by Barry Stagg
March 1994
Norris the Olympian
Dwayne Norris of St. John's is Newfoundland's representative on the Canadian Olympic Hockey team for the 1994 Winter Olympics being held in Norway. As I recall this is the first time that a Newfoundlander has played in the World Hockey Championships for Canada since George Faulkner played for Canada in 1966. Since Faulkner played in a non-Olympic year, Norris is the first Newfoundlander to play for Canada in Olympic hockey.
There are always certain ironies to be found in any major league sports situation. One of these is found in the fact that Norris, a Newfoundlander, is the National Hockey League property of the Quebec Nordiques. Norris is with the Olympic Hockey team because his Quebec owners have loaned him to the program since the start of this hockey season. The irony becomes visible when it is noted that many Qu‚b‚cois particularly Quebec Politicians have made an issue of the lack of French Canadians and Qu‚b‚cois on the Olympic team. Perhaps they regard Norris as being less then an ideal representative of Quebec at the Games. Norris himself has already shown that he can play well at the American Hockey League Level and with a good showing in Norway, he might get an opportunity to earn a National Hockey League job for next season.
The best possible outcome for Norris this season would be to have a fine showing with the Canadian team and then return to Quebec's Cornwall club in the American Hockey League to finish out the season. It is unlikely, notwithstanding the turmoil in Quebec, that Norris would get a chance with the parent club this year. Quebec coach, Pierre Page has turned over personnel at a high rate this year but the emphasis at this point seems to be on gathering in experienced playoff performers rather than young and promising rookies.
There are some ghostly similarities between the situation for Norris and that of George Faulkner. Faulkner played his entire professional hockey career in Quebec. He was a product of the Quebec Junior Hockey League and he played several seasons in the professional Quebec Senior Hockey League which lasted into the 1960's before being rolled into another short lived league called the Eastern Hockey League. Faulkner played in the days when the Montreal Canadiens totally dominated the business of professional hockey and indeed the business of organized hockey in Quebec. One of Faulkner's contemporaries in the Quebec Senior League was the great Jean Beliveau. Montreal essentially purchased the entire Quebec Senior League to get access to Beliveau in the early 50's.
Players like Norris and other young Newfoundlanders playing professional hockey should defer to those who first tramped the pathways from Newfoundland to professional hockey. The opportunities for Newfoundland hockey players in these days when there are twenty-six National Hockey League teams are vast in comparison to the chances to make the big time when only six giants patrolled the National Hockey League ice rinks. Players like the Faulkner brothers and many others who excelled at Senior hockey in Newfoundland during the 50's and 60's would have been certain NHLers if they had played after the expansion of Major League Hockey from 1967 onward.
Let's hope that Dwayne Norris has an outstanding tournament in Norway and creates a pleasant problem for the Quebec Nordiques in finding a place for a talented young Newfoundlander on a hockey team playing under the ever present shadow of the Fleur-De-Lys.
Until next month, be proud, be prosperous.