By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
When Scott Metcalfe was taking part in youth hockey, he by no means fixated on being the glamour-boy goal-scorer.
Good factor, too. That may have actually aggravated his dad and mom, June and Bryan Metcalfe. They weren’t elevating some Waltzing Matilda.
“That’s what my mother used to name me if I used to be simply on the market skating round, a Waltzing Matilda,” Metcalfe mentioned again in 1996, when he was coming into the twilight of his American Hockey League profession. “She’d inform the opposite dad and mom, ‘I’d moderately have my son sitting within the penalty field for 2 minutes than taking part in like your children.’ ”
Over time, as he moved on to main junior after which professional hockey, that keep within the penalty field generally lasted 5 minutes. OK, perhaps it usually lasted 5 minutes.
However at the least he wasn’t a Waltzing Matilda. Not by means of junior hockey and never throughout a 14-year skilled profession, the glory years of which had been spent with the Rochester Individuals within the late Nineteen Eighties and mid-Nineties. At any time when he laced up the skates, Metcalfe epitomized toughness, grit and fervour.
His rambunctious fashion and fierce loyalty to the Amerks emblem endeared him to followers. In flip, he grew to like the town, and Rochester grew to become his residence. He and his spouse, Jane, raised three kids, sons Tanner and Keegan and daughter Quinn.
However in the present day the Amerks household is in mourning. Metcalfe, a member of the 1996 Calder Cup championship group and a 2006 inductee into the Amerks Corridor of Fame, died out of the blue on Friday morning surrounded by household at Robust Memorial Hospital. He was 58.
“It’s a really unhappy day for the group,” Amerks legend Jody Gage mentioned. “Scott had this larger-than-life character about him, and it resonated with Amerks followers throughout Rochester. He wore the purple, white and blue proudly each evening, was the final word competitor and consummate skilled who at all times put his teammates and the group first.”
That’s exactly how he piled up a franchise-record 1,424 penalty minutes in 499 video games.
“He had a lot satisfaction about being an Amerk and in Rochester,” mentioned Dane Jackson, the captain of the 1996 Calder Cup group. “As a brand new man coming to Rochester in 1995, I at all times revered how a lot Metter, Frawls (Dan Frawley) and Gager cared about this system.”
They cared as a result of this was their metropolis, their group, their lives. Metcalfe was born and raised in Metro Toronto however Rochester grew to become his residence.
“This was his NHL,” mentioned fellow Amerks Corridor of Famer Scott Nichol, Metcalfe’s linemate on the 1996 Cup group. “He was all in. He was completely vested in the neighborhood.
“He scored objectives, he fought; he was an entertainer. And he taught me as a younger man that it didn’t matter when it was, you convey it. If it’s recreation 62, you convey it.”
Whereas Metcalfe at all times performed with snarl, he possessed loads of talent, too. He nonetheless ranks seventh in franchise historical past in factors (349) and assists (212) and 11th in objectives (137). He wasn’t going to win any foot races, however he did every part in his energy to assist his group win.
Which is why he was so beloved by followers.
“I didn’t perceive why my dad was so upset when Mickey Mantle had handed – I get it now,” long-time fan Eric Bourgeois wrote on Fb.
Certainly, Metcalfe’s impression prolonged far past statistics and much past the rink. Metter cherished to chuckle and cherished to have an excellent time.
“A Monday evening, a Tuesday evening, all people on the town knew Metter,” Nichol mentioned. “He was the mayor.”
And he additionally knew the way to learn the room. Contained in the dressing room, he privately known as out teammates after they strayed from the duty at hand. He supplied encouragement after they wanted a lift. And he’d put his neck on the road for the group in closed-door chats with a coach.
“That’s a pacesetter; a pacesetter doesn’t put himself in entrance of all people else,” mentioned Rob Ray, his linemate and roommate throughout the 1988-89 season. “He was the final word teammate.”
4 occasions Metcalfe was voted the Amerks hottest participant by the Exec Membership. 3 times he was awarded the McCulloch Trophy for group service. And in 1996 he was chosen to characterize the Amerks on the AHL All-Star Basic.
“The Scott Metcalfe mould was positively used solely as soon as,” Amerks broadcaster Don Stevens mentioned within the group’s information launch asserting Metcalfe’s passing. “Unsure what I’ll keep in mind most about Metter: his jokester or severe facet; his rugged hockey participant facet or extraordinarily clever, book-reading facet; his fun-loving, pleasant facet or his fairly, non-public facet.”
That 1988-89 line with Metcalfe, Ray and Kevin Kerr remains to be fondly remembered by Amerks followers. And possibly not so fondly by defensemen from that period, who had been pounded into the tip boards time after time.
Probably the most memorable Amerk strains ever? “Essentially the most entertaining, perhaps,” Ray mentioned. “He taught me a lot. As a younger child coming in, I didn’t know something. He’d drag me off the sofa to go work out, he’d drag me off the sofa to go do one thing else. We did every part collectively.”
Even after Ray moved as much as the Buffalo Sabres and was embarking on a 15-year NHL profession, Metcalfe was in his nook.
“He’d watch video games on TV and name me and say, ‘Perhaps do that’ or ‘This would possibly work,’ ” I discovered extra from him than most likely anyone.
“He was extra into serving to all people else than himself.”
Metcalfe joined the Amerks in February 1988 by means of a commerce between the Sabres and Edmonton Oilers. He was a mainstay for the subsequent three and half seasons, serving to Rochester attain the Calder Cup finals in 1990 and 1991.
He performed the subsequent two seasons in Germany earlier than rejoining the Amerks in 1993-94, and he was an integral a part of that 1996 Cup-winning group, taking part in on a line with Frawley and Nichol.
“They had been by far our greatest line of defense,” Jackson mentioned. “They’d chip the puck in and so they had been like howling canines coming in on the forecheck. They had been relentless.”
And opponents didn’t like taking part in in opposition to them.
“Metter was requested to examine the opposite group’s high line, and people kind of gamers, they didn’t need to play in opposition to him,” Nichol mentioned. “They didn’t need to go into the nook with Metter or Frawls as a result of they knew they’d come out with a bruised wrist or sore ankle.
“He cherished the sport and he cherished his teammates,” Nichol mentioned. “He was one in all a sort.”
