I
Stand played forever here. It was a scoring champion and leader and great talent
You know for a guy to weight 160 pounds. It's all he weighed stand
tough
tough little guy a
Pioneer innovator and Paragon of Slovak hockey Stan Makita left an everlasting impression on the NHL
Born Stanislav Gavat. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle and moved to Canada from the former Czechoslovakia at age eight
He took his uncle's surname Makita and watched the neighborhood kids play an unfamiliar sport on the streets and ponds near his new home
I would look through the drapes at the kids on the street playing road hockey and I said boy
It'd be wonderful if I could join them, but how do you do it? And as it happened they were missing one guy and
I want like this. He said come on and join us a junior hockey standout a teenage Makita made his
Professional debut with the club he'd spend his entire 22-year career with the Chicago Blackhawks
Together with Bobby Hall he helped lift struggling Chicago from its decades-long doldrums
Stan was very confident in the way he played
Slippery with the puck. He made people look like outdoor backhouses
Makita centered Chicago's scooter line and together they dominated the 1961 playoffs and root to the franchise's first championship in 23 years
He could really handle the puck and could shoot the puck. He was had a little nasty streak in him
Stan
He was tough at the beginning when he was getting all these penalties and finally he decided to you know
He didn't want to spend the time in the penalty box
Formerly one of the league's most penalized players Makita changed his game with a little help from his young daughter
She said the guy with the whistle he pointed for you to go that way
And in the meantime Uncle Bobby and Uncle Kenny and Uncle Ab
We're all going to sit with their friends, and you had to go sit all the way across that ice by yourself
How do you explain to a five-year-old that you have just sinned?
As his penalty minutes decreased his point total rose in
1966-67 he became the first player to capture three major awards in a season the Art Ross trophy for scoring the Heart Trophy as
MVP and the Lady Bing for his gentlemanly play
Astonishingly he repeated the feat the following year in total Makita won four scoring titles remains the Blackhawks all-time leader in points
assists and games played
Stan Makita was also an innovator
He developed his own helmet and was a pioneer in the use of a curved stick
What is the great advantage to the curved hockey stick when you're stick handling or
Shooting you can bring the puck towards you a little better than you would with a straight stick
For the boy who left his homeland unaware of hockey Makita's influence on Slovakian athletes remains decades after his retirement
He was born Slovak. We were so proud of him all of us all five plus millions
We put all hockey or NHL up to the highest echelon of Slovak thinking
He was one of my great idols
