Burger the Puck on Comebacks
Published in February 2001 -  Diane Lau

Yo, friends of hockey, it’s your old pal Burger—it’s good to be doing a little  journalistic stint again. I’ve been busy not only playing hockey, but also fielding all your great Hockey Freak of Nature nominations, and let me say thanks to all for the great response so far. But today’s subject relates to pucks, and when the subject is pucks, baby, I’m there.

There’s been a lot of talk around the league about the comeback of Mario Lemieux, and so far it certainly stands out as one of the more successful returns to pro sports in history. I’m all for that, I’m happy for Mario, but the unfortunate thing is that all the brouhaha has overshadowed a comeback just as exciting.

Of course I’m talking about the return of 802.

On March 23, 1994, the great puck christened Patty O’Fudge was knocked past Kirk McLean to mark the 802nd goal of the marvelous Wayne Gretzky. The Great Western Forum erupted in hysterical cheers as the Great One earned his place as the finest goal scorer hockey has ever seen. Patty was scooped up, labeled, and took his place in history. He’s been a legend ever since, and now he’s revered by pucks everywhere simply as 802.

But I’m here to tell you 802 was a Great One even before that day. He was one of the Los Angeles Kings’ most talented pucks. He could hop the stick of the most able passer on the opposition…he always kept himself from deflecting into the crowd…and he was absolutely the best at wobbling down the ice. He could wobble down the ice even in the first minute of a period, he was that good. I remember some commentator once saying, "The Kings would have given up a goal for sure if Roenick had been able to get that puck to settle down — seemed to have a mind of its own!"

O’Fudge had a mind of his own, all right. He was stubborn, feisty, always able to rebound off the opponents’ goalie. But that puck had a heart of gold. He spent the off seasons running the best training camp for pucks in the whole league. I should know, I graduated from that camp. I remember my first day, I was a complete freakshow from nerves, and Patty came by to review the troops. I guess he could tell how scared I was, because he leaned over to me and said, "You know the one essential thing you need to succeed as a puck, son? You gotta be made of black rubber. The rest is up to you." Man, that stuck with me all these years, got me through some nerve-wracking times, not the least of which as you know was when I got trapped in Garth Snow’s hockey pants and no one could hear me screaming and I thought I’d end up dying in there…but this article isn’t about me.

As happy as we all were to see Patty leave the ice and enter the hallowed halls of history as 802, there’s never been anyone who could quite replace him. And it wasn’t only his talent on the ice. The guy was a leader in the freezer as well. The story goes that during the 93 Cup Finals, when everyone had the jitters, O’Fudge was the one who settled the pucks down. "What are we made of?!?" he shouted, and his compatriots yelled back, "BLACK RUBBER!" and then they went out and played the game of their lives. He had a way of galvanizing—oh wow, that’s a really excellent pun, hey?—a bunch of pucks into a real team. After he retired his presence was acutely felt. A team that made the Stanley Cup finals the year before just wasn’t the same. Some even say it had a lot to do with Gretzky’s looking for another team to play for.

So you can imagine how we all felt when the rumors started circulating that 802 was going to make a comeback. Lemieux, schlemieux—all pucks cared about was whether Patty O’Fudge was truly going to take to the ice again. We hadn’t had a hero in a long time, it seemed like the glory days of great pucks were as departed as the Ghosts of the Forum. When 802 announced he was returning to play again with the Kings, well, I for one thought I was dreaming. It wasn’t until I saw Kerry Fraser drop him at center ice that I really got my mind around the fact that 802 was back.

That first game, on January 6, 2001, 802 proved to us he hadn’t lost a bit of his greatness. It didn’t take him even a minute to shake off the frost and make a difference. In his first shift back on the ice he pulled off a perfect "quick whistle trick" by hopping into the Kings goal after a stoppage in play. The Flames were so irritated by what they foolishly thought was a quick whistle, they completely lost their composure and Stumpel scored on them. The game ended up a 5-0 victory for the home team, and again, I had to pinch myself (which never works real well with pucks) to check if I was dreaming.

Of course, at the time Mario Lemieux was four games into his own comeback, and the papers all over the league were too busy reporting on his goals, assists, remarks, daydreams, requests to room service, choices in socks, reflections on the state of national raisin consumption, whatever, to take notice of the greatest comeback in puck history. Let me also add that Patty O’Fudge had no financial investment in the success of the L.A. Kings, no motivation to return to the game other than the fact that he missed it with all his little black rubber heart.

I got the opportunity to talk briefly to 802 the other day over the phone while I was playing with Dallas in San Jose. "Patty," I said, "most of us pucks can only imagine what a glorious day it was when you became Gretzky’s 802nd goal puck. Can you tell me how it felt?" And you know what that grand and wondrous master of the game said to me? "Not half as glorious as I did January 6, 2001, son."

It’s hard to figure what a guy is made of who feels that much love for the game. But I can tell you one thing, it’s more than just black rubber.

Here’s to the next 802 goals, Patty!