Height: 5-10
Weight: 195
Shoot: L
Born: 20 Sep 1952, High River AB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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McMasters Tries and Tries Again • by Rich Passan • The Hockey Spectator • March 16, 1973
Cleveland Crusaders' defenseman Jim McMasters is a confidence man. Better put, he's a young man who lacks the confidence he believes is necessary to make him into a better hockey player. "I lack it, that's all there is to it," McMasters analyzed his problems in his first season as a professional. "I feel within in myself I have the ability. It's just a matter of getting the confidence and showing everybody I can do the job." To this end, Jimmy tries everything. He is constantly asking questions of his teammates, particularly John Hanna, his partner on defense. He takes criticism constructively, a rare trait for such a young man. "I don't think anybody is going to say anything to harm me," he said, "I've never had anybody come up and tell me I couldn't play. I'm always trying to pick up some pointers." Jimmy is his own worst critic. Ask him to assess his performance this season, and he'll tell you something that goes like this: "I don't think I've improved as much as I can. I can't pinpoint the reason. Maybo I'm not working hard enough. I'm not trying to be modest. I'm sincere about it, I feel I can play a lot better than what I have." That must create doubts in his mind. "Sometimes, I wonder if I have what it takes," he said. "There are times I feel I shouldn't be playing and other times, I belleve I can. I'm not going to give up until I beat this confidence thing. I could say the hell with it and pack up and go home. But I don't have anything to fall back on. I don't have much of an education. It's got to be hockey or nothing. I'd like to play the game as long as I can." McMasters had a similar confidence problem during his junior days at Calgary in the Wester Canada Junior Hockey League. "When I first came up in the juniors, I was making my moves a little slower than most of the guys," the blond native of Nanton, Alberta said. "Maybe that's what I'm doing now. I'm hesitating and being a little too cautious. I try not to make a mistake and wind up making one anyway because I hesitate. A couple times, I said the hell with it and went out and played the way I can and ended up making the same mistakes and thought about them the rest of the night." In order to get him going in juniors, Jimmy's coach moved him up on the left wing. In Cleveland, however, his value is on defense where Coach Bill Needham is trying to take advantage of his aggressiveness. But McMasters' aggression is in hibernation, and has been almost all season. Once his temper got away from him and he delighted Cleveland Arena fans by pounding out a unanimous decision over one of his opponents who gave him a cheap shot in the corner. Jim's afrald of making a mistake and believes by running at people he will make more than his share. "I find that's what they (the opponents) want me to do," he said. McMasters, being a first-year man, has been tested by some of the veterans around the World Hockey Association. In particular, John McKenzie, Mr. Nasty of the Philadelphia Blazers. "The two Macs are no strangers. McKenzie is also from Nanton. "I know him very well," said McMasters, who doesn't believe McKenzie is after him. "Maybe he's just trying to find out whether I'll back down," he said. "I don't think I have. I don't think he's deliberately picking on me. One of these days, I'm going to give it back to him." When he does that, but with a little more consistency, McMasters will have advanced to stage No. 2 in his development. "I keep hoping that each day I'm going to pop out of it," he said. "I look forward to getting on the ice every day to see if I've snapped out of it." At the advanced age of 20, however, there isn't any rush. He still has 15 or 20 more good seasons ahead to worry about now. |
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