FRISCO -- Two-hundred and fifty-nine days before he scored a game-winning goal against the Stars, or scrapped with John Klingberg, or paraded around with Roman Polak in a postgame victory lap, 10-year-old Anderson McDuffie underwent the second open-heart surgery of his life.
McDuffie, who was diagnosed at birth with a congenital heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot, spent four nights in the intensive care unit following the surgery. But his health wasn’t on his mind. Hockey was.
“Can I play hockey?” McDuffie asked the heart surgeon.
The answer was yes, and a dream formulated then was brought to life on Wednesday afternoon in Frisco: McDuffie wanted his team to play against the Stars.