As you may know, I’m a hockey guy. I’ve had the good fortunate to play with many hockey legends throughout my life, and I’ve heard many hockey related stories. While I was playing Tuesday, I heard a conversation between Kevin Holdridge and Brendan Morrison. They were talking about the famous goal that was scored in 1996, which would go on to be called the “Michigan”, because of the University of Michigan player that scored it.
I thought hockey fans might be interested to hear about how it started, so I asked Brendan to give me the story.
First, a little about Brendan for those of you who don’t know him. He won many awards in college hockey, including the Hobey Baker award in 1997 for top NCAA player. His NHL career consisted of 934 games, with 200 goals and 401 assists. He played a large majority of his career with the Vancouver Canucks, with stops in New Jersey, Washington, Anaheim, Dallas, Calgary and Chicago. More on what he’s doing now later.
Now, onto the “Michigan”. The player who did it first was a London, Ontario kid named Mike Legg. “B-Mo” told me how Mike would go back to skate and train during the summer, getting ready for the next season. He told me that Mike said there was a guy named Bill Armstrong, who showed him that move. “So he would practice it all the time, and then he came to school, and I remember watching him do it in practice for the first time. Nobody actually believed what had happened.” He said the guys would ask him to do it again. Legg did….they’d never seen anything like it. Morrison said Mike would try different variations of it while practicing, including passing to other players.
As Brendan puts it, coach “Red” Berenson told him to try it in a game sometime, much to the surprise of the other players. “Fast forward to the end of the year, and at the time the biggest game of our season, and we’re losing to Minnesota in the second period, we’re on the power play.” He went on to describe the power play set up, as Brendan manned the point position. “So, we’re watching this kind of unfold in slow motion, and he scores! And we’re going bonkers.” As they were celebrating, no one really knew what just happened. “The goaltender from Minnesota had no idea what was happening. The referee was a little bit confused. It took him a little while before he signaled the goal.”
That goal tied tied the game, and in the words of Brendan, give Michigan a huge lift. So much so they went on to win the National Championship that year. I asked him if that one move propelled the team to win it all, “Absolutely! I mentioned, we were down in that game, it was a tight game, Minnesota was a good team. We needed a spark. We needed something to energize the group, and that’s exactly what it did.” He said that move brought confidence and energy to the team and was a turning point in that game.
Now, all sorts of kids and players try it. It’s not lost on “B-Mo” that he saw it begin. “It’s pretty cool to think that, you know, that you were there when that, kind of, iconic moment took place. You were on the ice and a teammate, a buddy of yours, ya know, pulled that off.”
We went on to discuss how the move has been used over the years, and how it’s evolved. You can hear the entire conversation below.
As for what Brendan is doing now, he just moved back to Michigan last year, has two kids in college and two in high school. He helps coaching his kids locally. He does commercial real estate in Vancouver. But, he loves to fish. He hosts a fishing show called Reel West Coast, which you can visit here.
A huge Thank You to “B-Mo” for taking time to re-live that iconic goal/move as we get another season going!
