Nitzy's Hockey Den

It's amazing, the things you stumble across while scrolling through old newspapers on Google News (what, you don't scroll through old newspapers on Google News?). It was the night of February 6, 1942. A collection of National Hockey League Old-Timers played an exhibition in Boston against the Bruins of the day to raise funds for the Army Relief Fund. Check out the terrific "V for Victory" jerseys the old boys wore. The rosters are below: The defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins would finish third in the NHL that season and understandably did not go full out effort in the 30 minute affair. They boasted Vezina Trophy winner Frankie Brimsek as well as the "Kraut Line" of Schmidt, Bauer and Dumart. They also had Dit Clapper (who didn't play in this game), Flash Hollett, Roy Conacher and Bill Cowley (who would only coach the Bruins this night). 31 year-old Bruin of the day, Harvey "Busher" Jackson suited up with the the Old-Timers...

Time for another look at Ken Reid's terrific new book, Hockey Card Stories. Reid shares the strange story of the rookie card of Bryan Maxwell. His first card was issued while he was with the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers in 1976/77. The only problem is, it's not Maxwell pictured on his rookie card. Reid's book describes it; Few players, I am sure, would like to be airbrushed on their first ever hockey card. But it's not the doctoring that Maxwell talks about all these years later. "That's not even me," says Maxwell. So, of course, after all these years, there's no mystery as to who the man on the card is...right? "I don't know who is on my Cincinnati card," says Maxwell. There have been cases of the wrong player being shown on a sports card, but usually the identity of the player has been figured out somewhere down the road. It seems strange to me that nobody has yet figured out who really is on Maxwell's rookie card. L...

I picked up this little beauty on the weekend, it's a small booklet issued by Coca-Cola in 1966. The instructional book is chock-full of tips on playing goal from Toronto Maple Leaf, Johnny Bower. More importantly, it's also filled with fantastic comic-book style images of the goaltending legend in action. Check them out below. Bower, straining to touch his toes. Nice Bicycle though. Bower's crouch position depends on his level of back pain. Obviously Mike Palmateer learned the kick-save from this book as a young boy. How to bobble a puck in the air AND on the ice. This one's titled, "Too many Habs!" Perfect execution of the upper-sternum save. The fruit of all that labour.

I recently picked up this original LP album of Stompin' Tom And The Hockey Song. I don't even own a turntable record player, I just had to have this piece of Canadiana. The album was issued in 1972 on Boot Records and was Connors' ninth album issue. It has a great picture on the front of a hockey scene involving the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. For licensing reasons all official team logos and numbers had to be painted out of the image. As a hockey history buff, I just had to determine who the players are in the photo. The game is a home game for Montreal and the goaltender is obviously Ken Dryden, this alone helps to narrow it down to which season the photo is from. Dryden famously came up to the Habs at the end of the 1970/71 campaign and would lead Montreal to the the Stanley Cup. In those six regular season games and through the playoffs of 1971, Montreal and Toronto did not play each other. Since the Stompin' Tom album came out in 1972, the phot...

1980/81 Petersen's Preview  The NHL new season kicks off tomorrow, I figured I'd post some old preview magazines from the Den collection. As to be expected, Gretzky was the predominant cover boy throughout the 1980's. Most of these magazines are long out of print and a few are fairly rare. 1980/81 Hockey News Preview 1981/82 Hockey Scene Preview 1981/82 Preview 1982/83 Inside Hockey Preview 1984/85 Hockey Scene Preview 1984/85 Hockey Illustrated Preview 1988/89 Inside Sports Hockey Preview 1991/92 Inside Sports Hockey Preview

Mann's Rookie card I have started reading the terrific new book from Ken Reid titled "Hockey Card Stories". One of his first tales is about ex-goon Jimmy Mann and the fact that he had cards issued for two of his NHL seasons. Reid exlplains; This (rookie card pictured above) is one of the few (hockey cards) out there of Jimmy Mann. He played in the NHL until the 1987/88 season. He wasn't always up in the Big Leagues for the final few years of his career, but he says that's not why he stopped showing up on cards. He has his own theory as to why he only had three cards. "My second year is when I hit Paul Gardner." "Eagleson (NHLPA Head and Gardner's lawyer) blackballed me for the rest of my career with cards. After that hit, I never had a card. He blackballed me because I broke Gardner's jaw and finished his career, and Eagleson never put my name in for another card again." Rookie season PIM Leader card I wrote about this v...