Canadians adapted their style to the larger rinks over there and that's why they did better. But they tried roughhouse tactics over here first, and it didn't work."' McGlynn and his U. S. Olympic teammates, who played the Russians in Sapporo, Japan, probably were among the least surprised at the problems Team Canada faced in the Super Bowlski of hockey. "The Russians are tremendous players," he says. "and I'll tell you something else, besides our athletes, the Russians were probably the warmest, friendliest, and most gentlemanly athletes at the Olympics." An Olympic coach once called the 6-2. 182-pound McGlynn "the best defenseman I've ever coached." But that, again, was among amateurs, and American amateurs at that. "When I played in college," McGlynn says, "I was definitely an aggressive defenseman, and with the Olympic team I was aggressive. But here I might be just average in aggression. I'm slowly learning to become a little rougher. It is quite a transition." "Now," McGlynn continues, "I'm being schooled in the art of playing tough defense. In practice I might have an opportunity to hit somebody. And when I don't they'll blow the whistle and Marce (Coach Marcel Pronovost) or one of the guys will come over." And then, no doubt, it will be time for another lesson in the Canadianization of Dick McGlynn. |
_______________________________________
Home • Book • Credits & Legal Stuff
(c) Scott Surgent