Nitzy's Hockey Den

Cam Neely for Barry Pederson. June 6, 1986. Easily the most well-known and important transaction ever made between this year's Stanley Cup finalists. Somewhat surprisingly, a fairly good team can be made from players that have played for both Boston and Vancouver. Centre Barry Pederson . After more than four years in Boston with 92, 107 and 116 point seasons he had seasons of 76 and 71 points with the Canucks before injuries took hold. Tomas Gradin. Signed as a free-agent with Boston after eight solid seasons on the West coast, he notched 43 points in 64 games his only year as a Bruin. Peter McNab. Starred for over seven years with Boston, scoring from 74 to 86 points for seven years straight, spent just over a season in Van City, scoring 23 goals in 84/85. Chris Oddleifson. Traded in March of 1974 from the Bruins for Bobby Schmautz, he went on to have six solid years with the Canucks. Right Wing Cam Neely. Three years with Vancouver, topping out at 21 goals went on to a Hall ...

May 27, 1993. This is NOT the date the Toronto Maple Leafs were denied a Stanley Cup appearance. I'm an acknowledged Leaf fan, not your average "asshole" Leaf fan, I'm a diehard, all-encompassing, 365 days a year Leaf fan (I know...it's a disease for which there is no cure). Even I can now say, it's time to stop blaming Kerry Fraser. As all good hockey fans know, the play in question happened in overtime of game six of the '93 Western Confernce Finals with Toronto ahead 3 games to 2. In the first minute of OT, Wayne Gretzky's follow-through on a shot clipped Doug Gilmour. Even though Gilmour was bleeding and would require eight stitches, there was no penalty on the play. Fraser claimed he was blocked out of view of what happened and so were his linesmen. He recalls asking Gilmour at the moment what had happened, Gilmour said he was hit with Gretzky's follow-through. This fact of course makes the criticism of Fraser missing the call a moot point. A...

I had a question posed to me by Bidzy, my beer-league left winger (yes, it's Nitzy and Bidzy). He wondered what was the most distance between two cities ever in a Stanley Cup final. This of course stems from the current season, and the certainty that no matter which teams win the semi-finals, there will be alot of travelling mileage. The following are the Stanley Cup final series that matched teams the farthest apart, as the crow flies. I am including all Stanley Cup Finals and Challenges. Dawson City Nuggets vs. Ottawa HC, 1905: 4351km Los Angeles Kings vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1993: 3973 km Vancouver Canucks vs. New York Islanders, 1982: 3937 km Vancouver Canucks vs. New York Rangers, 1994: 3907 km Anaheim Ducks vs. New Jersey Devils,2003: 3906 km Portland Rosebuds vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1916: 3771 km Anaheim Ducks vs. Ottawa Senators, 2007: 3771 km Victoria Cougars vs. Montreal Maroons, 1926: 3732 km Victoria Cougars vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1925: 3732 km Calgary Flames vs.Tampa...

May 22. Game Four of the Western Conference Final. Canucks leading two games to one. No, not today, we're talking 1994. The Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs were battling for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. After over 57 minutes of scoreless play in game four, Cliff Ronning finally beat Felix Potvin. In the Toronto Star the next day, Damien Cox described the winning goal,"Ronning skipped past Dmitri Mironov just inside the Toronto blueline, dumped the puck off to Sergio Momesso, then simply skated past an inattentive Rob Pearson towards the net." Ronning took the return pass from Momesso and beat Potvin for the winner. "Serg and I like the give-and-go game," Ronning explained. "We're definitely not superstars on our line. We work hard whenever we get out there." Leaf coach Pat Burns added, "Cliff Ronning found a little opening and that ended it. There wasn't much room out there and whoever found the opening won it. they got ...

From the files of the Canadian Press, May 21, 1979 Winnipeg Jets were in their glory Sunday night after knocking off Edmonton Oilers 7-3 in the sixth game of the World Hockey Association Championship to win the Avco Cup. The Jets accomplished the feat before a home crowd of 10,195 screaming, clapping, horn-blowing fans who had given the team the same emotional boost when they swept a four game semi-final series with Quebec Nordiques. As the final whistle sounded Sunday, giving the Jets the best-of-seven final series four games to two and marking the end of the WHA, the fans poured adulation on their heroes and some of the men who founded the league and struggled with it for seven years. Ben Hatskin, who was instrumental in luring former National Hockey League star Bobby Hull to Winnipeg in 1972, got a rousing cheer when he was called to centre ice to stand next to the Cup. "I know the Jets will keep this (the trophy) in a safe spot to remember the WHA, which did a great thing for...

Tyler Seguin with 6 points in his first two career playoff games as a teenager is now in very select company with one Dale Hawerchuk. In Winnipeg's first two playoff games on April 7 and 8, 1982 against St.Louis, Hawerchuk also scored 6 points. At 19 years, 4 days old Hawerchuk scored his first playoff goal 15:20 into the first period, beating Mike Liut on assists by Paul MacLean and Moe Mantha. In the third period he assisted on a goal by Willy Lindstrom as the Blues beat the Jets 4-3. The following day Hawerchuk notched four assists on goals by Dave Babych, Norm Dupont and two by Paul MacLean. Hawerchuk finished the series with 8 points in the 4 game loss to St.Louis. Ray Bourque also tallied 6 points (1 goal and 5 assists) over two games April 13 & 14, 1980 vs. Pittsburgh. These were his fourth and fifth career playoff games. He was aged 19 years, 3 months at the time. Two other teenagers have scored 5 points over 2 playoff matches: Rod Brind'Amour, St.Louis April 18 ...

When the question of which player is the greatest playoff performer in NHL history is raised, there really are only a few names that can be seriously mentioned. The obvious names would come up like Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux, Orr, Howe, Beliveau or Richard. Some would say it has be a goaltender, Roy, Brodeur, Plante or Dryden. The real question is by what method are we able to rank these players and their playoff performance throughout their careers. One large factor I like to look at is if the player produces at a higher rate during the post-season than they do during the regular season, and if so by how much. The number of Stanley Cups a player has won should also go a long way in determining a great playoff performer. As well, leading the playoffs in a major statistical category will aid in determining playoff greatness. These three elements encompass team success as well as individual success in the post-season. I believe I've devised a simple system that is able to quantify the...