Nitzy's Hockey Den

My buddy Greg sent me this great shot of the Winnipeg Jets playing the Czechoslovakian National team. His dad is Norm Beaudin, pictured in the foreground. The game was during the Jets 1975 training camp which took place in Europe that season. The Czech National squad would beat the Jets by scores of 6-1 (on Sept. 25) and 3-1 (on Sept. 26). Both Jets goals were scored by Anders Hedberg. Also pictured are Jets #19 Mats Lindh and #17 Bill Lesuk. I'm not positive on the Czechoslovakian players shown, but #9 is likely Miroslav Dvorak who would go on to play three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers in the early 1980's. The goaltender is probably either Vladimir Dzurilla or Jiri Holocek. Despite not fairing well against the Czechs, Winnipeg would go on to have a terrific season in the WHA. They finished first in the Canadian Division with 106 points (52-27-2) and romp through the playoffs with a record of 12-1 on the way to the Avco Cup. For Beaudin himself, it was his final seaso…

Here we go. I found out this afternoon that TSN will be publishing their All-Time Team Canada after they did the seven Canadian NHL teams recently. According to Craig Button they are using players from Olympics, Canada Cups, World Cups and World Championships. I'm not certain if TSN will be considering the Summit Series, but I am. Also, Button says there is no positional requirements on this squad as is usual in international team selection. This is also a 23-man roster, same as international play.
Goalies
I gave the nod to Bill Ranford on the strength of a 17-1 record and 1.61 average in the '91 Canada Cup and '93 and '94 World Championships. He backstopped Canada to it's first World Championship Gold in 33 years and was also stellar in the Canada Cup. Speaking of that, Grant Fuhr almost single-handedly kept Canada in games against the Soviets in the '87 Canada Cup. He also played in the '84 tourney and Rendezvous '87 putting up an 8-2-3 record overall…

Last week the good folks at TSN released the last of their All-Time teams for each Canadian franchise. When they did the Winnipeg Jets, they fudged the rules a little by not including the Atlanta Thrashers part of the current franchise. They did of course include the WHA Winnipeg Jets. Along the same line of thinking, I decided to create a Quebec Nordiques All-Time team using the WHA an NHL seasons, but not the Colorado Avalanche portion of the franchise.
Lots of WHA content, as there should be, Quebec was one of the strongest teams over the 7-year existence of the league. The top goalie in Nordiques history is Richard Brodeur who played all seven WHA seasons with Quebec and his 165 career wins rank only two behind Joe Daley for most in league history. In addition his WHA career goals against average was 3.64. Dan Bouchard ranks as Quebec's second best goalie who posted a 3.59 GAA over his five NHL seasons in Quebec.
The top defenceman in Quebec history is easily J.C. Tremblay w…

Last week when I chatted with Steve Dryden (Senior Managing Editor of Hockey at TSN) on the phone, we talked mainly about the Maple Leafs All-Time team. We also discussed the fact that as a Toronto native, I have lived in the Vancouver area for over a quarter century and have seen a lot in this market. In fact, the second ever game I attended in Vancouver was on May 24, 1994; Game 5 of the Campbell Conference Finals, the one where Greg Adams scored in double overtime to knock the Maple Leafs out and send the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final. I've seen enough of the Canucks over the years, I figured I'd create my own Canucks All-Time team too. So here it is. The All-Time top line is probably the easiest of any Canadian NHL team. Sedins and Bure, done. As well, the top two goalies in Canucks franchise history is about as straight forward as can be. All due respect to Richard Brodeur, but he gets the nod as Foundational Player.  The Canucks all-time to defencemen is loaded with …