Nitzy's Hockey Den

April 20, 1934 A few years back I wrote about a 1934 tour through Western Canada by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. In fact it was my first of many articles published in the Society for International Hockey Research Journal.  http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.ca/2008/09/1934-leafs-wings-western-tour.html   I was able to research the tour with an entire month's worth of original Vancouver Province newspapers that I found at a garage sale, posted here are a few additional scans of some great images from the April 1934 Province. The image at the top is an ad for an autograph signing by King Clancy and Hap Day at the Vancouver Hudson's Bay department store, for "Friends and Admirers".  The next image is a cartoon commenting on the apparently poor ice-conditions at the Denman Street Arena. April 23, 1934 Next, a photo of Dick Irvin, Conn Smyth and Jack Adams being shown the town at a rooftop luncheon put on by the organizers of the tour. Apr...

Check out this beauty. I found a bunch of old posters I had tucked away and figured I'd start posting them. This first one is from 1981 and issued through Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada. It was put out in conjunction with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association with technical info provided by George Kingston of the University of Calgary. Kingston would go on to be the first ever coach of the San Jose Sharks and in 1994 coached Canada to its first World Championship since 1961. The title of the poster is "Improve Your Hockey Skills; Skating" and shows diagrams of The Great One demonstrating various hockey skills. There were at least two other posters put out at this time, "Shooting" featuring Mike Bossy and "Checking" with Bob Gainey.  Enjoy below the fantastic drawings of Gretzky in a Jofa helmet that he never actually wore, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about skating, I sure did.

Here's a great book I picked up for the Den. This large, thick-stock book published in 1978 is titled "Hockey Masks and The Great Goalies Who Wear Them". It's filled with paintings of goalie masks of the era by Michael M. Cutler. I recall going on a class trip in the late 1970s or early 1980s to the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario and there being an exhibition of actual goalie masks. I'm not sure if this book was published in conjunction with that or not, but it is certainly along the same lines.  The cover of the book is of course the mask of Hall of Famer Ken Dryden. In 1978, Dryden was in the midst of his final NHL campaign. He would lead the Canadiens to his sixth and last Stanley Cup in the spring of 1979. Above is Vancouver's Curt Ridley mask included in the book. 1977/78 saw Ridley play a career high 40 games for the Canucks posting a 4.06 GAA. He would actually spend the entire next season with Dallas in the Central League. After...

Sergei Makarov was overdue to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His longtime teammates, Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov were elected in 2008 and 2001 respectively. There is no reason Makarov should have waited so long. As dominance in his league went, he was the Wayne Gretzky of the Russian League in the 1980s. Makarov was a 1st-Team All-Star in Russia for eight consecutive years starting in 1981. He was top scorer in the league for nine of ten years beginning in 1979/80. The only year he didn't lead in points he missed 16 games and still produced 42 points in 30 games. It's not just the fact that Makarov was the top scorer either, it's the margins by which he finished ahead of the second place man. See below his percentage of points he was ahead of second place: 79/80 11.5% 80/81 29.5% 81/82    5.6% 83/84 28.1% 84/85 22.6% 85/86 19.2% 86/87    6.0% 87/88 17.7% 88/89 31.7% Over his nine seasons as top-scorer he led by an average of ...

In a further effort to figure out the circumstances in the above photo I found recently, I came across a few more mentions of old-timers matches played at Vancouver's Forum. Firstly is a pic from the Vancouver Sun in 1956 of ex-NHLer Clint Smith in promotion of that year's upcoming old-timers game.  Smith, it turns out,  was a f ounding member of British Columbia Hockey Benevolent Association so it only stands to reason he'd be promoting the event. I am fairly  certain that Smith is pictured in my photo wearing a dark jersey, #11. Feb 17, 1956 From the same paper a few days later I find another photo of Smith looking apparently exhausted from the game action of that evening. Feb 20, 1956 In addition, there is a great photo of two all-time greats Sweeney Schriner and Joe Primeau wearing what appears to be the same white uniforms in my photo. The problem is, I don't see anyone in the mystery pic that looks even remotely like them. This pretty much eliminates...

Jaromir Jagr finished 7th in Hart Trophy voting for the 2015/16 season...at age 43. It was his first top-ten finish in MVP voting in a decade when he finished second in 2005/06. Jagr is now the oldest player ever to finish in the top-ten of NHL MVP voting. Only two other men have done so past the age of 40: Jacques Plante, Toronto 5 th  1971, 42yo Gordie Howe, Detroit 6 th   1970, 41yo Gordie Howe, Detroit 5 th   1969, 40yo Plante was 5th in voting despite playing only 40 games but he posted a 28-11-4 record and 1.88 GAA for a 4th place team. Howe was 6th in 1969 after scoring 103 points. He followed that up with 71 points in 1970 and another 1st Team All-Star  selection. Any way you look at it, pretty heady company for Jagr. If we lower the age threshold to 38 years old, only four other players have finished in the top-ten: Al MacInnis, St.Louis 6 th   2003, 39yo Howe, Detroit 5 th  1968, 39yo Red Kelly, Toronto 9 t...

I found this fantastic cache of 1970s hockey goodness this past weekend. Picked up eight WHA Vancouver Blazers programs in Gibsons, BC for the grand total of five dollars. Pretty, pretty good score. They range from October 1973, the third game ever for the Blazers through to November 1974. Two Gordie Howe covers and two Bobby Hull covers, real beauties. Oct 1973 - Feb 1974 Nov 22, 1974 Jan 26, 1974 April 4, 1974 Jan 9, 1974 On top of the fantastic covers of these things, the greatness inside these programs is just as good. Check out some of the gold pictured below. Gordie Howe, for Capt. George's Restaurants Nightmare fuel Some of the all-time greats...well, one. The collage was big in the 1970s A police sketch of Gordie promoting his upcoming appearance Little known fact; in his spare time Bobby Hull was a hobby electronics enthusiast When you score 50 goals like Danny Lawson you get a red velvet chair in the locker room and a p...