Nitzy's Hockey Den

Above is a fantastic photo from the City of Toronto Archives showing the Toronto RCAF Flyers celebrating a victory. They were a war-time team of mostly professional players who were enlisted in the Canadian military during World War II. The Flyers played in the Ontario Hockey Association Senior circuit for two seasons. The problem with the photo is that none of the players are identified. Thanks to the Society for International Hockey Research database, I have attempted to put names to as many of these men as possible. Using simple visual recognition of the database photos side-by-side with the above photo, I have managed to name the following fairly confidently.  First Row, Left to Right: Norm McAtee, Johnny McCreedy, Lloyd Gronsdahl, Duke Scodellaro (Goalie), Murray Henderson, Unknown, Joe Primeau Norm McAtee is certainly the first player on the bottom left, he won back-to-back Memorial Cups with the Oshawa Generals scoring the winning goal in 1939. He would p...

"No More Hockey", Says The Turk. 'Six-Teeth' Goal Did It ; this was the headline of The Maple Leaf newspaper of the Canadian Armed Forces in Britain on January 8, 1946. The article continued, "the stocky happy-go-lucky Broda appeared serious in his assessment that his bulky frame will never again be a target for flying pucks. Broda was practising at Amsterdam with a CFN all-star team when a puck fired from three or four feet out caught him flush in the mouth and dislodged six teeth. "Can ya imagine," gesticulated the portly Turk, flashing at the same time the replaced "biters" furnished by a considerate army dentist, "getting it from some joker after catching the best from the best of 'em." Broda had been a member of the Canadian Armed Forces for almost two and a half years after playing seven full seasons with Toronto. If Broda was to be trusted, his career almost came to an end before he even returned to NHL play. At this...

Mackell, Kennedy, Stewart, Lindsay, Chadwick The photo above is a beautifully re-coloured photo originally found in the Toronto Archives. It has been painstakingly re-coloured by Mark Truelove of   www.canadiancolour.ca  . This is only one of the many terrific works he has on his website, many of them sports related. The only problem with using city archive sites is usually, there are no names attached to the images describing the photo. This is where the fun begins. Firstly, the one thing this photo does have is an exact date. April 16, 1949, the day the Maple Leafs became the first team ever to win the Cup in three straight years. Toronto had finished the 1948/49 season under .500 with 57 points in 60 games, losing  five of their last six regular season games. They got hot at the right time though. In winning the Cup, they won eight of nine games including a four game sweep of the first place Red Wings in the final.  The problem with this photo is that...