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OTTAWA — Wayne Primeau can almost feel his gut still churning when he thinks about the Maple Leafs horrifying plane ride from Toronto to the New York area in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
“It was one of the scariest flights I’ve ever had, for sure,” Primeau said Monday, still shaking his head in disbelief.
“The turbulence we experienced for about two minutes was unbelievable ... At one point, I was thinking about my family and kids. I was hanging on for dear life.”
The Leafs’ rocky ride came after they had defeated the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday. The team left the ACC immediately after the game for Pearson International Airport, where they boarded a flight taking them to Sunday’s contest against the New York Islanders in Uniondale.
With bad weather slamming the entire U.S. northeast, the plane began violently shaking and bouncing about 30 minutes into the trip.
“We went up, down, sideways,” Primeau said.
The ride was so shaky, Leafs play-by-play man Joe Bowen, during the broadcast of Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Islanders, personally thanked the flight crew for getting the team safely to New York.
The team’s flight from New York to Ottawa was much smoother, a thankful turn of events for all concerned.
mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca
