What happened to Börje Salming? Toronto Maple Leafs Star player Börje Salming dies at 71
Ice hockey defenceman Börje Salming died at the age of 71 years. Salming was not just a phenomenon on the ice. He was also a pioneer whose impact on the game lives on. He became the National Hockey League’s first Swedish superstar, Before his arrival in 1973.
The league was made up almost entirely of North Americans. Europeans have generally mocked being too soft for the NHL.
But Börje Salming proved to be tough enough. And then so in 1986, a player stepped on Salming’s face the skate blade just missed an eye 200 stitches later, and no one called this face soft. It began when a Toronto Maple Leafs Scout recruited Salming in Sweden.
And fans here embraced him says his former teammates and longtime friends.
He was a warrior. We all loved him, and he was one of the best teammates you would ever wish to ever play with. This summer Salming was diagnosed with ALS. Within months he lost his ability to eat and speak.
But this month he made it back to Toronto for a final farewell. His former captain says something’s legacy is strong throughout Europe clear to see on the ice that night.
He was holding my arm and I looked at some of the current player’s knee landers and some of the other ones the very sincere stoic look on their face and the respect that they had for him. And that’s what caught my emotions.
Börje Salming’s trip to Toronto was his Canadian farewell. Tonight fans everywhere mourn the loss of a true Trailblazer.
