Nitzy's Hockey Den

Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier is not used to this. This, being facing an inordinate number of shots each and every game. In his 40 games this season, Bernier has faced over 30 shots an amazing 27 times, or 67.5% of the time. In his 62 games played with the Los Angeles Kings prior to this season he faced over 30 shots a mere 12 times or 19.4%. He's literally had THREE TIMES as many high shot games as he had before being traded. In addition to that, he has had 10 games this year of facing 40-plus shots while prior to this campaign he had ONE game in 62. While with L.A., Bernier actually did quite well when he faced over 30 shots. Although his record was only 6-5-1 in those games, his Save Percentage was .932. This year with the Leafs, his record when facing over 30 shots is a splendid 16-8-3 and his Save Pct., once again is at .932. As a contrast, his 13 games facing 30 or under shots this season, Bernier's record is 3-7-2 (1 no decision) with a Save Pct. of .897....

These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. The rear of these two cards are translated; "The magnificent Olympic ice skating rink, the tribunes are filled every day until the last seat is the battleground exciting hockey games." "Hockey at Garmisch winter sun, or shade Games at the Olympic Ice Stadium. A picturesque scene of the fighting around the hard rubber disc to play bare ice surface." Built in 106 days for the 1936 Olympics, the Olympia-Kunsteisstadion opened on Dec. 16, 1934. With a seating capacity for 10,000 spectators, the arena was rebuilt for the 1940 Winter Olympics which were cancelled due to World War II. It officially re-opened in 1948 and in 1964 the stadium was enclosed with a roof. In the early 1990's it was overhauled again and is used to this day as the home of SC Riessersee of the German send division hockey leagu...

These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. The rear of this card is translated; "Great Britain beat Canada and thus became Olympic champion in ice hockey tournament" And here they are, pictured in the beautiful outdoor scenery of Garmisch-Partinkirchen, Germany, the Olympic gold medalist Great Britain hockey club. The Brits, with only one player (their leading scorer Gerry Davey) who was born in Canada did however have 9 of their 13 players raised in Canada and 11 of the 13 had previously played there. Nevertheless, on a late third period goal by Edgar 'Chirp' Brenchley the Brits beat Canada 2-1 in the preliminary round. As was the custom at outdoor tournaments in those days (due to the unpredictability of weather), this result was carried forward once the final four medal round participants were determined. Thusly, Canada would not have an opportuni...

                                         Phil Kessel is a streaky scorer. That seems to be the consensus among hockey observers. He certainly does seem to collect points in bunches, but is really  that  inconsistent of a point producer? Does he go long stretches without getting points? I decided to have a look at how he compares to the rest of the top players in the league in this regard. Firstly, what is it exactly that I'm looking for? I figured I would look for slumps in Kessel's production over the last three years and see if he has any more or less dry spells compared to others. How can we quantitatively define a slump though? Well, on most hockey broadcasts a player who has a point in at least three straight games is considered to be on a streak, therefore in my opinion a player who goes three games  without  a point would be considered to be in a slump...

These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. The rear of this card is translated; "So stormed Canada ... Latvia was the object found: 11:0 was the result of the game in the Olympic hockey tournament" February 7, 1936 was the date that Canada beat Latvia 11-0 in their first game of the Olympic games  at Garmisch-Partinkirchen, Germany. The Latvian goaltender seen sprawling here is Roberts Lapainis who allowed 18 goals in his two losses at the Olympics. The Canadian skaters are difficult to identify but the player in the middle attempting to dig the puck from the goalie definitely has a "1" of a two-digit number just creeping over his left shoulder. An educated guess names him as Ralph St.Germain a left shooting Right-Winger who would score 10 points in 4 games at the Olympics. 

These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. The rear of this card is translated; "Germany's young ice hockey team did not have much to order in Oslo. They were not trained well and was only the 8th Place, respectively. The picture shows a scene in front of the Finnish Gate, Germany in the attack. Finland won 5-1." This game took place ohm February 22, 1952 at Oslo, Norway. The Finnish goalkeeper pictured was named Unto Wiitala and he won two and lost two during the 1952 Olympics while posting a GAA of 6.00. His other victory was a 5-2 win over host Norway. In addition to this Olympics, Wiitala represented Finland at five World Championship events.  The Finnish player #13 in front of the net is Aarne Honkavaara a Centre who played domestically for Ilves Tampere. He collected 2 goals and 2 assists in the '52 Games. The #3 German battling for the puck ...

These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. I love the stance on the goaltender in this photo, a fair bit unorthodox. The rear of this card is translated; "Winter Olympics: From the Ice Hockey match between Germany and Poland: Before the gate of the German". I assume that is referring to "in front of the German net". Germany played Poland twice in the double round-robin, four team tournament at Lake Placid in 1932. They won 2-1 then 4-1 to secure the Bronze medal. The German goaltender pictured is 6'4" Walter Leinweber who played every minute for the Germans in 1932 posting a GAA of 4.50 Canada, represented by the Winnipeg Hockey Club captured the gold medal. They would beat Poland by scores of 9-0 and 10-0 and beat Leinweber and the Germans by scores of 4-1 and 5-0.

I found this little snippet in an old Hockey News, it's just too good not to share. March 21, 1980 "Take it from Harold Ballard, the Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup next season. The bombastic owner of the Leafs has predicted that his team will do it next season. "People would think I would have to be smoking marijuana to predict that we would win it this year, but we will definitely win the cup next year," commented Ballard. Ballard cleared the air in regards to Punch Imlach, his general manager, and Darryl Sittler, his former team captain. He said he had much faith in Imlach and that he was an excellent manager and great student of the game. "I venture to say that when he gets through doing the job, we will be tough to beat." Ballard said it would take some trade to get rid of Sittler, who has become the team's hottest scorer in recent weeks." Over his previous 17 games to this point, Sittler had scored 15 goals and 19 assists as ...

 These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. This one shows the squad representing the United States. The rear of the card is shown below and the first paragraph is translated as; "The team of USA was the third Olympic hockey tournament and won the bronze medal" They did indeed win the Bronze medal as they finished the Olympic tournament with a 5-2-1 record. In the final medal round they would beat Czechoslovakia 2-0, lose to Canada 2-1 and tie the eventual Gold medal winners Great Britain 0-0. The Americans were led by defenceman Jack Garrison who collected 4 goals and 4 assists over the 8 games and goaltender Tom Moon Sr. who would top the tournament with 5 shutouts while putting up a 0.45 GAA.

 These are actual cards from my collection that were issued for various Winter Olympic games either as souvenirs or as premiums in cigarette packages. This one pictures Japanese goaltender Teiji Honma at the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Below is the rear of the card, the top which loosely translates from German as; "Teiji Honma, the Japanese Ice Hockey goalie had an opportunity to show only twice in ice hockey tournament of the Winter Games his rough equipments". Likely a poor translation by google. Honma played both games for Japan in the preliminary round of the Olympics losing 2-0 to Sweden and 3-0 to eventual Gold medalists Great Britain. He had played 10 games for the Japanese National team before the Olympics compiling a 2-7-1 record and 4.40 GAA. Honma was one of the very first goaltenders to don a face mask during game play wearing this baseball catcher style mask six years after Clint Benedict wore a mask briefly in the NHL.

Seth Martin makes a save Fifty years ago exactly, Canada's Olympic hockey team was commencing a pre-Olympic exhibition tour. The second game took place January 10, 1964 in Munich, West Germany. Father David Bauer's Canadian National Hockey team defeated the West German champions EV Fuessen 4-1. The exhibition match in Canada'a build up to the Olympic Games at Innsbruck was the second win in two games so far in Europe for Bauer's boys. Earlier they had romped Fuessen 9-5.  On this day, Brian Conacher (son of Lionel Conacher) scored a pair and Terry Clancy (son of King Clancy) scored once. Caanda's fourth goal was tallied by Gary Dineen. CAHA President Art Potter reported that the Canadian team had been receiving good press and that German sports writers had dubbed the squad "Vater Bauer ind seine Blitz Buben" or "Father Bauer and his Whiz Kids." The following game against Erc Mannheim would be far less of a contest as the Nats won by ...

After losing the first five matches to the Soviet "B" squad on a cross-Canada tour, the Canadian National team began to show signs of improvement in the second half. Game Six Jan. 4, 1984 at Ottawa Canada 5, Soviets 2 In front of 9,355 fans, Canada snapped their drought against the visiting Soviets. "We've played six games in eight nights against these guys and there were some high feelings running,"coach King said.  Indeed there were as within two minutes at the end of the second period Canada was assessed three minor penalties, a five and a ten minute misconduct and the Soviets collected four minors, a five and a ten. Mario Gosselin was outstanding in Canada's net while Soviet's Dmitri Saprykin saw his first action of the series. Canada's goals were scored by Mike Ridley, Doug Lidster, Serge Trepanier, James Patrick and Carey Wilson while the Soviets answered with goals by Alexander Orlov and Anatoli Stepanishev. Game Seven Jan....

Exactly 30 years ago this week, the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team was engaged in a ten game exhibition series against the Soviets that took place right across the country. The team of amateurs assembled under coach Dave King early in the summer of 1983 for try-outs. By the end of August, 49 original players were chopped down to 26 and they headed to Sweden for a six game tour. Canada had a record of 3-2-1 on this trip before returning home to play NHL teams in pre-season. The amateurs held their own with a respectable 2-3-2 record against the big league clubs including 6-3 victories over Minnesota and Winnipeg. Next came an eleven game series against the Americans in which Canada went 5-2-4 followed by games against minor-pro clubs and a trip to Moscow for the Izvestia tournament that took them to Christmas (they lost all four games in Moscow). Starting on December 27, 1983, the Nats would play ten games over fourteen days against a Soviet "B" squad made up of main...

Canada's Brian Conacher scoring against Switzerland January 7, 1964 MONTREAL (CP) - Canada's Olympic hockey team stickhandled it's way through a last round of interviews late Monday night to board a plane for Paris and a 10-game exhibition tour of Europe that will complete it's warmup activities for the Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria. The 21-member team coached by Rev. David Bauer received a final blessing from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, which met in Toronto and ratified the amateur status of all it's players. Questions had been raised about the eligibility of defence man Rod Seiling, it's latest recruit. Seiling, who joined the team from Toronto Marlboros of the OHA junior A group, had a trial with Rochester Americans of the professional AHL earlier this season and played once for the parent Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL last year. And with that, Canada's hopes for a gold medal departed their homeland enroute to the Olym...