Nitzy's Hockey Den

Next we have “Poor concepts that just didn’t work" The Georgetown Raider appears to be humping another Georgetown Raider in their logo. I know this simplistic “stick figure” style was popular in the 70’s and early 80’s, but as a hockey logo it just fails. The Mario Lemieux era Laval Voisins of the QMJHL had this MC Escher-ish sideways letter ”L”. Apparently a “voisin” is a neighbour, so not only does the logo suck, the name itself does too. The Merritt Centennials transferred from White Rock midway through the 73-74 season. I’m not sure which centennial they are attempting to honour, it’s not the country, not the province and not the town of either White Rock or Merritt. And why would you recognize any centennial with a logo of a turntable record player. In fact the centennial that the team may have been honouring was of the invention of the electric phonograph in 1877. Back to the “Q” we go for the Montreal Red White and Blue. I understand it is an homage to the “bleu, blanc...

We here at Nitzy’s Hockey Den, (by ‘we’, I mean ‘me’) enjoy concentrating on the stats and history of the great game of hockey. However for this entry, I am staying away from numbers and delving into the artistic side of the game. Myself being a designer in the animation industry, I am perhaps a somewhat rare breed that has an insatiable need to talk, read, write about and play hockey in addition to having an artistic side. In fact, in my nearly twenty years of work and study in animation, I would say perhaps 2 to 3 percent of artistic colleagues even come close to having my passion for hockey. They would far rather discuss comic books, sci-fi movies or play delightful little dice games. I have another blog, http://www.nitzysnonsense.blogspot.com/ where I have posted mainly my own hockey related art, from t-shirts, homemade hockey cards and designs from my hockey themed children’s books. I digress, in this entry I will post my choices for worst hockey logos ever. I recently discovered...

The fantastic site www.hockey-reference.com allows one to analyze with stats pretty much any hockey related query you can have. And I have probably far too many hockey related queries floating around my underutilized brain. With that, I present my selections for all-time single season All-Star teams for players of 35 years or older. Johnny Bucyk makes each of the first two teams at Left Wing, while Niklas Lidstrom makes the First and Third squads. Ten of the eighteen overall selections are from seasons from the mid 90's or later. This is obviously a statement of how players are staying at the top of their game longer into their careers with the help of technology and training. Hal Winkler's NHL career of two seasons at age 34 and 35, came after starring for well over a decade in various Senior Leagues and Western Professional circuits. He really made up for lost time, in 75 career NHL games he posted a 1.60 GAA with 21 shutouts. Bill Cook actually led the league in goals in t...

Man, do I love the look of those old 1979-80 cards, glad O-Pee-Chee went back to it this year. Mr. Malkin currently has 44 assisits through 36 games, this pace translates to 100 assists exactly. I realize it's still early, but if he manages to keep up his pace, he will be the only gentleman NOT named Gretzky, Lemieux or Orr to achieve this. Gretzky topped 100 assists in eleven different seasons, consecutively of course, topping out at 163 in 1986. Lemieux had 114 in 1989, and Orr 102 in 1971...that's it. A few have come close, adam Oates with 97 in 84 games in 1993, Joe Thornton with 96 a few years back and Pat LaFontaine and Doug Gilmour both notching 95 in 1993. It seems improbable that Malkin can keep up this pace however. In averaging 1.22 assists/game this year, he is nearly doubling his two season career average of 0.694/game. One would think his pal Sidney Crosby would have been the one making a run at 100 assists, and he may very well do it one of these years. Crosby h...

This is Tony Hand, born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1967. He has been playing in the top hockey leagues in Britain since 1981...yes, he is still playing. Including regular and post season, mid-season club competitions and playoffs, Hand has played in 1,386 games and as of this writing just this month notched his 4,oooth point. According to the Ice Hockey Journalists UK website, he made the post season all star team NINETEEN of the twenty-three seasons from 1983-84 through 2005-06. Sure, the top league in Britain is not the NHL, it has been compared to the calibre of the ECHL. The league however has drawn a fair amount of top players over the years, including Garry Unger at the end of his career, goalie Frank Pietrangelo, Doug Smail for a season (named top player, of course), Jim Paek and WHA star Ron Plumb. Also, top flight minor leaguers such as, Ken Priestlay, Ed Courtenay, Mike Babcock (yes, that Mike Babcock), Fred Perlini and John Craighead. Tony Hand actually was drafted by the Edm...

While looking up CHL records for my last post, a few other records caught my eye. If you know who holds the CHL record for Powerplay Goals in a season you are either the record holder himself, or a member of his immediate family. Jason Krywulak of the 1992-93 Swift Current Broncos tallied FORTY-SEVEN (47!!) PPG of his 81 goals that year. Young Jason was never drafted, and soon attended the U. of Calgary where he played for three seasons, making the post season all-star squad each year. A few stints in Germany and the Roller Hockey circuit and he was done before turning thirty. The record for goals by a defenseman is another non-descipt gentleman. Larry Sacharuk notched FIFTY goals as a rear guard for Saskatoon in 1971-72. He was drafted the following summer by the Rangers 21st overall. Following two productive AHL seasons, including 27 goals in 42 games for the 1974 Providence Reds, he had a few cups of coffee with the big club. Apparently unimpressed, New York dealt him to St.Louis wh...

This past week, I went to my first Giants game in a few years at the old Pacific Coliseum. They beat Swift Current 8-1 to improve their record to a ridiculous 28-2-3 for an .894 winning percentage. If this were to hold up for the remainder of the season it will be the highest ever in CHL history. The '05 London Knights led by Corey Perry hold the record currently at .882 with the '71 Guy Lafleur led Quebec Remparts holding down second with an .879 Pct. Perhaps even more impressive for the Giants is their ratio of Goals For to Goals Against. With 163 goals for and 64 against they have a ratio of 2.55 to 1. London had an impressive ratio of 2.48 -1 with 310 GF and 125 GA. The 1979 Trois Rivieres Draveurs (whatever that is) scored 527 goals and allowed 233 for a ratio of 2.26-1. Obviously this Giants team is in unchartered waters of domination, and it is more impressive that they have been able to stay dominant after winning the Memorial Cup a few years ago. Click on the title...