Nitzy's Hockey Den

Bill Mosienko of course is the author of the fastest recorded three goals in NHL history. In 1952, he notched a hat-trick in an amazing 21 seconds  that I wrote about a few years ago  . I recently came across a tale that may show that the legendary Fred 'Cyclone' Taylor may have scored three goals even quicker, a half century before Mosienko. In 1953, Hall of Fame Builder and 'The Father of Hockey' James T. Sutherland described the events in 'The Hockey Book'. My comments and thoughts are included in brackets.     Back in 1904, the Kingston Frontenacs and the Listowel Juniors qualified to play for the O.H.A. junior championship. The title was to be decided in a sudden-death game at the old Mutual Street Rink in Toronto.      Some 700 fans came from Listowel by special train, and the rink was packed to the rafters. The referee was Pink Lillie. ( Not sure if that was his nickname, if so it's quite a doozy)  A divinity student from...

Trevor Gretzky taking a lead off first base. I attended the Vancouver Canadians baseball game yesterday. This is one of the lower levels of minor league baseball, the short-season (70 game) Northwest League. I enjoy going to the ballpark a few times a year and grew up an avid Toronto Blue Jays fan, but the main reason for going to this game was to check out Gretzky. Gretzky the kid. 20 year-old Trevor Gretzky was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 7th round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft after starring at Oaks Christian High School in Southern California. His Boise Hawks wer in town to take on the Blue Jays Single 'A' Canadians. At 6'4" he cuts a far larger figure than his old man ever did, but his weight of 190 lbs leaves him a bit on the lanky side.  The organization projects him as a Left Fielder so he will have to develop one or the other of power or speed. As it is now, he's learning how to utilize both of these assets. As of today, in 49...

Al Arbour was on of the very few professional hockey players to wear glasses during the course of games. He was a terrific defender and great shot-blocker. He played over 1,300 pro games, 626 in the NHL and helped win three Stanley Cups. After winning the Eddie Shore plaque as AHL's best Defenceman in 1965, League president Jack Riley said, "Al Arbour is the best defenceman outside the NHL, and he should be in it." He was Rod Langway before Rod Langway. In 1954/55 he made the second all-star team in the QHL with the Quebec Aces although he played in only 20 of the team's 60 games played that year. One can imagine he had a few trials and tribulations due to his one-ice eyewear. In a February 1966 issue of Hockey Illustrated a few of them are chronicled: While with Windsor Junior A Ontario Hockey Association during a game at Stratford, Al Arbour was playing centre. A stick broke and the black-taped blade skittered down the ice toward the Stratford goal, with Ar...

To be fair to Robbie Irons, the three minute career refers only to his time in the NHL. The Toronto born goaltender played well over 500 professional games and was a mainstay during the 1970's for the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League. The story of his three minute NHL stint is a good one and involves two of the greatest goalies of all time. Two seasons after leading the OHA in shutouts with the Kitchener Rangers, 22 year-old Robbie Irons found himself a member of the St. Louis Blues. The Blues were in their second year of existence and featured in net 37 year-old Glenn Hall and 39 year-old Jacques Plante. The two future Hall of Famers had been splitting the goaltending duties evenly and on the night of November 13, 1968 nothing had changed. Hall got the start at home against the New York Rangers, while Plante got the night off and was upstairs in the press box helping out on the television broadcast. This meant that young Robbie Irons was the dressed back-...

The Toronto Maple Leafs are an improved defensive team. They were before they acquired Jonathan Bernier this week and are improved that much more now that they possess two high quality young goaltenders. During the 2012/13 regular season, Toronto's defence improved dramatically and allowed a half goal per game less than the previous season. This occurred despite the fact their shots allowed per game rose from 30.8 to 32.3. During this year's playoffs versus Boston, that number climbed to an amazing 39.0 per game. Luckily the Maple Leafs have a goaltender that appears to thrive under a large barrage of rubber. Over James Reimer's three seasons encompassing 104 games, he has faced over 30 shots just about half of the time. By contrast, his new goaltending partner has faced over 30 shots in a game a mere 12 times over his 62 game career. He'd better get used to, and embrace the thought of more action in front of him. Toronto's 32.3 shots allowed ranked 4th worse...

Patrick Kane is your 2013 Conn Smythe Trophy winner. The question is, was he the right choice? Personally, I like to look at the individual numbers from Cup Finals and give them a little more weight when selecting a Conn Smythe winner. Below are the numbers from the Finals only: (GP-G-A-PTS +/-) Lucic 6-4-2-6 -1 Kane 6-3-2-5 +3 Krejci 6-0-5-5 -1 Bergeron 6-4-0-4 -2 Paille 6-2-2-4 +1 Bickell 6-1-3-4 +5 Chara 6-1-3-4 -5 Frolik 6-0-4-4 +1 Sharp 6-2-0-2 -3 Toews 6-0-2-2 +4 Keith 6-0-2-2 +4 Marchand 6-0-0-0 -3 And the goaltenders (W-L-GAA-SvPct) Crawford     4-2 2.07 .929 Rask             2-4 2.21 .932 Kane did indeed tally five points in the final and ended up with 19 points, good for second place in playoff scoring. Those 19 points tied Milan Lucic who led the final round with 4 goals and 6 points. In my opinion however the Hawks true most valuable player...

    Sidney Crosby had it in the bag. When he broke his jaw on March 30, he was unquestionably the Most Valuable Player in the NHL. He was the scoring leader up until the very last week of the season despite not playing. Even though Ovechkin went on a goal scoring tear in the second half, many people feel that Crosby still should have been awarded the Hart. The final voting was indeed one of the closest ever ending up 1,090 to 1,058. Ovechkin garnered 50 first place votes to Crosby's 46. Some of the issues raised are the fact that Ovechkin played in the weakest divison in the NHL and the fact that he ended up with the same number of points as Crosby while playing 12 more games. Let's have a look. 1.) Ovechkin played in the weakest divison in the NHL . It's true that Ovie played 18 of his 48 games against the Southeast Division, and he definitely had far more success playing these opponents, the truth is, Crosby also lit up the Southeast. vs. SE Div. Ovechkin...