Nitzy's Hockey Den

Dec 2, 1916 I recently found these terrific old cartoons on google news archives. They're from the Toronto World Newspaper, by a cartoonist named Lou Skuce. Born in Ottawa in 1886, Skuce began cartooning professionally in the early 1910s eventually becoming the Art Editor and Editorial Cartoonist for the World. The first three cartoons illustrate the start of the National Hockey Association season in both 1915 and 1916. The "Livvy" in the third one refers to Eddie Livingstone the owner/manager of the local Toronto Blueshirts. Dec 11, 1916 Dec 19, 1915  The next is a great depiction of one of the toughest players of the day, George McNamara who would suit up in 1916/17 with the 228th Battalion squad of Toronto. At 6'1" and 220 lbs, he was one of the biggest players of the era and would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1958. In 1915/16 with the Blueshirts McNamara racked up 74 Pims in 23 games while playing a bruising defence. Dec 6, 1916 Lou S...

Here's a Western Hockey League, Vancouver Canucks game program from the 1964/64 season. Longtime Canuck, Phil Maloney is the photo on the cover in addition to some nice old autographs from players in the game against the Los Angeles Blades. Maloney was in the midst of an 81 point campaign for Vancouver after leading the team with 90 the year previous. He had tallied 15 goals and 46 points as a 22 year old NHL rookie with Boston Bruins in 1949/50. Maloney would play a total of 158 NHL games, producing 71 points. He had previously led the Western League in points with 95 in 1955/56. This program is from March 14, 1965 a game Vancouver won 4-2. Lloyd Haddon, Los Angeles Blades Defensemen, Lloyd Haddon was winding down his professional career in 1964/65 and put up 35 points from the blue line after seasons with L.A. of 51 and 49 points. He had an eight game stint with Detroit Red Wings in 1959/60. Harley Hodgson, Los Angeles Blades Hodgson was a stay-at-home defencema...

1981 Last week I posted a fantastic early 1980s Wayne Gretzky poster. Here a few more that I had as a kid, and have re-purchased as an adult. The top one is a 7-Up ad from 1981. The soda company surrounded The Kid with fellow NHL "stars" Morris Lukowich and Richard Sevigny...good choices. In fairness, Lukowich was the pre-Hawerchuk star of the original Jets, leading the team in goals in their first two NHL campaigns with 33 and 35. The season this poster was released, Lukowich posted his career best numbers of 43 goals, 92 points. Hawerchuk certainly helped with those. In 1981, Richard Sevigny was coming off a season in which he shared the Vezina Trophy with teammates Dennis Herron and Bunny Larocque (this was the last year the Vezina was simply awarded to the team with the lowest goals allowed). He would never match his 2.40 GAA from that season and was lit up by Gretzky's Oilers in those '81 playoffs as Edmonton swept Montreal in three games. 7-Up included oth...