Nitzy's Hockey Den

From 1986 to 1990 I had one of the coolest after school jobs ever. I was the videographer for the Newmarket Saints of the AHL, who of course were the top farm team of my beloved yet crappy Maple Leafs. The Saints moved in ’86 from St. Catherines into Newmarket’s brand new three thousand seat arena. Originally, I was going to be a simple, run-of-the-mill usher until management realized they needed a videotape record of each and every game, and this duty fell onto me. As an aside, over my time there, that management consisted of some big names in hockey. I was one of the first to shake the hand of Gord Stellick the day he was promoted from Saints GM to Leafs General Manager in April of 1988. I had been reporting to him for the past season before and after each home game. John Brophy was in town often as coach of the Leafs, and I would see Saints coach Paul Gardner every night to give him a tape of that evening’s game. Currently he is coaching Dynamo Minsk of the KHL with Gl...

Pictured above are three magazines that covered the 1972 Summit Series. These are among my favourite items regarding the Canada Russia battle. I also have a Game Program, a Home TV Viewing Program, all of the books commemorating the series issued just after it completed, an unused postcard made to send good wishes to the players in Russia as well as three of the Commemorative coins issued for the series. All I really need is a game used ticket stub, I've seen the odd one around, but they usually go for at least a hundred bucks. Even I'm not that crazy. I decided to use the rating system I made for the 1976 Canada Cup to rate the players from '72. Once again, weight is given for each point scored depending on it's importance, and time of game it happened. The only change I made was to count each and every game form 1972 as a Final Round game, there were no preliminary games involved. Below are the results for the top players from both Canada and Russia, with the rating ...

http://www.bclocalnews.com/greater_vancouver/northshoreoutlook/lifestyles/30657819.html This week myself and my collection were featured in the North Shore Outlook community newspaper. Kelly, the writer did a great job on the write-up. There were various photos included in the article, including my mug on the front page of the paper. If the link doesn't work for some reason, here is the text of the story..... North Shore Outlook A Leaf among wolves By Kelly McManus - North Shore OutlookPublished: October 08, 2008 4:00 PM Updated: October 09, 2008 10:15 AM It was a blustery October evening at the corner of Church and Carleton Streets, almost 27 years ago to the day, when Chris Mizzoni stepped through the doors at Maple Leaf Gardens for the very first time. That same year AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen rocked and wailed for gelled out, ankle-zippered crowds at the Toronto venue. That year, 1981, also marked the 50th anniversary of the Gardens, the holy temple of the Toronto Maple Leafs....

This is my latest addition, a full size replica mask of Leaf goalie Mike Palmateer. Growing up he was always one of my favourites, mainly for his acrobatic style of play. Palmateer had two very good seasons in '77/78 and '78/79 before being shipped off to Washington by the idiot Harold Ballard. 'The Popcorn Kid' (so named for his love of pre-game popcorn moreso than his playing style) finished 1978 3rd in the league in wins with 34 and tied for 2nd in shutouts with 5 while sporting a 2.64 GAA. In 1979 he was once again 3rd in wins, 2nd in shutouts an 6th in GAA. Palmy's shining moment came in the second round upset of the Islanders in 1978, allowing only 13 goals in the seven game set. While with the Caps in 1980/81 he set a record for points by a goaltender with 8 assists which was soon bested by Grant Fuhr. Palmateer retired at age 30 after an unsuccessful return to the Leafs due to his damaged beyond repair knees. Soon after retirement, he opened a restaurant i...

Pictured is my 1962-63 Parkhurst Red Kelly card. Aquired by the Leafs near the end of the 1959-60 season, he was 32 years old and coming off two sub-par seasons. He had been mainly a defenseman with Detroit, but was used as a forward when needed. Soon after joining Toronto he was made a permanent centreman, and would excel for seven additional seasons helping win four Cups. Kelly had won the inaugural Norris Trophy in 1953-54 as top defenseman and would have won a few more if the trophy was around earlier. I decided to try to figure out who would have won the Norris all the way back to the beginning of the NHL in 1917-18. Most choices were fairly obvious. Post season all-star teams were picked back to 1930-31, so one could assume that one of the first team all-star defensemen should have won the Norris. In fact, since the Norris has been awarded, each and every winner has also been a first team all-star, makes sense. Also, in every season that a defenseman won the league MVP, I awarde...

Pictured is the book I picked up while in Toronto last month. It was published in 1976 right after the first ever Canada Cup tournament. The book is just loaded with photos, text (by Scott Young) and Game Summaries for each game. The ’76 Canada Cup was an attempt by Hockey Canada and Alan Eagleson to capture once again the magic that was the ’72 Summit Series. Canada, of course won the tourney, beating the Czechs in the final on Sittler’s OT goal. The tournament was basically the swan-song for one Robert Gordon Orr, as he was returning from yet another knee operation. His 1975-76 season had consisted of a mere 10 games and an amazing 18 points. He didn’t actually arrive to Canada’s training camp until two weeks in, he remained at his Parry Sound hockey school easing the knee back into shape on his own. Orr would excel throughout the tournament being awarded the MVP and placing on the All-Star Team along with Sweden’s Borje Salming. Recently while sitting around the hockey dressing roo...

Not you coach... Let's all pause and have a moment for Ol' Reg. Pictured above is one of my many stills from Slap Shot, showing Coach Reggie sitting in the study of esteemed writer Dickie Dunn. In this scene he's planting the story of the Florida sale. "Dickie, they've already built the rink!", he implores the gullible scribe. Here we see Reggie getting a phone call from Suzanne Hanrahan, we all know were that leads. This is right after Morris has asked if "anyone has been to The Palm Isles in this town?" Apparently Morris had a nice time with the barmaid last time. Newman had stated that this was one of the favourite roles of his career. Even though he really couldn't skate all that well, and was 51 at the time of filming, he pulled it off. That's what great actors do. That reminds me Reg, I was coaching in Omaha in 1948 and Eddie Shore sends me this guy...........but, we'll leave it at that for now. You'll be missed coach.