Nitzy's Hockey Den

Colorado Avalanche defenceman, Cale Makar made NHL history in the first round of the 2019 playoffs by scoring a goal in his NHL debut that was also a playoff game. He is only the seventh player to ever do this. It's a fairly eclectic list with really only one guy (Brind'Amour) who became star in the league. I was interested in finding out about the very first player to have his debut in a playoff game and score a goal, a guy I had never heard of, Eddie Emberg. A look at the statistical record of Eddie Emberg shows his only NHL games took place in the 1944/45 post-season. He played two games for the Canadiens scoring his one and only goal in his debut match, the question is which game was actually his first? A check of NHL.com's boxscore records determines Emberg's first game was March 29, 1945 in the first round against Toronto. This was the fifth game of the series that the Leafs were ahead three games to one, but game five belonged to the Habs. Montreal kept...

Above is a rare appearance on the cover of a hockey magazine (or magazine of any kind for that matter) of one Dave "Tiger" Williams. The publication is Action Sports Hockey from November 1978. Williams was beginning he fifth NHL season, having just compiled the top Penalty Minute season of his career with 351 total. Along with all the PIM's, Tiger posted 19 goals and 50 points as the heart and soul of the late 1970's Maple Leafs. Williams had topped the NHL in PIM in 76/77 and would again the season he made cover boy of this magazine, but even though he had his career best total the year prior, he was bested by Philly's Dave Schulz who collected 405 minutes to Williams 351. The November 1974 Hockey World magazine below features a nice early photo of future Leaf captain Darryl Sittler. Entering his fifth season in the NHL, Sittler had topped the Maple Leafs in points the previous two seasons with 77 and 84 points respectively. In 1973/74 Sittler managed to ...