Nitzy's Hockey Den

I have finally got around to reading my 1950 copy of "Come on Teeder" by Ed Fitkin, the story of Toronto Maple Leaf captain Ted Kennedy. I'm reading it gently, as it's quite rare and not in perfect condition, but I had to give it a look. Inside, there is a detailed account of Ted Kennedy's first training camp with the Leafs that took place exactly 70 years ago in the autumn of 1943. My comments are added. Training camp headquarters for the Maple Leafs in St. Catherines was the Welland House, a five-story hotel just off the main thoroughfare and a five-minutes' walking distance from the rink. Their training camp time-table, another systematic bit of Leaf organization, revealed that waking-up time was set for 6:45am. Sharp at that time, the insistent ringing of the room telephone signalled the start of a day that was to be as arduous as it was hectic. At 7:15 Ted and Jack Ingoldsby joined the rest of the players in the lobby of the hotel. So far, sounds ...

    I heard that today is the birthday of one of my childhood heroes Darryl Sittler as well as the great Peter Stastny. With 1121 and 1239 points respectively for the two Hall of Famers, I wondered if today was perhaps the greatest hockey birthdate of the year. Let's have a look:   There are only three dates that produced two Hall of Famers with over 1,000 career points. September 18 Darryl Sittler 1,121pts, Peter Stastny 1,239pts. Also Bun Cook, all three Hall of Famers. October 29 Mike Gartner 1,335pts, Denis Potvin 1,052pts. Also Eric Staal. May 12 Johnny Bucyk 1,369pts & Bernie Federko 1,130pts     A few other dates that could contend for the best hockey birthdate: July 1 Rod Gilbert 1,021pts, Steve Shutt 817pts both Hall of Famers. Also Jarome Iginla 1,106pts and a future Hall member.   January 22 Elmer Lach, Bill Durnan, Mike Bossy and Serge Savard. No 1,000 point men but all Hall of Famers....

As NHL training camps kick into gear, my own beer league season is under way as well. This weekend, I have a gruelling four games in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Gruelling, if only for the fact that I am personally feeling older and slower pretty much every time I step on the ice. Well, that was easy. My weekend of hockey was salvaged with a convincing 7-3 win by the Flying Vees last night. Jumping out to a 3-0 lead five minutes into the game usually helps to snap a losing streak. Amazingly, after four games in four nights my body has survived. There was just a small amount of leg "heaviness", especially after one of the couple excessively long shifts I had last night. We had three lines, which is ideal for beer league hockey. When my fellow centreman, Doc Rowan (pictured above savouring the victory) came off, it was my line's turn to spring into action. Unfortunately (for the line following us) we had a couple shifts in which  the opponents could l...

As NHL training camps kick into gear, my own beer league season is under way as well. This weekend, I have a gruelling four games in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Gruelling, if only for the fact that I am personally feeling older and slower pretty much every time I step on the ice. Well, this is not going very well. Another loss for the Generals, this time 7-3. Although this was my higher calibre hockey, it was almost a carbon copy of the previous evening's Flying Vees loss.  Just like the Vees, the Gens got down early and never could claw back. also like the night before, we out shot and out chanced the opponents. The problem was, they finished on their chances while we rarely did. Afterwards in the dressing room (my LW, Bidzy in foreground above), our despondent bunch was attempting to come to terms with the terrible 0-2 start the season. Immediately talk turned to the fact that we perhaps should have entered the 30+ age division this season. ...

As NHL training camps kick into gear, my own beer league season is under way as well. This weekend, I have a gruelling four games in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Gruelling, if only for the fact that I am personally feeling older and slower pretty much every time I step on the ice. Friday, North Vancouver 9:45 on a Friday night. There are not many worse time slots for a beer-league hockey game. Friday evening is the time of the week when one likes to wind down, relax and perhaps have a few after-work adult beverages. In the case of my Left Winger, Bidzy, it was the day of his annual work golf tournament. So, whereas I showed up to the rink only feeling slightly lazy, Bidzy showed  up with post-golfing "glow". This did not bode well. When we saw our change room filled with only eight other skaters, we knew we were in trouble. The Vancouver Flying Vees are populated mainly with artist types, a lot of ex-musicians (a few still active) the majori...

As NHL training camps kick into gear, my own beer league season is under way as well. This weekend, I have a gruelling four games in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Gruelling, if only for the fact that I am personally feeling older and slower pretty much every time I step on the ice. Game One, Burnaby B.C. Well, that didn't start well. First game of the season for my higher level team the Generals H.C. (I'm pictured above modelling the jersey I designed). We're playing in the open age Division 5 of 18 divisions playing in the ASHL out of Burnaby 8 Rinks. We've been in this div for four or five years now and have fared well enough. The main issue that seems to be creeping up now is the "open age" aspect of our league. Where the Generals average age has to be close to 40, most of the other teams we play are around 30, if not younger. A ten year age gap is not too prohibitive between 20 and 30, but 40 to 30...that's when you notice some d...

  Bert 'Pig Iron' Corbeau was a defenceman during the inaugural season of the National Hockey League. Born in Penetanguishine, Ontario on the shore of Georgian Bay, Corbeau was considered huge in his day at 5'11", 200 lbs. He was the first player to play for both the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, and in 1925/26 he became the first player in NHL history to rack up 100 penalty minutes in a season. From the 1953 book Gashouse Gang of Hockey by Ed Fitkin, comes the story of Corbeau's last ever game. It occurred while playing in the Canadian Professional Hockey League with the London Panthers. A young Joe Primeau regales the incident; Bert Corbeau was manager, coach, player and just about everything else where the London team was concerned. A huge, colourful man who always wore a hard black derby, Corbeau was as unpredictable as the weather. His last game as a player sticks vividly in Joe Primeau's memory. The date was Christmas night, 1928,...