McAmmond was destined to be Raider

He’s glad he did become a Raider. After making the team out of camp as a 16-year-old, McAmmond became one of the most well-known Raiders alum from his time from 1989-93. He remains one of the 16 Raiders in team history to score at least 100 goals, and also had 229 points in 217 career games.

McAmmond still remains close to the team and keeps up with the Raiders — especially now in the second round of the playoffs.

“I’ll be tuning in, checking the scoreboard and cheering in the background,” McAmmond said. “Good luck to everybody and hi to all the people in P.A.”

McAmmond went on to play 17 years and 996 games in the NHL, after being drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round, 22^nd overall in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft.

McAmmond will always remember his NHL debut, but not for the reasons you’d think. First, he learned about getting called up by the Blackhawks while on the wrong side of a lopsided game against the Medicine Hat Tigers midway through the 1991-92 season and learned an important lesson of not getting ahead of himself.

“It was February, in the middle of the dead of winter in P.A., we’re losing to the Medicine Hat Tigers 8-3 and I get benched halfway through the second period. And I’m mad now, because I’m thinking, ‘well, I didn’t get a shift in the end of the second period and the whole third period, I sat on the bench.’ I figured they were blaming me, or holding me responsible for this 8-3 beating Medicine Hat was giving us. At the end of the game, I strip my gear off real quick and I run into Dale Engel’s office, who was our general manager at the time. I’m ready to give him a piece of my mind. I go in and I say ‘Dale, what is going on? You’re blaming me for this 8-3 loss?’ I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I was thinking well, now I was a first rounder and was getting a little cocky. Dale just said, ‘sit down. We had a phone call halfway through the second period. The Blackhawks called and they want you to play tomorrow night in Chicago Stadium against the New Jersey Devils.’ I quickly took my first statements off the table. Now I was a little bit worried, I’m going to Chicago to play with Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Steve Larmer, Michel Goulet, Chris Chelios and Eddie Belfour. I was a little bit humbled.”

McAmmond was humbled even more when he actually made his debut for the Blackhawks. As instructed by then equipment manager David ‘Radar’ Horning (now with the Red Deer Rebels), McAmmond only brought his skates with him and was told the Blackhawks would provide the rest of the equipment.

They technically did, but the hockey sticks given to McAmmond actually belonged to one of the Blackhawks’ biggest players on their team in Stu Grimson. Because Grimson was six inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than McAmmond, it was a huge adjustment to use his hockey stick.

“Basically I had to use Stu Grimson’s hockey stick, all new equipment and it was a nightmare,” McAmmond said. “Mike Keenan was the head coach. He’d walk up and down the bench and kick me in the back on the way by and say ‘come on kid, time to score your first goal’ every time he’d pass. I just thought ‘where am I?’ I just wanted someone to pinch me, it was a bad dream almost. I felt like the tin man and I could barely lift Stu Grimson’s hockey stick, let alone try and perform with it. That’s my first memory of making the jump from P.A. to Chicago. It was a little intimidating to say the least.”

McAmmond was able to blossom into a 16-year NHL career, playing for nine different teams. He had two different stints with both the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames, and also played for the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers and the Edmonton Oilers.

There have been more than a few almost’s in McAmmond’s career.

McAmmond’s 50-win Raider team lost to the Blades in the divisional finals in six games. They thought that was their year that year, but the Blades has other ideas.

“I remember getting off the bus that night, feeling like ‘this isn’t the way it’s supposed to go,’” McAmmond said. “We had six guys in the all-star game and we were supposed to go all the way, in my mind. It was a bad taste. But let’s move on to this year’s excitement and how it’s going to be different.”

In the NHL, he was just four games played away from the Silver Stick 1,000 game milestone. McAmmond also went to Stanley Cup Finals three times, but finished without the cup on each occasion. His first was in 1991 as an 18-year-old call-up with the Chicago Blackhawks, watching them get swept by Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. McAmmond returned to the big dance in 2004 with the Calgary Flames, to fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games after what would have been the Flames’ Cup winning goal in Game 6 went undetected. McAmmond’s last kick of the can came in 2007 with the Ottawa Senators, but they fell to the Anaheim Ducks.

McAmmond joked that he was a “three-time Stanley Cup finals loser,” but then quickly took a more glass-half-full approach and said he was a three-time conference finals champion instead.

“I just never brought home the big trophy,” McAmmond said. “Was close in a lot of different areas in career accomplishments. Had a few concussions, but for the most part, I’m pretty healthy.

“I had a great career and I can’t be disappointed about anything.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW

by Jeff D'Andrea and Trevor Redden

McAmmond was destined to be Raider

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