Toronto Sun columnist who did the article with me about Lightheads on the internet in Dec.2005: (it's got to be a compelling Canadian thing..I talked to Lightfoot about hockey in my chat with him and he brings them together here - along with beer and Toronto Raptors basketball - ):
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Colum...3/4149834.html
By MIKE STROBEL
A local hockey bar is like your favorite uncle.
You visit once or twice a week. You have a few pops. You watch the game. You talk about life. He knows your name.
Then he up and dies.
For a year, I have been driving by the dark, lifeless windows of Buster's pub on Kingston Rd. near Warden.
Last time I was inside, the Leafs were playing their first home game since the lockout.
Buster's could barely contain its excitement. "Ball Hockey" Joe, the owner, was dusting off the Don Cherry CDs.
Rock 'em, sock 'em. Hockey was back, but ...
"The lockout killed me," muttered Ball Hockey Joe.
I guess he knew. Buster's was mortally wounded. It closed five months later.
"It left a real void for people around here," regular Red Lipsett tells me. Red, 66, used to coach hockey at Cedarbrae Collegiate. Tomorrow he enters the Balmy Beach Sports Hall of Fame. In 1982, he brought wife Holly to Buster's the day it opened. Last year, they mourned its passing.
Stick a fork in it, as Don Cherry would say.
But, wait. A hockey bar is hard to kill, here in Birch Cliff where the likes of Gilmour, Baun and Wendel have roamed.
And Davey Norris?
Who?
Davey Norris. Davey Norris, Sir.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., where he played for the IHL Komets, they still talk of Davey's stick-fight with a clown from Kalamazoo.
"He speared me," Norris insists, 30 years later.
Over his decade in the minors, he traded pleasantries with such pugilists as Stan Jonathan and Willi Plett.
Once, as a Marlie, he picked a fight with Wilf Paiement during the pre-game skate. Made the front page.
Did you win? "In my mind I never lost. The other guy might get in a couple of extra punches, but it's all about being willing to go again the next time." Still, he took boxing lessons.
So, you were a goon, Dave?
"I prefer the term enforcer."
Make that enforcer/publican. Dave Norris, 51, is the new owner of Buster's.
"It came to me while I was lying in bed one night," he tells me. "I've always wanted to do this."
On one of the new flatscreens, Canada is beating the Slovaks. The worlds, Senators and Canucks are filling the Leafs gap here.
The walls now carry collectibles from Norris' basement.
A signed photo from Steve Shutt says: "You are proof that you can be a success after hockey."
There is The Rocket's Forum seat. A 1972 series pennant. A Patrick Roy sweater. Photos of Henderson, Orr ... the trappings of a hockey bar.
All Canadians. No Borje Salming? "Nothing against those guys. I want to make this a Canadian bar."
Mind you, the buzz at the bar is Sundin's hip.
Norris could score, not just fight, but he blew a knee in 1979, which cost him a chance to graduate to the Canadiens from Halifax of the AHL.
Teammates who moved up included Keith Acton, Chris Nilan, Rick Wamsley and Gaston Gingras.
Hockey men rarely leave the game, even if it's oldtimers leagues. Post-game pops first brought Norris to Buster's.
A marketing man, he has spiffed up the menu and massaged the name. Buster's On The Bluffs. This does not sound like a hockey bar name. But there is no mistaking the place. Buster, the original owner's bulldog, still glowers woodenly from above the bar. Buster's Cup, an annual hockey tourney, has survived 10 years despite the bar's late misfortunes.
If Norris is the Beast of Buster's, its Beauty is bar boss Cheryl Badali, 25.
That last name may sound familiar. Another tie to our national game. Cheryl's dad is Gus Badali, the legendary agent whose clients included Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman and Coffey. Cheryl babysat the Gretzky kids.
"We grew up running around Maple Leaf Gardens," she tells me. "Going to the rink was like going home."
A mutual friend of Norris, hockey broadcaster Mike Anscombe, landed her the job at the revived Buster's.
Even the Aussie bartender, Josh McKeever, 28, fresh off the boat, has a hockey link. He played house league in Sydney. Besides, his dad was born in St. Catharines, where Wilf Paiement was playing when Davey Norris thumped him.
Hockey is a small world, especially at a joint like Buster's.
"Everybody eats, sleeps and drinks hockey," says Davey Norris. "It's in the fabric of being Canadian.
"We've got hockey and Gordon Lightfoot."
And the Raptors, in a pinch.
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• You can call Mike Strobel at (416) 947-2265 or e-mail at
mike.strobel@tor.sunpub.com
