TORONTO -- Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall was part of the Eric Lindros blockbuster trade in June 1992 with the Quebec Nordiques and still winces at the memory. He loved being a Flyer and didnt want to leave.As the NHL held a weeklong arbitration process to figure out whether the Nordiques had traded Lindros to the Flyers or New York Rangers -- Nordiques GM Pierre Page had apparently told both teams they had a deal -- Hextall waited.I remember it very clearly because of the timing of it, the arbitration [decision] was happening at noon. Sure enough, my phone rang at noon, said Hextall, in town to see Lindros, Pat Quinn, Rogie Vachon and?Sergei Makarov?inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. We were settled in Philly, I loved the Flyers, I could never imagine playing for another team. Now all of a sudden you get a phone call to say youve been traded. It was difficult. It was hard for me emotionally. I had young kids [6, 4, 1]. It was tough. That was a little shot of reality for a naive Brandon boy.Hextall laughed at how he felt about Lindros at that very moment.I was mad as hell at Eric. Until I got traded back two years later, said Hextall, laughing. Then I thought, This wasnt so bad after all. When I got back to Philly and now Im playing with Eric, then I thought he was more than OK.It is by no accident that the Nordiques insisted on getting prospect Peter Forsberg in the Lindros deal.We knew Forsberg was really good, former Flyers GM Russ Farwell said recently. We couldnt sign him. We couldnt get Forsberg to come over right then. We didnt want to include [Mark] Recchi or [Rod] BrindAmour, so that was the piece that kind of turned the tide, I think.The other GM who negotiated a deal with Quebec at the time was Neil Smith, on behalf of the Rangers. The ensuing arbitration that was needed to decide a winner left the Rangers losers in the Lindros sweepstakes.I asked Smith recently how he felt it would have changed the course of history for the Rangers to get Lindros. I mean, imagine Lindros and Mark Messier as a 1-2 punch at center from 1992 onward?You dont know if we would have won none or if we would have won more than one, responded Smith. His Rangers, of course, won the Cup in 1994. Because you dont know how that trade would have impacted what went on after that. There would be no [Esa] Tikkanen, or there would be no [Tony] Amonte to make that trade with Chicago. Theres so many things.The Big E changed the game during his heyday, of that there is no doubt.Yeah, well, everybody wanted players like him, but those type of players dont come along very often, former Flyers GM Bob Clarke said. Those are the generational players. Every 10 years, one of them comes along. Obviously, its McDavids turn now, but there was a Gretzky, a Lemieux, an Orr, those kind of players; and Lindros was one of those players that comes along every 10 years and seems just better than everyone else.As for Lindros today, it appears his future is not with an NHL team. I asked him during our sitdown interview a few weeks ago if he pictured himself running an NHL team or working for one in some capacity like many of his contemporaries.Never really crossed my mind, Lindros said. I look at some of my buddies that are pro scouts and how much travel they do. I can see it, had Kina and I had kids earlier, and [the kids] were 18-20 years old heading to university, but I just dont want to miss whats going on around the house.Lindros and wife Kina Lamarche have three kids 30 months and younger. Daddy Lindros is busy. Womens Ultra Boost . 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Winter on the highveld is traditionally cold and dry, but recent days have seen widespread unseasonal rain across it and almost everywhere else in the country. There have been heavy falls of snow on the mountains, and photographs in the newspapers and websites have shown railway stations under metres of water, cars in parking lots floating casually downstream like so many bath-time ducks.In this type of weather, cricket is not exactly front of mind, although it will slide into the frame as the New Zealanders drift south from two Tests against Zimbabwe shortly to prepare for their twin Tests against South Africa next month.Its already a nicely poised series. New Zealand are an open-minded, streetwise lot, while the gifted South Africans seem to have taken their fractiousness to the next level. There has been bickering behind the scenes in the latest round of contract negotiations - the threat of free agency is the thing in South Africa at the moment - and we have a board that demonstrates little leadership or grace under pressure. Last seasons domestic match-fixing debacle shows no signs of finding closure, and from everywhere comes the fidgetiness of widespread discontent.This said, self-laceration has become so inimical to South African cricket that its quite possible to dismiss the angst as so much white noise. South Africa produce good, if slightly unadventurous, cricketers, and it will only need one decent series - and one competitive summer - to remind us all of the countrys cricketing riches.Southern Africa is a naturally fertile cricket crescent. How else does one explain the fecundity that sees a Dale Steyn spring from the copper-mining wastes of Phalaborwa, or Kagiso Rabada need only one spell of bowling (in the televised final of the Under-19 World Cup in 2014) to be fast-tracked to the terminus that is a South Africa cap?One player who has sailed blithely clear of all the sturm und drang for the last couple of seasons is Dean Elgar. Known variously as Deano or Porra, a not entirely onside reference to what some have erroneously seen as his Portuguese ancestry, Elgar seems happiest to play cricket, remain true to his chirpy self and tiptoe past the mines and booby traps. It is a mark, perhaps, of his emotional intelligence, although it might just be that hes largely unconcerned with anything else. Either way, the strategy has served him well. In the Tiitans dressing room he is known as one of the Three Hyenas, a select group of enforcers, fines dispensers and receptacles of cricketing wisdom who back up their captain and generally charge about in a pack.dddddddddddd Roelof van der Merwe used to be a hyena until he hauled his coffin off to the Netherlands (he was replaced by Farhaan Behardien). The third member of the trio is Heino Kuhn.Last season Kuhn opened the innings for Titans with either Elgar (when he wasnt away on Test duty) or Grant Mokoena. He scored 1126 first-class runs in 20 innings at 62.55, not a bad return for a player who was on a pay-for-play contract because he wasnt deemed quite key enough in the initial contracting round.Those young men and their parents who bleat about quotas and lack of opportunities and head to England or New Zealand at the drop of a hat would do well to study Kuhns numbers. Like Elgar, he is no longer a young man, but he has remained loyal to the Titans system, hung around and polished his game. Like Elgar, there has been little toy-throwing, much endeavour and no lack of focus.The reason Titans won the domestic double last season is due to a variety of quantifiable factors, several of which relate to Kuhns contributions to good starts, which, in turn, put pressure on the opposition.Yet every happy dressing room also abounds with currents more difficult to pin down. One has to be Elgars general sense of mischief. He certainly brings a levity to things. When he was asked recently, for example, who he thought should replace Rob Walter as Titans coach, because Walter is heading to Otago, he didnt pause for thought. Albie [Morkel], he replied, because that way we can hunt and fish during pre-season. It wont be like Rob, who always had us out on obstacle courses and training runs.Whatever his secret, South African cricket needs more Elgars at the moment. In all the hand-wringing, we have lost sight of whats important, what remains pure and untrammelled in the game we all love. Elgar has kept perspective and so kept the faith.The first Test against New Zealand is at Kingsmead, where the South Africans have the kind of record thats best ignored. But then its on to Elgars home ground, Centurion, a fortress, and a place where hes very much at home. China NFL Jerseys Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Online Stitched Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Baseball Jerseys Football Jerseys Outlet College Jerseys For Sale Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys For Sale Wholesale NFL Jerseys ' ' '