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Showing posts from October, 2012

1965/66 Victoria Maple Leafs, Team Photos

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  I picked up these vintage photos recently. They're glossy, about 5"x7" and most of them are autographed by the old Western Hockey League Victoria Maple Leafs. The team-issued pics are from the 1965/66 season when they finished in 2nd place with 84 points in 72 games. Victoria went on to win the WHL's President Cup over the Portland Buckaroos.   Victoria was the middle team in the Maple Leafs farm-system along with the Tulsa Oilers and the Rochester Americans. Steve Witiuk had played 33 games for Chicago Blackhawks in 51/52 and totalled 1228 games and 950 points in his WHL career. Sandy Hucul was one of the all-time great minor league defencemen notching 502 points in 1256 WHL games.    Defenceman, Claude Labrosse totalled 988 games in the minors. Larry Keenan had played two games with Toronto in 61/62 and would be selected in the expansion draft by St.Louis in 1967.  Bill Shvetz's minor league career totalled 1095 games, 497 points and 21

Leaf's 1964 Record Album, Let's Talk Hockey

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 I picked up this beauty recently, a full LP record album from 1964 featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs. I haven't tried playing it, but it looks to be in fine shape. The record came with a cool insert booklet outlining all the lessons learned. Some cool shots of old Leaf greats.  Leafs were coming off their third consecutive Stanley Cup victory, so people did indeed want to know a few of their training secrets. However, this album could have just as easily been titled, "How to Win One More Cup in the Next 50 Years". Ouch, a self-zinger.  Johnny Bower showing how to play your angles and displaying his famous poke-check.  Tim Horton giving Dave Keon his attention as well as showing the "old-fashion" way to block a shot. No laying down on the ice back in the '60's, they'd rather take a puck to the face. Andy Bathgate demonstrating the all important art of "stick-gripping". This one must have been for the introductory

J.C. Lipon, CHL Scoring Leader on a tear

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J.C. Lipon is on a fair bit of a roll. Back-to-back player of the week awards in the Western Hockey League will attest to that. In the month of October, Lipon has ripped off 11 goals and 11 assists in only 7 games for the undefeated Kamloops Blazers. Overall Lipon has 27 points in 11 games, 4 points ahead of his linemate Colin Smith. Pretty heady stuff for a guy who went undrafted in the WHL Bantam Draft and was passed over in the last two NHL drafts. Who could really blame the scouts? In each of his first two WHL seasons, Lipon scored only 3 goals before breaking out for 19 last season. The smallish (6ft, 181lbs) Lipon also had 65 points in 69 last year, but who saw this year's outburst coming? Perhaps the Colorado Avalanche saw this coming. Prior to the lockout, Lipon was invited to the Av's training camp along with Smith who was drafted in the 7th round of the 2012 draft. Of course the lockout put an end to that. If he continues at anything close to his current pace it

NHL Lockout, Let's watch Slap Shot!

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In lieu of showing NHL hockey, TSN in Canada is showing the movie Slap Shot this evening. I for one think it's a great idea although, if you don't own your own copy of the movie you're not a real hockey fan. There is however something about the "collective experience" of watching a broadcast of a movie. So, in honour of this and the fact that the movie is celebrating it's 35th anniversary this year, we look at what happened to the characters of Slap Shot, post 1977. Reg Dunlop Player/coach Dunlop did indeed take the same job in with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA. Unfortunately for Reg, the team ceased operations before he could even unpack his moving truck. He would however sign with the Indianapolis Racers and ended up playing Right Wing with a 17 year-old Wayne Gretzky for 8 games in 1978 before that franchise folded a month later. Dunlop would then move to suburban New York City where he invested in his ex-wife Francine's beauty salon. T

NHLers in Europe

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A look around the European leagues at how some of the locked out NHL players are doing. Stats are as of  Oct 11, 2012 (GP-G-A-Pts) Czech League Tomas Plekanec, Kladno 8-7-7-14 Jaromir Jagr, Kladno 8-4-8-12 Jiri Tlusty, Kladno 8-6-4-10 Jagr returns to his hometown squad of Kladno which he originally joined all the way back in 1984/85. Plekanec sits in 3rd place in league scoring and Tlusty may be primed for a breakout season. Or, maybe he's just playing with two stars on his line. Ales Hemsky, HC Pardubice 7-2-3-5 David Krejci, HC Pardubice 3-2-0-2 A couple of other Czech natives not having quite the start they would have liked. Michal Neuvirth, HC Sparta Praha 6gp-3.58GAA Tuukka Rask,  HC Plzen 3gp-2.87GAA  Ondrej Pavelec, Bili Tygri Liberec 6gp-4.62GAA Seems the goalies are having a fairly rough beginning to the season as well. Kontinental Hockey League Evgeni Malkin , Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4-1-6-7 Sergei Gonchar, Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4-0-5-5 Pavel Da

A.H.L. Pool

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It's hockey draft time...and there is no hockey. Well, no NHL hockey that is. Many stars have been sent to the AHL as happened in 2005 with Eric Staal, Jason Spezza and Dustin Brown. I've created my own AHL box pool, where you pick one player from each group of four. They are yours for the entire season, regardless of whether or not the NHL comes back. For instance, I included Jeff Skinner even though he may not start with Charlotte of the AHL. He has the option to go if and when he wants to start playing and if the NHL comes back, you get his NHL stats too. Check it out. All are welcomed to join. http://ahlpool.blogspot.ca/

Summit Series '72, The First Reunion in 1985

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  Esposito and Howe, ceremonial face off conducted by Ed Kea  January 25, 1985. Friday night at Maple Leaf Gardens. I was lucky enough to attend the first reunion of Team Canada 1972. They played a team of All-Star Oldtimers before a sold-out crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens to raise money for the Phil Esposito Foundation. $130,000 was made to help former NHL players in need of assistance. Former St.Louis Blue Ed Kea represented the players after recovering from a career-ending head injury two years before. Tony Esposito The game itself was won by Team All-Star by the familiar score of 6-5 on a winning goal by Gordie Howe. Phil Esposito said afterwards,"It was terrific. I'm really, really excited that it was a sellout. You can't turn back the hands of time and you can't do the things you did 12 and a half years ago, but people don't forget." He added, "Team Canada '72 was one of the best things that happened to us, as players, an