"Small" town Ontario? Durham Region All-Stars


I have been spending my late summer holidays with my wife and daughter visiting my folks in Ajax, Ontario. Ajax is not unlike any other of the towns and cities along the highway arteries into Toronto. It used to be a quaint little burg, and now it's Best Buy's, Boston Pizza's and Walmart's make it look indestinguishable from Newmarket, Oakville, Vaughan or Etobicoke. But I digress.

Driving around beautiful Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa this week (I'm going to a Generals game on the weekend), I got to wondering what NHL players this area has produced. Most of us know that Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk grew up playing hockey and lacrosse in Whitby, yet Roberts was actually born in North York and Nieuwy in Oshawa. Therefore only the latter can claim a spot on my All-Durham Region NHL All-Star Team.

Pos Player Place of Birth GP-G-A-PTS Stanley Cups
C Joe Nieuwendyk, Oshawa 1257-564-562-1126 3
C Sean Avery,Pickering 420-73-116-189 0
RW John MacLean, Oshawa 1194-413-429-842 1
RW Kevin McClelland, Oshawa 58-68-11-180 4
LW Basil McRae, Beaverton 576-53-83-136 0
LW James Neal, Oshawa 77-24-13-37 0

D Charlie Huddy, Oshawa 1017-99-354-453 3
D Arnie Brown, Oshawa 681-44-141-185 0
D Jeff Beukeboom, Ajax 804-30-129-159 3
D Brent Burns, Ajax 326-35-82-117 0

W-L-T GAA Cups
G John Ross Roach, Port Perry 219-204-68 2.46 1
Glenn Healy, Pickering 166-190-47 3.37 1

Not the flashiest squad ever but definitely full of grit and winners. Any first line sporting Nieuwendyk and John MacLean could definitely do some damage even with Basil McRae riding shotgun. The defense is solid if unspectacular and could get better with teh development of Burns. Any random group of 12 players like this one that produced 16 Stanley Cups seems quite extraordinary. Only one of the non-active players failed to win a Cup.
John Ross Roach was an All-Star goalie from the 1920's and 30's and won a Cup with the Toronto St. Patricks. He was the first ever tender for the Maple Leafs when Conn Smythe adopted the new moniker in 1926. His 5'-5" stature makes the 5'-9" Healy the giant of the two goalies, a first in his career.

Comments

scrappy pappy said…
nice little write-up on local all-stars.

how about a story on the whitby dunlops?
October 6, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,...
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un...
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal ...
Read more