Ken Reid - One to Remember: Stories from 39 Members of the NHL’s One Goal Club

One to Remember

Stories from 39 Members of the NHLs One Goal Club

Ken Reid

In memory of Bob Warner, NHL Goal Scorer, who passed away shortly before the publication of this book.

It happens in an instant. But really, the effort that went into it can take years, sometimes even decades. I scored my first NHL goal when I was 23. I was given the opportunity on our Penguins second power-play unit. We were in Atlanta playing against the Thrashers. I was a net front guy, and I was making my way to the front of the crease. Mark Recchi just kind of threw it to the net. The rebound popped back door and I swooped in. It was like I was kind of lost and the defender couldnt find me coming in behind him. The rebound came right to me in the blue paint. Kari Lehtonen reached out to try and make a desperation save and I jarred it top shelf I went top shelf for my first NHL goal.

There was a picture taken right after I scored. The photographer captured me in the middle of my celly, and I have a huge smile on my face. Now the cool thing about it is, years later, when my son Crusie scored his first minor hockey goal, the tournament photographer snapped a picture of him scoring his first goal. We are doing the exact same things with our arms. Our facial expressions are exactly the same. It is awesome: both pictures, that one of me in Atlanta, and the one of my son Cruise, take me right back to the memory of the first of the 89 goals I scored in the NHL.

I stuck around for 476 NHL regular season games, and another nine in the playoffs. Thats longer than most of the guys in this book, but I sure shared the same fear. Every day I was in the NHL I was scared of being sent down to the minors. I was scared even when I was established in the NHL and I had a one-way contract. I was scared at camp every year that I wasnt going to make the team. I was definitely afraid of it being over or of something happening to me. So I appreciated every goal I scored. It was an amazing feeling to score in the NHL, no matter how many times you got to do it. Thats why you see guys go bananas. Look at Ovechkin: he clearly loves it. It is the best feeling ever. Whether youve scored one, like the guys in this book, or 894, we all know that feeling.

But what if that goal in Atlanta was my only one? Thats the reality for the guys in this book. Their first NHL goal was their last. When I think about my last NHL goal, I get a little confused, a little sad. Youre going to find out how the guys in the following pages deal with that fact.

I can tell you this, the joy of seeing a teammate score his first NHL goal is pretty awesome. The professional hockey world is a pretty small one, and I was on the bench when Alain Nasreddine scored his one and only NHL goal. Alains story is in this book. Alain scored his only NHL marker in his hometown, Montreal. Im sure a lot of fans that night thought Alain was just a guy on the roster. But for those of us on the Pens he meant so much more. He was a journeyman battler, and hed showed a lot of us the ropes when we played in the AHL. I remember playing soccer, getting loose with Alain and the boys before one of our AHL games early in my pro career. Naz was older than the rest of us, and he worked so hard. One of our teammates, Ramzi Abid, would chirp Naz during our little soccer sessions. Hed say, Naz, hes not a natural, boys. Hes not a natural.

But Naz, like a lot of the guys in this book, he got it done. The hard way. It was a little bit ugly but he was a gamer. When he scored for us that night in Montreal, the reaction from the guys on our bench was so genuine. Naz was 31 years old! We all knew how much that moment meant to him. And the read Naz made on that play, youre going to love it. I did. And wait until you find out who set up Naz for his only NHL goal. Its a great story about a great guy that I knew and played with. A fan in the stands may not think a guys lone NHL goal could mean much to the rest of the guys on a team, but trust me, organizational joy was felt from top to bottom. We got such great energy when Naz scored. And that he scored it in is his hometown? It was the perfect setting, like it was supposed to happen storybook stuff. Im glad his story ended up in here. I love that guy.

If Naz was not a natural, then a guy like Darren Haydar was. Haydar was a sick player. He was maybe unheard of at the National Hockey League level, but he absolutely crushed it in the American League. It was like it was easy for him. There are so many players in this book who were fantastic players, that for whatever reason just couldnt find their way to the NHL. I played against Darren in a Calder Cup Final. He was unreal. He smoked us--he was so good. And Darrens journey to the NHL was not just about hockey. Ken will take you beyond the Golly gee, it was nice to get one clichs and let you know the real stories, and sometimes struggles, of what it takes to score at the NHL level.

And yeah, players hear it from fans all the time: That guy sucks... hes a plug. Really? I was on the ice helping instruct some college-aged kids the other day. I was thinking about one of my old teammates. He was a tough guy, but he could play. And I realized, if you were to put him out here... he thinks the game 100 miles per hour faster than these kids. He thinks the game so much better than these 17- and 18-year-olds. That tough guy would dominate. Hed be the best player out here. But meanwhile you get a fan out there on social media or in the peanut gallery as youre walking through a parking lot that tells you, You suck. You dont barely play. Youre brutal. No. This book is a testament to just how hard it is to make the NHL.

Youre going to read about players you have heard of, and youre going to learn about players whose names you dont recognize. Its an easy, cool read. And once youre done, youll realize that the way you think about all of these players has changed. Youre going to realize that the guy some fans may dismiss because hes someone who only scored one goal was much more an unbelievable teammate or an unbelievable player who turned on the red light just a single time.

Colby Armstrong, 2020

Im sure you have a memory of it. It may have been in a city final, it may have been in a house-league game, it may have even been in a game of road hockey. Im sure you have a memory of that goal you scored.

Now, what if you scored that goal at the games highest level. What if you scored a goal in the National Hockey League? And what if your goal count ended right there? Would you cherish that moment, or would you want more? Thats what I wanted to know when I set out to write this book.

One to Remember is a pretty logical follow up to One Night Only. That was a book about men who suited up for a single National Hockey League game. So, here we are a few years later with a book about men who scored a single National Hockey League goal.

Like One Night Only, everything behind this book comes from respect. Scoring even a single goal in the greatest hockey league in the world is an incredible feat. Think about the odds you have to defy just to make it onto the ice for an NHL game. In the history of the NHL over sixty-five hundred men have played in at least one shift. And heres the thing: over fifteen hundred men who skated in an NHL game (not counting goalies) never scored. So, it is a grand accomplishment, in my eyes, to light the lamp, even just once.