Team Canada’s 40th Summit Series anniversary all about the memories

"Where were you in 1972?"

That's the question former Toronto Maple Leaf great and Team Canada member Ron Ellis asked a room full of sponsors and reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

"I know where I was," he continued. "I was sitting on the Team Canada players' bench and watching Paul Henderson…and I certainly can't forget how the goal was orchestrated because I had a good seat."

Ellis of course, was referring to Henderson's "goal heard around the world" — the one scored with 34 seconds left in the final game of the 1972 Summit Series, to win the eight-game challenge for Canada over the Soviet Union. A win that only was possible, because Canada fought back from a 3-1-1 series deficit, to take the remaining three contests.

With the 40^th anniversary of that hard-earned victory around the corner, the team is set to re-unite to celebrate their historic accomplishment. Ellis, along with '72 teammates Marcel Dionne, a Hall of Famer who scored over 700 NHL goals, as well as ex-Chicago Blackhawk Bill White, helped launch a month-long set of events Wednesday at Ryerson University's Mattamy Athletic Centre, the building formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens. Having hosted Game 2 of the Summit Series, the Gardens was an appropriate place to announce that 16 members of Team Canada will travel to Russia together as guests of the Russian Government, for a week-long retreat from September 3-9.

"It was right here (at the Gardens) where we held our training camp and started our journey," Ellis reminisced with emotion. "And it was one emotional roller coaster — not only for the fans across this country, but for us as players."

Dionne agreed.

"What's so special about Team Canada?...It's about memories," Dionne said. "It's about something that took place and brought the whole country together. To my kids…they don't understand, they have to go back and look at what took place."

Among the highlights of the trip, the group will tour the sites, take in some local hockey action - including a game in Yaroslavl, where they will pay tribute to the victims of the Lokomotiv plane crash - and even face off against their Russian counterparts in an alumni game.

The team will also be inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame on September 22 and host a Gala dinner on September 28 in Toronto, the night of Henderson's famed goal, where all living members will be in attendance. The entire set of events is being organized by Heritage Hockey.

"Our team is remembered for two key things," Ellis said. "The miracle comeback, of course — we had to win the last three games, a tie would not have been good enough. And I think we're also remembered as a team that exhibited Canadian spirit as we faced adversity that came at us from all angles. And that adversity refers to — never count the Canadians out."