Nitzy's Hockey Den

Today is a perfect time to further compare the current exploits of Sidney Crosby to the greatness of Gretzky...no, not that Gretzky above, the mullet-laden one below (I'll take any chance I can to put a picture of Paulina on the Den). Anyway rather than look at the streaks of each, I wanted to further examine just the raw season stats. Sid has now played 38 games and tallied 32 goals and 33 assists. In 1981/82, after Wayner had played 38 games he had 45 goals and 57 assists. Of course, the next game he went out and ventilated Pete Peeters and the Flyers for 5 goals and a helper. At first glance it's obvious that Gretz's 102 points in 38 games blows Sid's 65 out of the water. I am here however to provide more than a "first glance", that's where the calculator comes in. We all know that a straight-up comparison of different eras doesn't give a clear picture, especially the free-wheeling early '80s versus today's game. Over the entire 1981/82 ...

On this evenings' Leaf broadcast, play by play man Joe Bowen offered his condolences for the recent passing of ex-Leaf goalie Don Simmons. The strange thing about that is the fact that Simmons actually passed away this past September. Apparently it was his wish that the news be kept low key. Simmons was a solid back up for most of his NHL career as well as a terrfic minor leaguer. He produced 321 professional wins over 18 seasons including 101 in the big leagues. In January of 1957 he made his NHL debut with Boston when he was purchased from Springfield of the AHL. The Bruins Terry Sawchuk would be out for the remainder of the year with "nervous exhaustion". 25 year old Simmons filled in admirably going 13-9-4 with 2.42 GAA. He then lead them past the first place Red Wings before losing four games to one to Montreal in the final. The following year Simmons shared the net duties with Harry Lumley and once again led the B's to the finals. His 2.41 regular season GAA...

The Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland kicks off today. I have always been somewhat interested in this tournament due to some of the names that resurface. Also, the rink in Davos is a spectacular looking facility that looks great on TV. Team Canada is usually a cobbled together "all-star" squad of players toiling away in the Swiss League. A look at this year's rosters seems to show even more recognizable names than normal. Moscow Spartak Dominik Hasek,12-16-3, 2.68, 3 SO One month shy of his 46th birthday, The Dominator continues to ply his trade for the sub.500 KHL squad. Branko Radivojevic, 38-5-16-21 His third year in the KHL after scoring 120 points in 393 NHL games. Last season he finished 7th in league scoring with 54 points. SKA St.Petersburg Mattias Weinhandl, 37-18-19-37 The ex-Islander and Wild sits 5th in KHL scoring the same spot he finished last year with 60 points. Alexei Yashin, 35-11-14-25 After finishing 3rd in scoring, two points off the lead last yea...

Exactly 45 years ago, Maple Leaf goaltender Johnny Bower was approached by a CBC producer to make a Christmas record. Although hesitant, he soon recorded Honky the Christmas Goose with the help of his nine year old son Johnny Jr. and some neighbourhood kids. The record sold 40,000 copies during Christmas 1965, the proceeds of which were donated to charity. The Christmas break in the NHL is a good time look back on the year that was. The following are the top NHL scorers from last years Christmas break to now. (GP-G-A-PTS) Sidney Crosby 80-58-65-123 Steven Stamkos 80-57-51-108 Henrik Sedin 78-21-87-108 Daniel Sedin 77-39-66-105 Alex Ovechkin 80-38-66-104 Martin St.Louis 80-36-62-98 Niklas Backstrom 82-29-64-93 Brad Richards 80-30-59-89 Alex Semin 79-44-43-87 Eric Staal 76-39-46-85 The 123 points would represent a career season for Crosby, and Ovechkin's 38 goals would be by far his lowest full-season total.

Teemu Selanne is a pretty special player, has been for a long time. What he's doing this season however is almost unprecedented. Only two men in the history of the NHL have scored at least a point per game in a season in which they were at least 40 years of age. Teemu is well on his way to becoming the third. Selanne turned 40 this past July and has played 29 games for Anaheim this season. He has 32 points for 1.10 points per game. The first man to accomplish this was Gordie Howe in 1968/69 at 40 years even. He scored an amazing 103 points in 76 games for 1.36 Pts/GP. Howe would go on to score almost 700 more points in the NHL and WHA combined. The second and last man to score at a point-per-game clip as a 40 year old was Johnny Bucyk of Boston in 1975/76 who was also exactly 40. The Chief scored 83 points in 77 games, at 1.08 Pts/GP just behind Selanne's rate. Bucyk almost repeated his productivity the following year with 43 points in 49 games before falling off the pace in h...

Years before Grant Fuhr set the NHL mark with 14 goalie assists in 1983/84, a minor league tender accomplished the same feat...and he almost matched it the following year as well. 5"8" Lynn Zimmerman from Fort Erie, Ontario began his professional career in 1966/67 with the Eastern League Charlotte Checkers and was a Second Team All-Star. He played most of the next eight years in the AHL, mainly with Rochester. By 1975/76 he was in the North American Hockey League with the Erie Blades. He had 30 wins in 54 games, and more impressively he also had 13 assists. He also spent three weeks filling in for the soon-to-fold Denver/Ottawa WHA team where he garnered another helper. Apparently Zimmerman was so able and active with the puck, Erie coach Nick Polano devised a breakout plan around him. "This year Nick put in a system where I handle the puck instead of the defenseman. We work on it in practice everyday. When the other team comes in after the puck we just break out and tr...

I had my first chance to see Phil Kessel play in person last night. I sat 13 rows above Luongo's left side in the corner for two periods and had a terrific angle on most of the Leaf "chances" as well as the deciding 2-0 Vancouver goal in the second. The Canucks (rather lackadaisically) beat the Leafs 4-1 in a game in which the entertainment value was derived mainly from the atmosphere in the crowd. The Leafs simply do not have the talent to compete effectively against an elite team such as Vancouver, especially with Phil Kessel playing well below his potential. I'm starting to lean more towards the thinking that what we're seeing in fact is his full potential, and that makes me sad and angry. Kessel certainly has dynamic hockey skills, great speed and a terrific shot. These are displayed far too infrequently however to have much of an impact on a game. His one move on a rush, the "outside/inside toe-drag" works far less than half the time. It worked once...

I recently came across the official, end of season All-Star voting results from the late 1970's onward. It's interesting to look at the numbers to see where players were ranked and how the All-Star votes compared to individual Trophy voting. Back in 1988 there was some strange voting for the Goaltender All-Stars and the Vezina voting. Grant Fuhr won the Vezina and was named First Team All-Star by collecting 297 voting points, Patrick Roy was voted to the Second Team with a distant 64 points. In the Vezina voting, for some reason, Roy didn't fare as well. Fuhr won again going away with 78 points over second place Tom Barrasso (22 points) and third place Kelly Hrudey (17 points). Roy somehow only garnered 2 second place and 2 third place votes for 8 points total to finish EIGHTH overall in Vezina voting. Also finishing ahead of him was Mike Vernon, John Vanbiesbrouck, Rejean Lemelin and Roy's teammate Brian Hayward. Puzzling. The 1983/84 season proved to be one of the mo...

The Toronto Star recently had an in depth article detailing the Greater Metro Hockey League, and more specifically the Shelburne Red Wings. The GMHL labels itself as a Junior A (Tier II)league but is not officially sanctioned by Hockey Canada. The main reason for Hockey Canada's disapproval is the extremely unconventional route most teams went in filling their rosters. In the small town of Shelburne about an hour northwest of Toronto, the Red Wings 22 man roster consists of 19 Russian-born players. The management of the team outwardly recruited in Russia, offering Russian youngsters a chance to develop their careers in Canada. Shelburne isn't the only team ignoring Hockey Canada's rules about Canadian content on their roster. Bobcaygeon has 11 Europeans on it's roster and the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jets have 23 Americans, 2 Russians and a Kazak on it's squad...zero Canadians. The Eliot Lake Bobcats have 7 Americans, 7 Slovaks and 2 players born in France and Bradford has...

As the WikiLeaks scandal unfolds, Nitzy's Hockey Den has just as damaging revelations that the hockey world would rather keep secret. Through a network of spies, moles and informants I present...NitzyLeaks. 1. Brian Burke has a secret 40% ownership stake in the Boston Bruins. 2. Henrik Sedin and Tanner Glass have a personal bet on who scores more goals this season, loser has to wash Luongo's Trans-Am 3. Marc Savard has removed Colin Campbell from his Christmas card list. 4. Ilya Kovalchuk is being paid 6.6 million a year to acurately impersonate the scoring talents of long gone Lou Lamoriello favourite, Hector Marini. 5. The entire Maple Leafs roster has vowed to not score goals while Jonas Gustavsson is in net, all goals are purely accidental. They apparently don't think too much of Giggy either. 6. Mike Green is so intent on winning a Norris Trophy he has decided to score just like Rod Langway. 7. This past summer, Tim Thomas broke into the Hockey Hall of Fame and stole ...

As of the morning of Dec.9 Sid the Kid has scored a point in 17 consecutive games in which he has scored 35 points, just over 2 points per game. He has tallied 50 points in 30 games, 10 clear of second place Steven Stamkos. Almost as impressive is the fact that after he started this year with only 3 points in his first 5 games, Crosby now has counted 47 points in 25 games. This works out to 1.88 points per match. If he were to continue at that pace over the remaining 52 games he will finish with 148 points while Stamkos is on pace for 117 points. This would be the largest margin for a scoring leader since the days of the original Kid, Gretzky. If Crosby is to win a scoring title by at least 30 points (remember, Ovechkin has been fairly quiet still so far) it would be the first time since Gretzky had 163 points to Brett Hull's 131 in 1990/91. Of course if he does end up scoring 148 points or anywhere near that many, that will be the real impressive story. Remember, nowadays goals...

Is New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk in the midst of the worst single season for a forward in NHL history? At his current pace, he will finish with 79 games, 16 goals, 19 assists, 35 points and a minus 47 +/- rating. If so, he will be only the 12th man in history to have 16 or less goals and a +/- so low (remember +/- didn't become an official stat until 1967). A truly awful season for Kovy, especially considering the money he is getting paid. Below are a few more seasons that would be in the running for worst all-time. Jude Drouin, Winnipeg Jets 1979/80 78-8-16-24, -38 At 31 years old in 79/80, Drouin was near the end of the line and would indeed play only 7 more games the following season. Drouin had just three years prior tallied 24 goals, and the year before 62 points. He topped out with 27 goals and 73 points in 72/73. Eddie Joyal , Los Angeles & Philadelphia 1971/72 70-14-7-21, -43 This would be Joyal's last year in the NHL after having seasons of 33 goals one year ...

As awful as the Leafs have been recently, (and they have been awful) it's probably only going to get worse before it gets better...in the near future and distant future. Here's a look at a few numbers: over their last four losses their opponents collective Winning Pct. entering each game was .473, Leafs were outscored 15-4. their next five games are against teams with a collective Win Pct. of .667 Leafs have only one more point after 24 games this season than last season, at this point last year they reeled off 6 wins in the next 9 games. they have been shutout 6 times in the last 16 games after being blanked only 4 times all last year. since starting this year with 4 wins, the Leafs have gone 4-12-4, they have scored 1.75 goals/game and allowed 3.05. If the last 20 games is a true indication of this team and they continue at this pace the Leafs will finish with 55 points this season. That would be the worst record since the heyday's of John Brophy in 1987/88 At least, aft...

Conrad "Connie" Poitras never played in the NHL and played only one season in the AHL, but over his ten year career he became the only man in history to play on a minor league squad with both Gordie Howe AND Jean Beliveau. Born in Quebec City in 1924 he played junior with the Verdun Terriers in 1943/44 scoring 18 points in 14 games. The next season was his only spent in the AHL with the Indianapolis Capitols. He scored 16 points in 56 games while playing in front of future Hall of Fame goalie Harry Lumley. His teammate calibre increased even more the next year with the Omaha Knights of the USHL. Fresh off the farm was a 17 year old Gordon Howe who tallied 48 points in 51 games on his way to becoming a legend. After two more years in the USHL he joined the San Diego Skyhawks of the PCHL. In 1948/49 Poitras scored 30 goals, 52 points in 65 games and led the playoffs in goal scoring with 8 in 14 games as San Diego won the Patrick Cup championship. By 1950/51, Poitras was back h...

As Sidney Crosby has finally caught and passed Steven Stamkos for the overall points lead 40 to 39, the more impressive number is Crosby's point total at even-strength. Sid the Kid is the only player in the league to average at least one even-strength point per game with 26 in 25 matches. Stamkos is next a full 7 points behind at 19 and the surprising Loui Eriksson and Bobby Ryan are tied at 18 even-strength points. Poor Johan Gustavsson, despite his 3-6-1 record for the Leafs he sits 11th in the league in save percentage at .917 (among goalies with at least 10 games). In his losses he ranks even higher. Among goalies with at least 6 losses he is 3rd with .908 Save Pct behind Ondrej Pavelec and Tuukka Rask. Speaking of the Leafs, "1st Line Centre" Tyler Bozak has now gone 18 games without recording an assist. 18 games, without an assist playing with Phil Kessel who has 6 goals over that span. In Colorado, rookie defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has quietly tallied 10 points ...

I recently picked up a copy of Canada On Ice - The World Hockey Championships, 1920-2008 by Dave Holland and have been somewhat surprised at some of the relative unknowns that have represented Canada in the past. Upon returning to the World Championships in 1977, there has always been a slight struggle to field the best team possible with players often declining invitations. This has lead to some slightly less than world-calibre names being selected to past squads. Trevor Johansen, 1979 Defenseman, Trevor Johansen was a smallish (5' 9") first round selection of Toronto in 1977. A product of the Toronto Marlies system he never scored more than 39 points in a junior season but was a First Team All-Star in 1977. We was also added to the St.Catherines Fincups team that represented Canada in the 1977 World Junior Championships. He notched 16 points in a full rookie season with the Leafs in 77/78 and was traded with Don Ashby to Colorado for Paul Gardner near the end of the fo...

Some interesting numbers since last year's Olympics, as we have half a season's worth of combined numbers to look at. As some stars such as Crosby and Stamkos are thriving, many have continued a post-Olympic let down into this season. Since the Games (GP-G-A-Pts); Alex Ovechkin 40-18-28-46 A full season pace of less than 40 goals, definitely not what we've come to expect from Ovie. Evgeni Malkin 33-13-19-33 A point per game pace is far below what Malkin produced over his first few seasons. Jarome Iginla 40-14-15-29 The streaky-one just may finally be coming out of a real cold stretch. Ilya Kovalchuk 41-13-19-32 Safe to say, not quite what the Devils expected when they signed him long term. Miikka Kiprusoff 16-19-2 2.77 GAA His and Calgary's struggles started long before this season started. Roberto Luongo (including 2010 playoffs) 24-21-4 3.08 GAA A just over .500 record with a below average GAA is not going to take the Canucks to the promised land. One other...

After his hat-trick last night Steven Stamkos sits with 19 goals in 19 games. The hockey world is abuzz with speculation that he may have a shot at scoring 50 goals in 50 games. This feat has only been done eight times by five players, the last being Brett Hull almost 20 years ago. Certainly he has a chance of some sort to accomplish this feat. Let's look at his last 50 total games including last season. In his final 31 games of last year he put up 24 goals and 19 assists for 43 points. Since Jan. 27, 2010 Stamkos has played exactly 50 games and his totals read 43 goals, 35 assists for 78 points. These are fantastic numbers for sure, but as good as they are he still falls seven goals short of 50 in his last 50. In each of their last 50 games played including this season Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have 31 and 30 goals respectively. In fact the next best is Alex Semin with 33 in his last 50. Of Tampa's next 31 games, 17 are on the road and only 14 at home. This shouldn'...

I recently picked up a cool full-size replica of Terry Sawchuk's goalie mask for my hockey den. It's an exact copy of the one pictured in the above photo. It got me looking deeper into Sawchuk's career stats. He really did have two distinct portions of his career. The 20 year old Sawchuk came up to Detroit after two solid seasons in the AHL and 4-3 with a 2.29 average and a shutout. Then, for five seasons he was out of this world. Sawchuk's Goals against average of 1.94 was over half a goal better than the league average and he recorded an amazing 57 shutouts over those five years. Then, the Wings traded him to Boston in favour of an up and coming Glenn Hall. Hall had played the last three seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Western League and the Wings wanted him to take over for Sawchuk even though Hall was only two years younger. Sawchuk would play adequately the next season but in January of '57 he left the Bruins due to exhaustion and nerves. He retur...

I spent the past weekend in Ontario visiting family and made my usual pilgrammage to downtown Toronto. Everytime in the city I trek over to Maple Leaf Gardens just to have a look. Knowing full well that the building is being renovated by Loblaws and Ryerson University I was still surprised by what I saw. The entire street level of the Gardens is boarded up like any other construction site, but I found my way to the only opening. Near the back corner of the building on Church and Wood St. there is a large truck bay that was fully open to view with a couple of security guys on guard. From here one can see clear through to the other walls of the building which had been stripped clear of any signs of seating from the ground to the ceiling. Thanks to the website blogTO.com we can see that very view (I had forgotten my camera that day). You can see the angled remnants of the upper grey seating at the far corner. The concrete and steel of the stands have been removed all the way back to the ...

Which goaltender has the lowest goals against average so far this season among Canadian born players? Yep, Maple Leaf Jean-Sebastien Giguere at 2.31. The sad truth is that this mark places him only 9th overall among goalies that have started at least 6 games. Next on the Canadian list is Dwayne Roloson at 2.44, Carey Price and Dan Ellis at 2.45, Marty Brodeur at 2.70 and Roberto Luongo at 2.76 checking in at 19th overall. Ahead of Giguere are four Americans, two Finns, a Slovak and a Russian. Overall as a team, Toronto ranks the same ninth overall in GAA and an atrocious 29th overall in Goals Scored For/ Game. Since the Leafs won their first four games of this season, Giguere has a GAA of 2.48 while going 1-3-2. Over the nine total games the team has scored a grand total of 15 goals. Over their own last nine games, Vancouver Canuck second liners manny Malhotra and Raffi Torres have combined for 10 goals on their own. This is the difference between good teams and not so good teams, co...

His record still lives to see another year. The record does not have the lustre of Brodeur's 100 plus shutouts or Gretzky's 51 consecutive game streak but in Canuck-land it's still something to talk about. Daniel Sedin came close this season with points in nine straight games to start the year. In 1983/84 a 20 year old Tony Tanti had arguably the best start in Canuck history. He scored at least a point in his first eleven games scoring 13 goals and 23 points, this included a streak of scoring at least a goal in each of his first seven. As October, 1983 drew to a close Tanti was actually ahead of Wayne Gretzky in goals with 13 battling Rick Vaive's 14 for the goal scoring lead. The Great One was a mere three points up on Tanti for the point scoring lead. It's interesting to look at past seasons by segments, especially the high-flying '80s. Many players would have stretches of scoring that were astronomical even by standards of teh mid-80s. Gretzky's next ...

Have a look at the NHL's top ten in points. As of Nov.2, 2010 each and every one of the top ten scorers in the league was born in Canada. Yes that is extremely rare. OK fine, tied at 8th place is Paul Stastny who represents USA internationally, but he was born in Quebec City. Also, Dany Heatley was indeed born in Germany, he plays for Canada. If we really want to break it down, Alex Ovechkin is actually ranked 8th on the strength of more goals scored than Stastny, Heatley and Derek Roy. Even still, the top seven scorers in the NHL being Canadian is an extremely rare occurance. Steven Stamkos from Markham, Ont, Patrick Sharp from Winnipeg, Chris Stewart of Toronto, Regina's Ryan Getzlaf, Joe Thornton of London, Sidney Crosby of Cole Harbour N.S. and Brad Richards from Murray Harbour PEI are not very likely to all finish one through seven in scoring. The last time that happened in the NHL was 1990/91 when the top eleven scorers were Canadian...sort of. Second overall Brett Hull ...

Tim Thomas. Five games, five wins, THREE goals against, two shutouts. With a 0.60 goals against average and a .981 save percentage, Thomas has been nearly perfect. And one of his goals against he put a clearing pass on the stick of Washington's Jason Chimera to lose a shutout. Truly amazing start for the recently over-looked veteran, but exactly how good of a start? The last Bruin to start a season with even four straight wins was Doug Keans in 1987/88 who went on to lose his fifth start. His 4-1 start included a 2.98 GAA, hardly stellar. The last Bruin to go 5-0 to start a season was Cecil "Tiny" Thompson in 1937/38. His GAA over the five games was 1.40 and he had only one shutout. He would win his sixth game as well, beating Chicago 2-1 and lowering his average to 1.33. For Tim Thomas to raise his GAA to 1.33 next game he would have to allow 5 goals. A quick look at the first five games of some of the graetest goaltending seasons in NHL history; George Hainsworth, 192...