Bob Tindall could tell what made a future NHLer — and tell some great hockey stories, too.
The former attribute made him one of the best league scouts in the 1970s and ‘80s and up to the mid-‘90s heading up the Boston Bruins’ bird dog department for many years, while the latter endeared him to many in the game, just hanging around the rink.
Tindall, 86, passed away in Toronto on Tuesday, but would’ve wanted to be known as a native of the old borough of East York.
Tindall lobbied for many first round hits, such as 1,100-game veteran Glen Murray (18th overall in 1991) and Kevyn Adams at No. 25 in ’93, before he became general manager of the Buffalo Sabres.
Tindall was just as proud of fifth-rounder Andrew Raycroft, a Calder Trophy winning goalie, and career Bruin Don Sweeney, now their GM.
A native of the Canadian border-town St. Stephen, N.B., Sweeney went to prep school at St. Paul’s in Concord, N.H. Despite his small size, Tindall advised his boss, Harry Sinden, to take Sweeney in the eighth round. The hunch was correct, Sweeney went on to play four years at Harvard and more than 1,200 combined NHL regular season and playoff games.
Tindall covered the Toronto area in later years as he and fellow scouts enjoyed their work and swapping yarns at the Gardens and Air Canada Centre. He also helped with monthly Original Six Alumni lunches in Toronto and was an endless resource for reporters writing about the bygone NHL.
He also had a mischievous streak. When Leafs owner Harold Ballard bought the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger Cats in the late ‘70s, he put the team’s logo on the ice and around the Gardens. Tindall, a fervent Argo fan, decided to retaliate. One night when the Bruins visited, Tindall, Sinden and coach Don Cherry arranged to have two Argo flags sewn together and displayed on the bench for Hockey Night In Canada cameras, incensing Ballard.
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