Salming and Hammarström stayed true to their principles
Icon. Pioneer. Mentor. How Börje Salming Changed Hockey for the Better, November 24
The Star’s tributes to Börje Salming are well deserved on the basis of both his talent, his courage and his endurance.
However, what is fair to say is that if Salming helped change the game of hockey by inspiring the European player to come to North America, then by accepting the violent style of play here, he also enabled in North American hockey to change it.
He and his Swedish contemporary, Inge Hammarström, defended the principles in different ways: the latter player eventually returned to Sweden out of disaffection for what he experienced here. It took a different burst of courage than Salming.
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