Kirton and Salming teammates once again
They played for a couple of minutes together for the Toronto Maple Leafs four decades ago. Now, Mark Kirton has dragged Borje Salming into the fight against ALS
As players, they could not have been more opposite. One was a trailblazer, one of the most talented and durable defencemen of his generation, a perennial all-star whose brilliance shone through, despite the fact that he played for one of the most greedy and incompetent organizations in league history. The other was a journeyman centre who played almost twice as many games in the minors as he did in the NHL. In the 1979-80 and ’80-81 seasons, they were teammates for a total of 13 games.
More than 40 years later, though, Borje Salming and Mark Kirton find themselves teammates once again, this time on a team they never asked to join, forever linked by a mysterious neurodegenerative affliction that has already robbed Salming of his ability to speak and much of Kirton’s mobility. Kirton’s shoulders are getting weaker and the 64-year-old finds it increasingly difficult to lift a fork to his mouth. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, will likely end their lives prematurely, but it will not be without a fight by either of the former on-ice warriors.
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